2007 Day of Silverlight
Our original plan for Day of Silverlight was to have Jesse Liberty from the Silverlight product team come down and fill us in on all things Silverlight. After lunch sponsored by KFoce (http://www.kforce.com). We planed to close the day out with a presentation by John Papa on WPF. Well the gods must not have been smiling on us because on the Tuesday before the event I got a frantic email from Bill Reiss (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile/Bill.Reiss) telling me to read Jesse's blog (http://silverlight.net/blogs/jesseliberty/archive/2007/12/10/did-you-know-1-if-you-fall-on-black-ice-you-can-dislocate-your-shoulder.aspx). After a few emails with Jesse I learned that he would have to cancel due to the fact that he needed to undergo emergency surgery to repair the damage that was done. Now I start to make phone calls to see who can fill in for Jesse. My local Developer Evangelist from Microsoft, Joe Healy (http://www.devfish.net) stepped up offering a Silverlight 1.0 presentation. Bill then said that he would bring home the Silverlight content with an overview of Silverlight 1.1 (2.0 or whatever the heck marketing is calling it this week). After a deep breath I sent out an email Friday afternoon telling all the registered attendees what had happened. Later that evening before I went to bed I decided to check my email one last time and I got an email from John Papa (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=7D3BBCB7-E956-4730-B3E0-24BD7EAD0D5D) telling me that he got sick on a business trip and would not being able to present. As disappointed as I was after a quick email to Jon Goodyear (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=48387CAA-D3A6-4263-9446-43493F31E240), President of ASPSOFT (http://www.aspsoft.com/) he stepped up to fill in for his co-worker with an offer to do a presentation on MVC (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/archive/tags/MVC/default.aspx).
With the scheduling nightmare behind us, we got to the venue early and began the process of setting up. I have to give a big thanks to the volunteers that made the logistics of the day happen, Ken Tucker (https://mvp.support.microsoft.com/profile=9F6B5CDE-AB25-4864-998C-A6652B33D234), Rosemary Gray, Jessica Sterner, Fabio Honigmann, and Brian Banville. Also have to give a big thank you to Lenny Portlli and Melinda White from Seminole Community College for all there help with the venue. While we started a little late Joe's presentation went off well. But we soon realized that we were going to need a microphone if we were ever going to hear in the back of the room. A thoughtful attendee offered to drive home and get his microphone to let us borrow. I wish I got his name so I could properly thank him. After Joe spoke Bill did his thing, the great part about Bill's presentation is the perspective that Bill has on things being, one of us that actually had to use the technology. After Bill concluded his presentation everyone enjoyed there lunches and got a chance to talk to the people from KForce. Concluding the day Jon gave us a great overview of the new MVC features that Microsoft is going to release.
All in all, even with all our scheduling problems I think the day went very well. I had many attendees come up and tell me what a good time they had and how much they learned. You can see the Day of Silverlight Video here (http://www.onetug.org/dayofsilverlight/video.htm) published with Silverlight of course, and you can see the sideshow here (http://cid-afc22ba66ea68f7d.spaces.live.com/photos/cns!AFC22BA66EA68F7D!115/).
Thanks again to everyone that help with this event, it would not have been possible without your help!