Blend, DevConnections, and Lighting Up The Web

Hey Telerik Developers!

I wanted to write a slightly out-of-band post to mention some of the speaking engagements that I will have over the next few months, covering a wide range of topics in the Silverlight and Windows Phone 7 space.

First up, Telerik is pleased to host Expression Blend for Silverlight Developers, a one hour webinar being presented on October 21st aimed at helping the Telerik Developer Community (and for that matter, everyone using Silverlight, WPF, or Windows Phone 7) to learn a little bit more about Expression Blend and how it can fit into our daily development workflows.  You can find details for this talk here:

Expression Blend for Silverlight Developers

After that comes everyone's excuse to visit Vegas in November:

That's right => DevConnections!  This year is going to be my first time speaking at DevConnections, so I figured why not start it off right... with 5 sessions as well as a Telerik vendor session.  Exact schedules haven't been posted yet, but here are the sessions I will be presenting at DevConnections:

LDS101: From 0 to Stylin' in 60 Minutes – Adding Style to Silverlight 4 Applications

We all know what a boring application looks like, but with Silverlight 4 and Expression Blend 4 we have the ability to really dive into our applications and make them exciting. Starting with a very basic yet functional Silverlight application, most of this session will take place in Blend showing people how to modify and create styles and templates to allow for a much more customized look and feel. This will include adding behaviors and taking advantage of implicit styling, letting us easily use styles across our application with ease. At the end of the session, we will have gone from a boring and plain application to one that is fully customized and has the ability to switch themes out on the fly.

LOB201: Building BI Dashboards with Silverlight 4 and WCF RIA Services

During this session, we will explore how to create your own dashboard solutions utilizing Silverlight 4 in Visual Studio 2010. Starting with a database and a list of requirements, we will see what it takes to create a basic dashboard framework that can then be further extended with additional modules and capabilities. Once that is all set, we will look at an already-configured solution that allows users to both select which modules will appear in their dashboards and to save user preferences, allowing for those selections to be saved each time they return to the page. While the session does assume basic knowledge of Silverlight and WCF RIA services, the topics covered and delivery will focus more on platform capabilities than specific coding techniques to accomplish creating dynamic dashboards, so full source code will be provided so attendees can see how everything works after understanding the concepts.

VPH06: Building Casual Windows Phone 7 Games in Silverlight

Windows Phone 7 is based around two primary development technologies- XNA and Silverlight. Normally, you would think that XNA is strictly for games and Silverlight strictly for applications, but this isn’t the case at all! In this session, we’ll see how some of the unique features of Silverlight on WP7 can allow us to create fun and engaging casual games. Using a few basic casual game concepts as a starting point, we’ll see how a rich, event-driven UI can create casual games quickly and easily all while taking advantage of the graphics and interactivity that Silverlight provides us with.
Core concept for the session is to introduce the platform differences when considering game development, then working through an example (with lots of code snippets) for putting together an easy but cool casual game.

VPH04: Converting an Existing Silverlight Application to Windows Phone 7

This session will explore just what it takes to convert an existing Silverlight 4 application to the Windows Phone 7 platform. Topics covered will include how to convert your UI to take advantage (and fit within the constraints of) the Windows Phone 7 size limitations and how to convert a UI meant for the desktop to fit in an 800x480 screen. We will also look into some of the differences in the frameworks and how to overcome them in the more limited framework that Windows Phone 7 utilizes. By the end of the session we will have a fully working WP7 equivalent of the original Silverlight 4 application.

LCO201: Getting Started With and Customizing Your Silverlight Navigation Application

We all know the Silverlight Navigation Application Template is sitting in Visual Studio, but how do we really start utilizing it? The session will begin with a look at the default navigation template and everything that is included. From there, we will go through the process of adding and customizing pages as well as dropping into Expression Blend to customize the look and feel of the application. By the end of the session, attendees should be comfortable with both utilizing the Silverlight Navigation Template as well as how to customize it, from using some of the already available theme options to fully creating your own.

As well as our intentionally vague vendor session (there's no prize for guessing what we're hinting at, but ask me at DevConnections and I'll give you a demo :) ):

VENDOR04: Using Telerik RadControls for Silverlight on the Many Screens of Silverlight

Silverlight has matured beyond the original rich media framework that we were given to work with in Silverlight v1 to a rich and powerful framework for line of business development. In this session, learn how you can utilize RadControls for Silverlight on the different screens that we can develop Silverlight against and how our development practices and control options vary between those difference screens. Learn how Telerik RadControls will not only speed up development but make it look good, regardless of whether your Silverlight application targets the browser, the desktop, or more mobile options. Also, don't forget that the first fifty people to show up to this session will receive a free RadControls for Silverlight license plus some unannounced extras, exclusive for DevConnections attendees!

And last but certainly not least, I'm going to be helping to light up the web with a MSDN webcast in December.  The webcast will be covering Silverlight Development Best Practices and you can find the full information on what is being covered as well as sign up for your spot on the MSDN website.

So if you couldn't tell already, it's going to be a busy fall.  Oh, and did I forget to mention you'll also be able to catch me at TechDays Canada in Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Calgary.  Not only will you get to see me talking about MVC for Webforms Developers, but I'll also be presenting the TurboTalk that covers the free RadControls for Silverlight licenses that TechDays attendees receive.

Happy Developing!