VISUG 2008

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Hello *,

An update of what’s ahead of us and some news about our passed events …

Software Factories [Olaf Conijn] – February 21, 2008

The first VISUG session of 2008 will take place at Compuware on February 21, 2008. Olaf Conijn will deliver a presentation on Software Factories. Olaf is an independent software consultant who worked on the development team for Enterprise Library and has built up a solid experience with Software Factories. He will try to get you up-to-date on all the stuff you should know about Software Factories …

More information on our VISUG website. Registration is already possible – places are limited to 50 people!

VISUG @ TechDays (ICC Ghent) – March 11-12-13, 2008

The VISUG will once more be present at the TechDays 2008. We will have a small booth in the exposition hall, so come and see us over there. We would love your feedback on what we’re doing for the community in Belgium!

March 11 sees the official launch of brand new versions of Windows Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 and Visual Studio 2008. But what the day is really about are the everyday heroes who transform our products into powerful products for solving real IT problems at work. In other words, YOU.

We are calling it Heroes Happen Here. And we're proud to invite miracle workers like yourself, not only to the launch itself, but also to our TechDays 2008. A series of technical sessions that take place on 12th and 13th March, during which IT professionals and developers alike will get the chance to go into every single aspect of each pack. So if you'd like to boost your powers even further, this is one event you don't want to miss.

We also have a free ticket for one of our VISUG members. More details how to win this free ticket will follow soon!

Because good traditions must be kept, we will organize again the VISUG Geek Bowling on March 12. Don’t miss this social event after the technical sessions at TechDays. Register online now!

Did you know that 6 VISUG Members are speaking on TechDays?
- Steven Wilssens (Applied Service Oriented Architecture + VSTS Application Lifecycle Management)
- Bart De Smet (What’s new in Windows PowerShell 2.0 for IT Pros? + WPF Futures + LINQ To Anything + …)
- Yves Goeleven (VSTS Application Lifecycle Management)
- Gill Cleeren (Next Generation Web Applications with Visual Studio 2008)
- Peter Himschoot (An Overview of Visual Studio 2008 + The ABC of building services with WCF)
- Wim Verhaegen (Building Rich Web Experience with Silverlight using Expression Blend and Visual Studio)

Windows Communication Foundation [Juval Lowy – IDesign] – April 3, 2008

On April 3 we will have the pleasure to present Juval Lowy as a speaker on a WCF evening session. The date and topic have already been fixed, more details about the location and exact time will be communicated in the coming weeks. We will host this event together with Microsoft Belgium.

Juval Lowy is a famous software architect and the principal of IDesign, specializing in .NET 3.0 architecture consulting and advanced .NET 3.0 training. Don’t miss this unique opportunity to meet a software legend!

Demonstrating WCF – Beyond the Endpoints

WCF is more than just the next generation platform for building connected systems. In many respects, WCF is the next development platform for Windows applications, providing system features that are presently crafted by hand on top of .NET and Windows. This session shares the power and productivity of WCF, demonstrating it as a 'Better .NET'. The sessions will focus on the on the key system features of WCF, enabling you to make educated decisions on aligning your product roadmap with WCF, and assess its benefits and advantages. The session starts with a brief overview of what is WCF and the WCF architecture, and then proceeds to demonstrates multiple aspects such as data contract tolerance, instance management, one-way calls, transaction propagation, automatic synchronization, queued calls and automatic security.

Juval Lowy is in Belgium that week for delivering his Architect’s Master Class at Compuware Belgium. People looking for the best training on Software Architecture can still register for this course at http://www.compuware.be/training.

Other VISUG news

Good news for those who were planning to participate in the European Silverlight competition : The contest end date is moved! The final date for uploading your entry is now February 14th! So, it’s still not too late to win one of the fantastic prizes.

Winners JetBrains ReSharper license (VISUG VSTS Event December 2007) - Tom Pester - Kristof De Causemaeker

Best regards and see you at one of our next events!

Pieter Gheysens
vice-president VISUG