Last night 27 people showed up to the cross user group holiday party/Visual Studio Launch Event recap. I gave a quick slide deck based recap of the Launch Event content (the web slide deck is now online at the Atlanta MS Pros website). Chris Wallace followed me with some great demos of new ASP.Net features including site maps, master pages, and the wizard control.
We followed the short presentations with some open forum discussions about the nature of the user groups in Atlanta and the kinds of topics. We heard a variety of opinions, including a significant minority of people wishing there was a user group in Cobb county. I've actually got someone who is now interested in possibly leading a Cobb county user group with a focus on studying for MCSD certifications. We need to get a location in Cobb county, so anyone who might be able to help with that is encouraged to either leave a comment here or send me an e-mail. We got some requests for different topics, including Microsoft's CRM software, Object Oriented Programming basics (an ever popular beginner topic), Development tips and tricks (like using SQL Server to send e-mail), and more. The ghost of the Atlanta Mobility group showed up to request some more mobile development topics. We had some great topic ideas, one or two presentation volunteers, and lots of fun overall. We had balloons all over the room (sparking an outbreak of INETA style volley ball during the open forum discussion) and plenty of traditional holiday food - Chinese food!
Thanks go out to the Microsoft Biztalk team, who generously provided enough Biztalk books for everyone in the room to get one. We also had plenty of other launch event prizes to give away - shirts, pens, flashlights, tool kits, and more. And one more time, I'd like to thank Doug Turnure for generously footing the bill for our highly overpriced Chinese food. Apparently I am now banned from planning the menu!
-- Matt Ranlett