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Reminder: Montreal Shopify Meetup This Thursday!

Once again: a reminder that the Montreal Shopify Meetup takes place this Thursday at the Irish Embassy (1234 Rue Bishop) at 6:00 p.m.. Come meet your fellow shopowners, developers and designers! Come meet some of the Shopifolks (Edward, Cody, Ada and Yours Truly) who are coming down for the event! Come on down and join us for good food, good drink and good company!

Once again, our deepest thanks to Mitch Amihod and Dave Lazar for putting this thing together. Mitch says that while RSVPing isn’t necessary, you should drop him a line on Twitter (his handle’s @meeech) or email him just so he knows how many plan to attend and can book space accordingly.

This article also appears in the Shopify Technology Blog.

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Montreal/Toronto/Edmonton Event Reminders

reminders

Deployment Clinic Today in Montreal

Deployment clinics are a little more formal than Coffee and Codes. You can book an exclusive timeslot to deploy and test apps to a Windows Phone 7 device, and there’s one taking place all day at Microsoft’s Montreal office (2000 Avenue McGill College, 4th floor) on the 30th. Email Christian Beauclair to reserve a time slot.

Coffee and Code Today in Toronto

I’ll be at the Starbucks at King and Yonge (4 King Street West) from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a Windows Phone 7 for you to play with and deploy your apps to. I’ll be at or near the big table in the back — come on down!

Montreal “Speaker Idol” Deadline is Soon!

Compete in Speaker Idol to win a licence of Visual Studio Ultimate and the respect of the Montreal .NET Community! The deadline to subm,it a 200-word abstract and a brief bio for your 10-minute presentation is coming fast (midnight Friday).

TechDays Edmonton is Next Week

TechDays comes to Edmonton next week, taking place on October 5th and 6th, and with it will come CloudCamp Edmonton (October 4th) and Windows Phone 7 Coffee and Code Edmonton (October 7th). Watch this blog for more details!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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Montreal Coffee and Code Today!

Coffee and Code: Cup of coffee and a milk server on a wooden table

Today, Wednesday, September 29th, join “les bons gars”, Developer Advisor Christian Beauclair and Regional Director Guy Barrette, who’ll be holding a Coffee and Code at Le Café de la Cité on 75 Queen. They put on a professional appearance, but we all know qu’ils vont ecrire des «fart apps»! They’ll be doing it in both official languages: Silverlight and XNA!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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“Speaker Idol”: Montreal, October 25th

Speaker Idol: photo of microphone

Want to share your .NET knowledge in front of an audience? Got some special pearl of wisdom that you’d like to pass to your grateful, applauding peers? Want to win prizes for your scintillating oratory?

“La Communauté .NET Montréal lance un grand concours appelé Speaker Idol afin de vous donner la chance d’être conférencier,” says the Speaker Idol event site. Luckily, my vast experience in talking my way out of sticky situations in La Belle Province has given me enough skill to translate it:

Logo: Speaker Idol - Communaute .NET MontrealThe Montreal .NET Community is starting a competition called Speaker Idol. It’s your chance to be the speaker, presenting a .NET-related topic, trick or technique in ten minutes in front of a panel of expert judges. Impress them, and you’ll get:

  • An opportunity to do a full presentation in front of the user group at a later date
  • A license for the all-singing, all-dancing, all-coding Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate

The rules for Speaker Idol:

  • When and where? Speaker Idol takes place on Monday, October 25th, from 6:30 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Microsoft’s Montreal Office (2000 Avenue McGill College, 4th floor).
  • Both official languages welcome. No, not C# and VB, but French and English!
  • They’re looking for new speakers. The contest is open only to people who’ve never spoken at a user group or conference.
  • Submission deadline: You need to submit a brief description (200 words max.) of your talk and a speaker bio by midnight, October 1st (Friday!) to info@dotnetmontreal.com.
  • Maximum number of participants: They’re looking for 10 participants, and no more. If more than 10 people sign up, the best 10 submissions will get picked. Sign up soon!
  • Who presents first? Speaker Idol contestants will present in alphabetical order, based on surname. If your family name is Aaaaaaabercrombie, you’re probably going on first!
  • Speaker Idol contestants will be announced on October 4th.
  • Contestants will be judged on:
    • Mastery of their subject
    • Quality of their presentation
    • Ability to get the point across
    • Quality of their slides
    • Quality of their code
  • What will be provided: A laptop with Visual Studio 2010 Ultimate and SQL Server Express 2008 installed will be available. If your presentation requires the installation of other software, please bring your own (if your bring your own, set your screen resolution to 1024 * 768).
  • What won’t be provided: There will be no internet connection available.
  • What you should bring: Bring your PowerPoint presentation and demo code on a USB key or drive. Your presentation and code will be featured on the .NET Community’s site.
  • Judging: A panel of 3 judges will comment on your presentation and the audience will vote. They promise a relaxed environment.

Once again, if you want to participate, submit your 200-word-max presentation description and bio to info@dotnetmontreal.com!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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This Week’s Coffee and Codes / Deployment Clinics

Coffee and Code: espresso cup sitting among coffee beansCreative Commons photo by “Demion”.

Join us as we make ourselves available to you so you can try out a real live Windows Phone 7 device and see how your apps work on the real thing. We’ve got a couple of Coffee and Codes and one deployment clinic this week:

Wednesday, September 29 in Montreal (Coffee and Code)

Coffee and Code is all about us spending the day working out of a cafe so that you can find us, join us, talk, ask questions and get to know us better. These days, it’s also about Windows Phone 7, but we’re happy to talk and answer questions about anything. Please drop by, whether it’s for five minutes or five hours!

Join “les bons gars”, Developer Advisor Christian Beauclair and Regional Director Guy Barrette, who’ll be holding a Coffee and Code at Le Café de la Cité on 75 Queen. They put on a professional appearance, but we all know qu’ils vont ecrire des «fart apps»! They’ll be doing it in both official languages: Silverlight and XNA!

Thursday, September 30 in Montreal (Deployment Clinic)

Deployment clinics are a little more formal than Coffee and Codes. You can book an exclusive timeslot to deploy and test apps to a Windows Phone 7 device, and there’s one taking place all day at Microsoft’s Montreal office (2000 Avenue McGill College, 4th floor) on the 30th. Email Christian Beauclair to reserve a time slot.

Thursday, September 30 in Toronto (Coffee and Code)

I’ll be at the Starbucks at King and Yonge (4 King Street West) this Thursday from 11:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. with a Windows Phone 7 for you to play with and deploy your apps to. I’ll be at or near the big table in the back — come on down!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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This Saturday: “Introduction to B.I.” in Montreal (Samedi .NET)

samedi .net in montreal

Don’t forget that a Samedi .NET event is taking place this Saturday, September 25th in Montreal: Introduction au B.I., or as they say en Anglais, Introduction to B.I.. As in Business Intelligence. For the full details, see my earlier blog entry and the event’s registration page. It won’t cost you much to attend; admission to the event is under $10.

Thanks to La Communauté .NET Montreal for putting on the event and to Microsoft Canada Regional Director Guy Barrette, my go-to guy for keeping me in the loop on Montreal geek events!

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.

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Le 25 Septembre: Samedi .NET– Introduction au B.I.

le business intelligence

samedi.netIf you’re in Montreal on September 25th and want to learn about developing BI applications – that’s BI as in “Business Intelligence” — La Communauté .NET Montreal’s Samedi.NET event, Introduction au BI, is exactly what you need.

Here’s what the event site says:

La Communauté .NET vous propose une journée de formation complète sur le B.I. Le but de la journée est de de faire un tour d’horizon des bases et des techonogies de B.I.  Le public cible est un développeur .NET ou un DBA n’ayant jamais fait de B.I. Le format de la journée est "hands-on" avec une série de démos ayant une suite logique.

And here’s my best shot at translation, courtesy of my high school French classes and youthful dalliances with a Quebecoise or two:

Montreal’s .NET Community will be presenting a day’s worth of information on BI. Its goal is to give you an overview of BI basics and technologies. The intended audience is a .NET developer or a DBA who’s never done BI before. It’ll be a hands-on event featuring a series of demos to illustrate the concepts.

Here’s the schedule – note that it’s subject to change:

  Sujet Conférencier
9h00 Mot de bienvenue et description de l’architecture du projet Éric Moreau
9h30 Concept de framework/préparation des templates (SSIS) Christian Côté
10h15 Chargement des dimensions et table de faits Sébastien Notebaert
11h15 Pause  
11h30 Description du cube Charles Verdon
12h00 Lunch (non inclus)  
13h00 Création du cube avec Analysis Services (SSAS) Charles Verdon
13h45 Utilisation et création de rapports avec Reporting Services (SSRS) David Myers (anglais)
14h30 Pause  
14h45 Utilisation et création de rapports avec Power Pivot Michelle Gutzait (anglais)
15h30 Questions et conclusion Christian Côté

The sessions will be presented in a classroom-style amphitheatre to make it easier to take notes. They recommend bringing paper and your favourite writing implement; while you can bring a computer to take notes, they can’t guarantee that electrical outlets will be nearby (bring an extension cord). Note that the event will not have internet access.

To attend the event, you have to be a member of La Communauté .NET Montreal, which you can join via their site. The registration fee for the event is $5 plus service charges, and as the event site says, “$5 c’est pas tellement cher”. (Loosely translated, that means “five bucks ain’t gonna hurt your wallet.”)

Want to find out more? Visit the event site for Introduction au BI.

This article also appears in Canadian Developer Connection.