Are you going to Mix10 in March? If so, you might want to check out the new site I launched call Mix 10 Events.  Mix 10 Events will be you one stop shop for all of the events and after parties at Mix10.

Anyone can create an event on the sign. All you need to do is sign in with you Windows Live credentials, and link to create an event will appear.  Please note, the event will not be available until it is reviewed and approved for display.

Staying connected

Don’t feel like checking out the site every day to see what is happening? Here are a few resources to help you.

Mobile Users

You will be able to view all of the events that are happening, even filter by day. In addition, you can view the events on a Map, and check out the event info.

Las Vegas

In case you do not want to check out the events, I mean “It’s Vegas Baby”. Here are some other resources, also accessible from the site.

One thing that I have noticed of the past few years when it comes to conference or “Summits” is that there are a lot of after parties, tweets, etc. that happen.  Most of the time it is difficult to get the word out about these events or even find out about them.  That’s where MVPSummitEvents.com comes in.  The site will hopefully be a one stop shop to find public events that are happening at the Microsoft 2010 MVP Global Summit.

From the site you can add events, create venues, display events, subscribe to the RSS feed or iCal feed, download an event to outlook or calendar client that can consume a .VCS file. Note: the creation of events and venues requires you to sign in using your Windows Live Id account, no information from Live is used within our site.

If the site is successful, I plan to white label it to use with other events like MIX2010, TechEd, PDC, etc.

Let me know what you think at jguadagno@sevdnug.org

The Southeast Valley .NET User Group is looking for some speakers for 2010. The meetings are held monthly typically on the fourth Thursday of the month, although we can move the meeting to make it easier for speakers.  The meetings are held in Chandler, AZ about 20 miles south of downtown Phoenix, AZ. 

This year we had Tim Rayburn and Alan Stevens speak at the user group.  Add your name to the list, contact me at jguadagno @ sevdnug.org

Here are some of the topics that the community is looking for…

I hope to hear from you!

I recently sat down with some other community evangelists in the Chandler / Phoenix area to talk about some of the events that I plan to put on in the coming year. 

To get updates on these events follow me on Twitter @jguadagno and the Southeast Valley .NET User Group @SEVDNUG and continue to watch this blog.

Putting on an event is time consuming, any help I receive is appreciated.  If you are interest let me know… jguadagno @ sevdnug.org

Here is the list, please note that the dates are not set in stone yet.

Weekly Events

Tech Lunch South

A weekly technology agnostic lunch meeting open to all.

http://www.techlunchsouth.com

Every Tuesday.

Hacknight *

A weekly technology agnostic event open to all.

http://gangplankhq.com/collaborative/

Every Wednesday night.

Monthly Events

Southeast Valley .NET User Group

http://www.sevdnug.org 

Monthly on the 4th Thursday of the month.

Gangplank Jr.

A monthly meeting dedicated to kids from 4 – 18 years of age. Topics include, development, robotics, drawing, photography, cooking and more.

http://www.gankplankjr.com

Monthly (the day has not been determined yet)

The Rest of Year

Phoenix Bar Camp

BarCamp is an ad-hoc gathering born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open environment. It is an intense event with discussions, demos and interaction from participants who are the main actors of the event.

http://www.barcampphoenix.com

February and August

Desert Code Camp

http://www.desertcodecamp.com

May and November

AZGiveCamp *

AZGiveCamp is a massive weekend event where the software development community comes together to support charities and non-profits by developing or improving their web sites and applications. It's fun, it's agile, it's geeky, and it's good for the community.

If you are interested in helping out as a volunteer, organizer, or sponsor, we would like to hear from you! Please check out our FAQs, and then drop them an email through our Contact Us page.

http://www.azgivecamp.org

March or April.

Gangplank Jr. Code Camp

A code camp style event for kids from the ages of 4 – 18.

no URL yet

Quarterly or semi annual

Startup Weekend **

http://phoenix.startupweekend.org

Spring

Legend:

* indicates an event that is taking place in the area that I am not running but I am part of.

** this event might need someone to organize it the area again.

And no it is not because the Yankees won the World Series (although congrats to them) it is because it has been an awesome month for me personally and professionally.

On the personal front…

My son’s baseball team, which I am an assistant coach, finished the season undefeated in regular season games (end of year tournament in next week).  My son hit his first over the fence homerun which was a Grand Slam (technically not November but pretty awesome). My daughter's softball team, which I am an assistant coach, finished the season undefeated in regular season games (end of year tournament in next week).

I get to go to fly back to NY in a few days to see family and friends and wish my mother a happy 60th birthday.

On the professional front…

I was elected to the North American INETA board of directors.

I was elected to the AZGiveCamp executive committee, VP of Operations.  As the VP I will oversee the activities of the Logistics, Sponsorship, Technology and Publicity teams.

I put together my first Code Camp, Desert Code Camp.

I am presenting a Bird of Feather session at PDC with Chris Woodruff on “How to Build and Enrich Your Technical and Local Community” on Tuesday Nov 17 from 11a – 12p.  Stop by if you want to see how to build your community.

That’s it for now.  Hopefully I can relax a bit in December.

My first Code Camp is done and I wanted to jot down some of the lessons I learned.

Bring EXTRA equipment! You will never now what people will want or need. Here’s a list of items that are good to have.

• Adapters
  • DVI to VGA (those MACs)
  • HDMI to VGA
  • Multiple video to VGA
• Mice
• CAT5 cables
• USB Cables
• USB Flash drive

Speakers

• Speakers will cancel.  It is an unfortunate fact.
• Don’t allow one speaker to speak at more than 3 sessions.  This reduces your risk in case of cancelation and prevents speaker fatigue.

Schedule.  Printed schedules are good to have and good to hang.  Also add speaker names to the presentations.

Name Tags. People like and want them.

Venue

• WIFI is key.  A reliable and unobtrusive WiFi connection is best.
• You need to be able handle last minute room changes

Food

• Make sure you provide the person(s) that are ordering the food explicit instructions on the food.
• Try to have more than just pizza.
• You should have vegetarian and vegan options.

And remember you are not going to be able to make EVERYONE happy.

Got a kid interested in Technology?  Bring them to  the Gankplank Jr track at Code Camp Jr. taking place at Desert Code Camp.

Schedule for the day

Computers will be provided, feel free to bring a laptop if you have.

Lunch will be provided by Gangplank Jr.

If you have any Ardunio sets or Lego Mindstorm NXT sets feel free to bring them.

Register to attend: codecampjr2009.eventbrite.com

If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Joseph Guadagno

jguadagno@sevdnug.org

Recommended for kids from 4-18 years of age.

It is recommended that the kids are at reading age.

* Schedule is subject to change.

Phoenix Geek Tag was a minor success so I decided to put together another Geek outing in October. Most likely October 20th starting around 6pm. I have narrowed it down to two places.

Option 1: Bowling in Gilbert at Brunswick Lanes

What’s included…

• Bowling with bowling shoes for two hours.
• Drinks (alcoholic and non) are not included.
• Food is not included.
Approximate cost: $15 / person plus food.

Option 2: GameWorks in Tempe

What’s included…

• One or two hour game card (depending on package)
• Private room for socializing and networking
• Choice of 7 different meal options
• Unlimited fountain drinks
• Each person can pay separately for their own extra food / drink.
Approximate cost: $15 - $25 a person

Leave your comments as to which you prefer. I would like to book the place on Monday.

The next Desert Code Camp is scheduled for Saturday November 7th, 2009 at DeVry University.  Great sessions, networking, food, and WIFI (yes WIFI) will be provided. So come out learn, teach, network. It will be great.

Location:

DeVry University
2149 W. Dunlap Ave (map)
Phoenix, Arizona 85021

Submit your talks, sessions, ideas for talks at the Desert Code Camp site.

On Twitter follow @DesertCodeCamp, @AZGroups, and @SEVDNUG for more information updates. Tweet up the event with the hashtag of #DCC09.

iCal feeds let you share your and/or import your events that are stored in Sitefinity.  Here is a library that will let you generate an iCal feed from Sitefinity. Future versions of this library might have us filtering by categories or date.

I’ve made a few changes since the last release to include some bug fixes.

• Added Google and Outlook friendly fields in the feed file to describe the iCalendar file as well as the publisher.
• Added code to the Location and Description fields to keep them at 75 characters or less to comply with the iCal specifications.

Installation

web.config changes

First you need to tell ASP.NET about your new handler. Open up the web config file and look for the httpHandlers section, it’s parent is system.web and add the following:

   1: <add verb="GET" path="GetICSFile.ashx" type="SEVDNUG.Web.HttpHandlers.CalendarHandler, App_Code"/>

Note: The path name can be changed to any legal value like “feeds/ical.ashx” or “ical.ashx”.

Files

Copy the vCalendar.cs and CalendarHandler.cs files to the App_Code directory of your Sitefinity installation.

Customize

Getting the event data from Sitefinity and creating the iCalender objects is handled inside the CalendarHandler class.

The class assumes that your events provider is named “Events”, if not you will have to change line 25 of the class. 

The class maps the following fields to an iCalendar event.

I believe these meta values are the default meta keys from Sitefinity. If your values differ, you can modify them on lines 64 and 65.