Silverlight Rumblings

Next Tuesday (8/10) the Portland Silverlight User Group will be meeting out at the Intel Ronler Acres Auditorium (RA1) to listen to Adam Kinney and Karl Shifflett show how to build toolable Silverlight applications that enable the developer/designer workflow.  If the topic and speakers aren't reason enough to attend, then consider the fact we have killer swag we'll be giving away.

• 1 MSDN Ultimate subscription valued at over $200,000
• Website Spark subscriptions valued at over $100,000

Look forward to seeing you there!

WHAT: Portland Silverlight User Group - August Meeting

WHEN: Tuesday 08/10/2010
6:00 p.m. Pizza (by Vertigo)
6:30 p.m. Presentation
~9:00 p.m. Afterwards at On The Border

WHERE: Intel Ronler Acres 1 (RA1) Auditorium (map)
2501 NW 229th Ave.
Hillsboro, OR 97124-5506

WHO: Adam Kinney & Karl Shifflet
Adam Kinney is a creative developer with a strong focus on UI technologies including HTML, CSS, Canvas, Processing, Flash, WPF and Silverlight. He enjoys working in the space between design and development teams enabling the best results from both sides. Having spent the last five years as an Evangelist for Microsoft, Adam also enjoys sharing his knowledge and helping others learn new UI technologies and tools. Recently leaving Microsoft, he is currently working on a variety of interesting projects and experiments with the crew at Pixel Lab and posting tutorials on his personal site: http://adamkinney.com.

Karl Shifflett is a Program Manager at Microsoft working on the WPF and Silverlight Designer since August of 2008. Before Microsoft, Karl was a software architect, former Microsoft MVP and Code Project MVP. He has been designing & developing business applications since 1989 and transitioned to .NET in March of 2003. In April of 2007 he joined the list of WPF fanatics & evangelists. He is a member of Team Mole that delivered the Mole Visualizer for Visual Studio to the world. He is the author of the very popular XAML Power Toys; loves WPF and Silverlight LOB and is developing a passion for Windows Phone 7 and ASP.NET MCV. You can read his blog at: http://karlshifflett.wordpress.com/.

TOPIC: Building toolable Silverlight applications that enable the designer developer workflow
Warning: We won’t be 20 seconds into this session before mashing the gas pedal to the floor. After looking at the XAML tools Blend & Cider, we’ll dive deep into toolable application design. Toolable applications not only enhance the initial development experience but also provide benefits to long term application maintenance. An additional benefit is the enabling of the designer developer workflow. See the two roles played out in the presentation as they collaborate without clobbering each other.

Sponsors: While you are at it, consider visiting our Premium Sponsors that make these meetings possible:

• Vertigo - http://www.vertigo.com
• Webtrends - http://www.webtrends.com
• Intel - http://www.intel.com

Before the MIX conference starts, on Sunday there will be a full day of workshops.  These aren't free, people have to pay extra to attend ($295).  By registering for a pre-conference workshop pass you get to attend two 3-hour workshops (one before lunch and one after).  These workshops are the speaker is able to go deep on a topic and really help you grok new concepts, tools, technologies and disciplines.  Note that these workshops will not be posted online after the conference.

I've been telling folks about a few of the workshops from last year’s MIX conference.  My favorite was Design Fundamentals for Developers by Robby Ingebretsen.  As Jaime Rodriguez explained, folks had to pay extra to attend these workshops.  Because this one was accidentally posted online they decided to leave it up for everyone.  Thank-you!

I noticed that Robbie is presenting the same workshop again this year.  I wasn't sure how similar it would be to what he had done before, but he did clarify that in a recent twitter conversation:

schallerje @ingebretsen Hey Robby, will your "Design Fundamentals for Developers" workshop @MIX10 be the same as last year?

ingebretsen @schallerje yeah, believe it or not, MS asked me NOT to change the workshop content too much this year...but expect some small updates.

schallerje @ingebretsen OK, then I guess I will skip the workshop day this year, but don't get a false impression: You workshop was really great! ;)

Some folks say that developers can’t do design, that they just weren’t born with it.  In my mind that’s a cop-out, and it simply isn’t true.  Having spent a couple years working for different interactive agencies and working very closely with designers I’ve come to realize that we’re actually quite similar.  Robbie's workshop and life experiences validate my thoughts.

I won't be attending Robbie's workshop this year, but will instead be attending John Papa's Silverlight 4 Boot Camp and Arturo Toledo's Design Tools and Techniques (tips and tricks, all about learning how to use Blend).  If you are going to MIX then you definitely should consider attending a few of the workshops.  I'll keep an eye out for you.