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Events for Region Region Events
Monday, February 13, 2012
Continuous Integration...
Monday, March 12, 2012
Web Performance Triage...
Monday, April 09, 2012
Web caching 101...
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Where you can find us Where you can find us
Birmingham
Formed in April 2006. Birmingham Science Park Aston near the city centre hosts NxtGenUG Birmingham. A great meeting place to discuss technology and eat Pizza!
Cambridge
Having opened in September 2007, Cambridge will offer a unique insight into Microsoft Research.
Coventry
Coventry venue has a bar and comfy chairs. With great meetings every month, what more could you ask for? Serving the Coventry community since April 2006.
Essex
Deepest Essex is the scene of the eighth NxtGenUG Region, poised just outside the M25, it's run by Rob Silver and Anis Batliwala local lads with a passion for technology
Hereford
NxtGenUG Hereford - Then there were six. Formed in February 2009 Hereford is the newest NxtGenUG Region. Run by local guys Ryan O'Neill and Richard Wilde.
Manchester
"It's a sunny paradise!" does not describe soggy Manchester; at least it has its own NxtGenUG region! Run by Steven Robbins and Andy Wilkinson, two northern guys with a passion for pizza/technology!
Oxford
Holding it's first meeting in November 2006, Oxford is headed up by the prfessional and enthusiastic Richie Hopton and BI Consultant Robert Minchin
Southampton
By the seaside, in the warmth of the South, NxtGenUG Southampton is run by John McLoughlin and Richie Allen, local guys with a passion for technology! Southampton started in October 2007.
Conferences Conferences
Mix11
Mix11
Partner Showcase Partner Showcase
The International .NET Association (INETA) provides structured, peer-based organizational, educational, and promotional support to the growing worldwide community of Microsoft .NET user groups.
The International .NET Association (INETA) provides structured, peer-based organizational, educational, and promotional support to the growing worldwide community of Microsoft .NET user groups.
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NxtGenUG Region 
Hereford
NxtGenUG Hereford - Then there were six. Formed in February 2009 Hereford is the newest NxtGenUG Region. Run by local guys Ryan O'Neill and Richard Wilde.
Meet the Coordinators
Ryan O'Neill
Ryan O'Neill has been working with computers since 1988 when they first started falling over due to an inability to cope with the apostrophe in his surname (something that occurs alarmingly too often even now). He considered changing his surname to O';DROP DATABASE master;'Neill to teach them a lesson but prefers home cooked food (as opposed to prison cuisine).

He is jolly chap with a dry sense of humour. Bill Gates looks like Ryan and is often mistaken for him (something that tends to annoy Bill).

He used to own a company in the south east but sold up and moved to Herefordshire for a slower pace of life with his family where they have a cottage, a Land Rover, Border Collie dog and some large wellies (that leak). Working on systems from low level hardware, real-time oil and gas emergency safety and factory control through to 'noddy' applications for the insurance industry he has settled into Windows and web development with a lot of database work thrown in. Ryan now works from home over the internet with a crew of other developers, mostly on databases, web sites, .Net clients and occasional low level drivers (shudder).
Richard Wilde
Richard Wilde is the owner of wildesoft.net in Bromyard. He has been developing Internet Applications since 1996 so some might say he knows a bit, but he will tell you he knows nothing. He only uses Microsoft Technology these days as he thinks other systems lack that bit of finesse!. He has worked in the past as a development manager for a local company where he had to spend most of his time stopping the designers and developers jumping on each other. He has worked in small/medium sized teams. He has developed many different kinds of internet sites that may or may not work!
Events: April, 2012
Web caching 101 April 09
Web caching 101 - a different perspective - When it comes to web sites, caching has been the most painful aspect of delivering web sites. At the same times, it's always been promoted as the best way to scale. Who to trust, what does caching means and how can proxies actually make your life easier and your site cheaper? If you want answers to those questions, and look at some cool code, this talk is for you! Pizza will be served
Events: March, 2012
Web Performance Triage March 12
Marc Gravell is coming up from the deepest part of the Forest of Dean to talk about web performance and give us his insight into improving the performance of web servers. Marc is part of the development team for Stack Exchange (and a self-confessed Stack Overflow junkie), and has been a C# MVP for the last 4 years. He has a long history of open source projects, and tries to focus on high-performance, low-impact libraries (hiding all the "ugly" from app developers). We will be serving Pizza and hopefully a nugget!
Events: February, 2012
Continuous Integration February 13
Paul Stack is coming to Hereford to talk about Continuous Integration. Pizza will be served an who knows we might also get a nugget!
Events: January, 2012
CQRS Bringing Elegance January 09
Ashic Mahtab comes up from London to talk about CQRS and how we can bring Elegance to "Normal" Applications. CQRS and Event Sourcing are two patterns that can help simplify complicated applications. They can help focus on business requirements, add flexibility and reduce technical clutter. They can make testing, long term maintenance and application of DDD easier. In this session, we will look at what these patterns are, how they can be used and what benefits they may provide. If you find your nHibernate mappings getting complicated and your applications obscured by layers upon layers of abstraction, if you're scared of making changes in case lots of things break in lots of places, if you need to change lots of tests whenever you change code or if you're just interested in what these latest buzzwords are, then come along. Oh and of course we will be serving Pizza and a nugget!
Events: December, 2011
Simple.Data + Nancy December 12
Mark Rendle comes up to Hereford to talk about building web applications without the "cruft" using Nancy and Simple.Data We will of course be serving pizza and maybe a mince pie or two... Make sure you all bring your Santa hats and Mistletoe...
Events: November, 2011
This Andriods life November 14
Ross Scott comes across to Hereford to talk about "This Androids Life". If you wanted to understand HTML5 and Phone Gap or even Java and Eclipse or .net and C# that can all be used on an Android device then this is a session that you cannot afford to miss. We of course will be serving Pizza, giving away great swag and maybe throw in a Nugget...
Events: October, 2011
NHibernate 3.2 October 10
NOTE: This event has been changed as Paul Stack cannot make it, sorry for the confusion... NxtGenUG coordinator Richard Wilde is going to deliver us a "seen it, done it" overview of using NHibernate 3.2 in a real world application.
Events: September, 2011
Micro-ORM Deep Dive September 12
Long time NxtGenUg member Ian Russell will introduce you to Massive, Dapper.Net and Simple.Data! Are Micro-Orm's the answer? How easy are they two use? What benefits do they offer against traditional ORM's? If you want to find out these answers then please join us at Hereford. Pizza and SWAG will of course be served. If anyone wants to present a nugget then please tweet me @rippo. See you there.
Events: August, 2011
Node.js Server side JS Really? August 08
Node.js is an event-driven I/O server-side JavaScript (built on V8 JavaScript engine) environment for Unix-like platforms. It is intended for writing scalable network programs such as web servers. It was created by Ryan Dahl in 2009, and its growth is sponsored by Joyent, which employs Dahl. Node.js is similar in purpose to Twisted for Python, Perl Object Environment for Perl, libevent for C and EventMachine for Ruby. Unlike most JavaScript, it is not executed in a web browser, but is instead a form of server-side JavaScript. Node.js includes a REPL environment for interactive testing.
Events: July, 2011
The Gill Cleeren NxtGenUG Tour July 04
The Gill Cleeren NxtGenUG tour, sponsored by Telerik, hits stop 1 with a trip to NxtGenuG Hereford.
Gill will be covering two topics 'A cure for the MVVM virus: everything you need to know about MVVM in Silverlight' and 'Grasping the most important concept in Silverlight: data-binding'.
Exciting topics, there will also be Pizza, Swag and possibly even a nugget too....
Telerik have also kindly donated some SWAG specially for the event: a Telerik Ultimate Suite (worth $2000), tshirts and some other swag as well.
Events: June, 2011
RavenDB gives RDBMS the bird June 13
OK, so maybe we're not quite giving relational databases the ol' heave ho in favour of NoSQL, but what can NoSQL actually do that traditional RDBMS can't? We're all pretty clued up on the idea, but how many of us have spent some hands-on time with NoSQL databases? Sign up for swag, pizza and good times ... and who knows, we may even have a few prizes to give away.
Events: May, 2011
Touch or stretch me - Win 7 WP May 09
We're very pleased to announce that our good friend of NxtGenUG Guy Smith-Ferrier has decided to visit the wild west of Hereford to deliver his Windows 7 MultiTouch session. The usual suspects of a Presentation, pizza, great SWAG and a nugget together will make this a evening you should not miss. They say if you have never been to the wild west then you have never lived! We look forward to seeing you all.
Events: April, 2011
Jon Skeet goes evil with c# April 08
Jon Skeet talks about evil code that our poor old c# compiler has to deal with and shows how much imagination it really has, accompanied by his new evil henchkitty sock puppet. This is one NxtGenUG that cannot be missed. The usual bad boys comprising of "PISTOL Pizza", "DARTH Swag" and "NAUGHTY nugget" will make this a great evening.
Events: March, 2011
DLR in C# March 14
Please note: We have had a change of speaker as Rob Ashton got a job in Belgium. Instead we can confirm that a new speaker to NxtGHenUG - Philip Stears drives down the M5 to give us a look into the Dynamic Keyword in C#. If you wanted to find out what DLR is, or how to embed IronPython ot IronRuby code into your projects then you cannot afford to miss this presentation. Sign up for swag, pizza and good times ... and who knows, we may even have a few prizes to give away.
Events: February, 2011
Entity Framework 4 February 07
In this presentation, Rob Bagby will illustrate how to take advantage of the Entity Framework 4 in your applications. The event will be split across 3 sections (see below) and will be demo-driven.
Events: January, 2011
Dynamic Alchemy: Dynamic c# January 17
Welcome to the world of dyanmics and mystery. Top speaker Mark Rendle takes a look at the dynamic keyword, new in C# 4.0. He will highlight some neat use cases and will show us how useful the dynamic keyword really is! We have great swag, a nugget, pizza and a great crowd. Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: December, 2010
Get going with jQuery December 13
Hereford are really pleased to welcome George Adamson who arrives tonight buzzing with a love of jQuery. You've probably heard about it, maybe used it, and George is a real enthusiast and he's here to tell you all about it. We'll have Pizza of course lots of swag and a member nugget... Praise for George; 'Great session, George is a highly amusing, informative and engaging speaker!' 9 out of 9 'Wow. George was excellent. Funny, interesting, good pace, lots of really great info. An absolutely brilliant presentation. Thanks George.' 9 / 9 We'll be giving an XBOX away this evening to a lucky winner. All you need to do is to make your way to a Hereford nxtGenUG presentation and you will be given a free entry into this fabulous prize draw! Come along to find out more! Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: November, 2010
.Net on a chip! November 08
The .NET Micro Framework is .NET for small and resource constrained devices. It runs on 1.5m devices such as sat navs, parking meters, heart monitors and remote controls among many other things. In this session Ryan will be programming a dev kit to read the caller ID signal from a phone line and pinging the results out to your local network. Follow Ryan on Twitter @RyanONeill1970 for an update on progress in the preceeding month. We also hope to have some .Net based boards to give away, depending on sponsorship. Richard will be nuggeting on Atomiq and Nitriq with two licences to give away at the end as swag. Unfortunately Phil Winstanly had to cancel his session on 'Crap Code and the Disasters it Causes' due to legal reasons and this session replaces that.
Events: October, 2010
Liam does Virtualisation October 11
Don't miss this one! The ever popular and hard working Liam Westley come to the wild west to deliver a presentation on Virtualisation for the Developer. Pizza, Swag and Virtualisation, the coolest technology out there AND one of the most useful! We'll be giving an XBOX away in December to a lucky winner. All you need to do is to make your way to a Hereford nxtGenUG presentation and you will be given a free entry into this fabulous prize draw! Come along to find out more! Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: September, 2010
Silverlight, PRISM 'n Stuff! September 13
Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond everybodies control Ian Cooper is now unable to make it to Hereford for Behaviour Driven Development. But don't despair - the show goes on as ever! Luckily though we have a great stand-in - our own Dave McMahon has jumped in to give his Silverlight and PRISM session delivered at Oxford last week. This got great revues and is a session about a real-life application and how it was put together. No smoke and mirrors in this one! This really is an event not to be missed. Dont forget great SWAG and PIZZA will be served. We'll be giving an XBOX away in December to a lucky winner. All you need to do is to make your way to a Hereford nxtGenUG presentation and you will be given a free entry into this fabulous prize draw! Come along to find out more! Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: August, 2010
Azure Table Service - NoSQL August 09
Microsoft’s Azure Table Service provides a low-cost solution for storing and searching structured data in “The Cloud”. Plus, it’s one of these cool new NoSQL data stores that everyone’s talking about. But it’s very, very different from SQL Server and other relational databases, so is it the right solution for your project? We'll be giving an XBOX away in December to a lucky winner. All you need to do is to make your way to a Hereford nxtGenUG presentation and you will be given a free entry into this fabulous prize draw! Come along to find out more! Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: July, 2010
ADO.NET Sync Service Framework July 12
PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS SESSION HAS CHANGED! This session will look at the ADO.NET Sync Service framework and, demo gods permitting, we'll have a go at building an app that can work just as well with or without its database server.. Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: June, 2010
Entity Framework v4 June 21
Long standing and renowned NxtGen member Geff Lombardi is coming across to Hereford to talk about Entity Framework v4. He will introduce Entity Framework, the concepts behind the framework and how to get up and running using entity framework. He will then cover common issues related to this version and how these issues have been addressed in Entity Framework v4. If you are thinking about ORM and EF then this is a session you cannot miss! Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: May, 2010
Win7 mobile, app&game dev May 10
Windows 7 mobile application and game development The session will cover building applications for Windows Phone 7 looking at the Silverlight and XNA application models. As well as an overview of Windows Phone 7 capability, Paul will build a number of applications using VS and Blend to demonstrate SL as well as a 3D games using XNA to give you a good feel for the level of effort required. Key to the event will be the opportunity for Q&A during and after the sessions. Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: April, 2010
Silverlight 4 RC April 12
The worlds renowned NxtGenUG presenter Richard "Silverlight" Costall will be visiting us to give us a talk on Silverlight 4. "The paint is still wet on the SolidBrush of Silverlight 3, but at PDC2009 Microsoft gave a glimpse, and BETA of Silverlight 4. In this session we'll look at the positioning of this technology, and explore exciting new features, such as WebCam Support, Elevated Out of Browser, Printing support and many more changes across the Silverlight 4 framework, including changes in the recent Release Candidate" Plus the usual swag, pizza and nugget. Click here to see how to find us Follow us on twitter
Events: March, 2010
Come see my PRISM-tation March 08
Come down to Hereford to see the reknowned nxtGenUG speaker John McLoughlin talk about PRISM. He will show you how easy it is to build a WPF application and then extend it with PRISM. Of course there will be SWAG and Pizza, a night not to miss.
Events: February, 2010
Nhibernate, MVC with a little February 08
Herefords own Coordinator Richard Wilde will show you how to use nHibernate with asp.net MVC. The presentation will show you how to configure nHibernate, how to create mapping files and what the fuss about lazy loading is. All in 80 mins! Extra swag from Microsoft for the Azure launch and a nugget on Azure. Pizza, Nuggets, swag all the usual stuff!
Events: January, 2010
MVC with Steve Sanderson January 11
The MVC guru, Steven Sanderson, is coming to Hereford to talk about .... yes, ASP.NET MVC
Events: November, 2009
An intro into ASP.NET MVC November 16
Why not come down to the wild west where Richard Wilde will provide an introduction to the ASP.NET MVC Framework with some Linq 2 XML thrown in. Pizza and swag of course will be most sought after!
Events: October, 2009
Bugged by bad software? October 19
How many bugs does your software have? How much time will it take you to fix those bugs? The normal answer to these questions is many and forever, that is unless you are practicing Test Driven Development. NxtGenUG Oxford coordinator Richard Hopton walks through what it is, some guidelines to follow, how to get started implementing it in new projects as well as tips to help apply these same techniques to existing applications.
Events: September, 2009
Sharing the Point ... September 21
Come along to Hereford and find out what all the fuss is about SharePoint, one of Microsoft's most successful products ever. It's a feast of features for both IT Pros and Developers and Dave will aim to pack in as many aspects of SharePoint as he can, in between packing in as much Pizza as he can! Dave's joined by Joe Collins, long standing NxtGenUG member who's up for his first Member Nugget! Knowing Dave he'll have an item or two of swag to give out too!
Events: August, 2009
DIP Your Toes in at Hereford August 17
Top UK Author and Speaker Alex Homer comes to Hereford to give us an Injection. Well only metaphorically! He's here to speak on the Dependency Inversion Principle to allow us to write highly flexible applications and how we can also thwart computers plans taking over the world by configuring what they can and can't do. Pizza, Swag of course and perhaps a member nugget..
Events: July, 2009
Hereford Media Central July 20
John Price, NxtGenUG Co-Founder, JIT Pizza eater and the owner of the world's only email generated black hole makes his way over to Hereford to deliver his Windows Media Centre presentation and shows how to score brownie points with the wife, do development and have fun all at the same time. Take a look at why Media Center can make your life richer. There are a number of different personal video recorders on the market, but Media Center has one major advantage, YOU... and the software you can write for it. We will look at MCML (Media Center markup language), and look at how the XBOX 360 can be used for more than just games when working in conjunction with Media Center. We will also look at how we can react to things that the user does and how we can use that information to affect the physical world, like dimming the lights automatically when you play a video, and other home automation ideas.
Events: June, 2009
Making the most of your Memory June 15
Top TechEd Speaker Andy Wrigley heads West to Hereford to talk about Windows Mobile and also about designing lightweight systems to go easy on your memory and CPU requirements. Pizza, swag and fun with the Hereford crew and a top, top speaker!
Events: May, 2009
Dub See Eff and Stuff May 18
Hereford welcomes one of the longest standing members of NxtGenUG and Oxford Co-ordintor Chris Seary MVP to talk about WCF, SQL and Security and Stuff. Pizza of course, and Swag of course!
Events: April, 2009
Silverlight Countdown ... April 20
NxtGenUG Founder Member, Silverlight Insider, Amateur Aardvark Physiotherapist and part time Blues Brother, Richard Costall jumps into his Skoda and heads off down the M54 to cast his Silverlighting magic on the members of NxtGenUG's newest region. Swag, Pizza and a Member Nugget will also feature. Don't miss it, this will be a great meeting on the latest development hot subject!
Events: March, 2009
Westward Ho! March 16
Welcome to the Wilde West, where Ryan O'Neill and Richard Wilde have started NxtGenUG Hereford to help developers west of Birmingham stay ahead of the game, and who better to do that than Guy Smith-Ferrier in his pre DevWeek warm up. Dave McMahon will be giving us the NxtGenUG Nugget and there will be the usual Swag, Pizza and drink! Come along and say hello and get involved with the UK Developer Community at NxtGenUG Hereford!
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