NxtGenUG - News RSS Feed

35% discount on Launch Conference

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:31:00 GMT

Registered NxtGenUG'ers get 35% discount at the exciting LAUNCH: Gaming and Digital Conference on November 16th in Birmingham

LAUNCH: Gaming and Digital conference, kicks off with a media breakfast, opened by Ed Vaizey MP, Minister for Culture, Communications and Creative Industries and featuring speakers such as Ilmari Heikkinen of Google UK, Philip Oliver, CEO of Blitz Games Studios, Stewart Bell, CEO of multiformat publisher, Ant Games Ltd, Mills™, Chief WONKA™ ustwo, Ian Livingstone OBE, life President, Eidos through to live game demonstrations from entrepreneurs and listening to members from SONY, Microsoft Game Studios, Rare Studio and many more. This conference is excellent for anybody interested in games whether its to Launch a Technology, Launch a Career or Launch a Business. The conference sponsors include Chiltern Railways, Business Birmingham and University of Wolverhampton.

Taking place on November 16th at Birmingham Science Park Aston, Birmingham a 35% discount rate can be secured by registering now and using the code get the code before 31st October 2011 subject to availability.

Details here: www.LaunchConference.co.uk

Access User Group Seminar

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 03:26:00 GMT

The Access User Group are having their National Seminar on the 10th November, at the Heritage Motor Centre

The Access User Group have arranged another National Seminar

Access User Group National Seminar, 10th November 2011 at the Heritage Motor Centre, Banbury Road, Gaydon, Warwickshire, CV35 0BJ:

full details can be found at: http://www.ukaug.co.uk

Opportunities in AUSTRALIA!

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:43:00 GMT

Fancy a new life in AUSTRALIA? - Know Sharepoint, or BI, or just love Architecting Solutions - Read on!

ex-NxtGenUG member Andrew Jacks, emigrated to Australia, started a new life, and kickstarted his career is having a great time.

Not only that, the company he works for is looking to recruit new staff from the UK, they are looking for guys/girls with the following skills:-

Business Intelligence
Solution Architects
Agile Scrum Masters
Java Architects
SharePoint Architects (Strong Devs)
Finance, Banking, Utility, Telco and Superannuation domain experts

They have offices in Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.

For more information, use the contact us form to get in touch or email Rich, if you know his email address... what an amazing opportunity!

Fest11 Raises £110.00 for Birmingham Childrens Hospital

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 16:30:00 GMT

Huge thanks to everyone, who attended Fest11 and also those who took part in the raffle, raising £110.00 for Birmingham Childrens Hospital.

A Huge thanks goes to everyone, who attended Fest11 and especially those who took part in the swag raffle, raising £110.00 for Birmingham Children's Hospital.

The money is going towards Huge thanks to everyone, who attended Fest11 and also those who took part in the raffle, raising £110.00 for Birmingham Childrens Hospital.

The money is going towards the £2 Million required for the creation of the most advanced cardiac unit for Children in the UK, which is totally dependant on the donations from the public.

To Keep upto date with the latest news about the appeal and other ways you can get involved to support Birmingham Children's Hospital then please visit http://www.bch.org.uk

Thanks

Career Opportunities

Tue, 07 Jun 2011 15:28:00 GMT

A software house in the East Midlands with ambitious development plans has 2 opportunities, 1 Permanent, and 1 Contract...

A software house in the East Midlands with ambitious development plans has the following 2 opportunities.

Experienced Developer - Permanent
ROLE: To play an important role in a key development project. The technical skills to fulfil this role will require somebody with experience of C#, N-Tier development using WCF, Silverlight/WPF, LINQ, SQL Server / T-SQL, entity framework, RIA services MVVM architecture, SOA architecture Visual Studio 2010 and XML. Not only will the successful candidate have excellent .Net experience but they will be able to present strong personal characteristics and skills such as excellent communication skills, desire to take responsibility for successful delivery and willing, and able to take a lead role within the team.

Development Consultant - 3 Month Contract
ROLE : To complete development work and provide technical advice to the development team during the initial stages of a key development project. The technical skills to fulfil this role will require somebody with experience of delivering line of business applications using C#, N-Tier development using WCF, Silverlight/WFP, LINQ, SQL Server / T-SQL, entity framework, RIA services MWM architecture, SOA architecture Visual Studio 2010 and XML. Not only will the successful candidate have excellent .Net experience but they will be able to present strong personal characteristics and skills such as excellent communication skills, desire to take responsibility for successful delivery and willing, and able to take a lead role within the team.

To apply for ether of these roles. In the first instance use the enquiry form to get in touch, and we'll provide details on where to send an up to date CV, along with a covering letter.

NxtGenUG Website now works in Chrome ...

Sun, 15 May 2011 10:59:00 GMT

After many requests, we've done a minor update to the site to allow it to be used in Chrome.

After many requests, we've done a minor update to the site to allow it to be used in Chrome. Enjoy!

Fest11 Agenda NOW complete...

Thu, 07 Apr 2011 09:11:00 GMT

The Fest11 Agenda is now complete, head over to the Fest11 page and make sure you've booked your place!

The Fest11 Agenda is now complete, head over to the Fest11 page and make sure you've booked your place!

We are already 50% full, so hurry and book your place for the 1st July 2011 in Birmingham for 'Fest11 - At the Movies', sponsored by Telerik, Microsoft and Ridgian

Gill Cleeren NxtGenUG Tour

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 15:26:00 GMT

NxtGenUG are pleased to announce Silverlight MVP, and Microsoft Regional Director Gill Cleeren, will be touring 4 NxtGenUG regions in July.

NxtGenUG are pleased to announce Silverlight MVP, and Microsoft Regional Director Gill Cleeren, will be touring 4 NxtGenUG regions in July. kindly sponsored by Telerik, Gill will be talking on a variety of topics during his tour. See below for a list of dates and locations

Hereford - 4th July
http://www.nxtgenug.net/ViewEvent.aspx?EventID=404

Oxford - 5th July
http://www.nxtgenug.net/ViewEvent.aspx?EventID=405

Coventry - 6th July
http://www.nxtgenug.net/ViewEvent.aspx?EventID=406

Cambridge - 7th July
http://www.nxtgenug.net/ViewEvent.aspx?EventID=407

About Gill Cleeren
Gill Cleeren is Microsoft Regional Director (www.theregion.com), Silverlight MVP (former ASP.NET MVP), INETA speaker bureau member and Silverlight Insider. He lives in Belgium where he works as .NET architect at Ordina. Passionate about .NET, he’s always playing with the newest bits. In his role as Regional Director, Gill has given many sessions, webcasts and trainings on new as well as existing technologies, such as Silverlight, ASP.NET and WPF at conferences including TechEd Berlin 2010, TechDays Belgium, DevDays NL, NDC Oslo Norway, SQL Server Saturday Switserland, Spring Conference UK, Silverlight Roadshow in Sweden… He’s also the author of many articles in various developer magazines and for SilverlightShow.net. He organizes the yearly Community Day event in Belgium.

He also leads Visug (www.visug.be), the largest .NET user group in Belgium. Gill recently published his first book: “Silverlight 4 Data and Services Cookbook” (Packt Publishing). You can find his blog at www.snowball.be.

WP7 Hackathon in Birmingham

Thu, 17 Mar 2011 04:34:00 GMT

There's a WP7 Hackathon happening in Birmingham on Saturday 26th April 2011 - Free to attend, but places Limited

There's a WP7 Hackathon happening in Birmingham on Saturday 26th April 2011 - Free to attend, but places are Limited.

See Details Here...

It'll be followed up with events in London, and Manchester, so stay tuned

These events run on a Saturday for developers to attend outside of work or college commitments, starting from 9:00 running through to 21:00. They’ll provide lunch and refreshments! They'll be providing expert help including MVPs from APPA Mundi who have loads of experience creating apps and successfully submitting them to Marketplace and we hope to have some evangelists from Microsoft’s DPE group drop by who can help overcome technical challenges, and give advice on WP7 development.

IronSun Studios release IonBall on XBOX Indie

Tue, 22 Feb 2011 16:21:00 GMT

Local Indie Startup IronSun Studios have just released IonBall on XBOX indie - Head on over, give it a try...

Local Indie Startup Company IronSun Studios have just released their excellent WP7 BreakOut Game IonBall on XBOX Indie.

If you've got an XBOX, download the trial, or full version from XBOX indie Games. IonBall features 35 levels, 7 incrasingly challenging boss battles, and an XP based progression system.

If you are lucky enough to have a WP7 device, there's 5 IronSun Studios Games to choose from Currently, IonBall, Santa Quest, Chronox, Lucky 7 and AstroBlast. All available on the WP7 Marketplace.

Here's an Independent Video of IonBall on XBOX in Action

Follow IronSun Studios on twitter @IronSunStudios

Or visit : http://www.ironsunstudios.com

SQLBITS - Special Discount for NxtGenUG-ers

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 04:32:00 GMT

SQLBits is beside the seaside from the 7th to 9th April 2011 and there is a special discount for NxtGenUG members!

SQLBITS Team are pleased to announce that SQLBits will be beside the seaside from the 7th to 9th April 2011.

Yes they are going south and will be holding SQLBits 8 in Brighton.

The format will be 3 days of top SQL Server content given by SQL Server Experts from around the world. At SQLBits 7 they had 2 Microsoft Certfied Architects (MCA), 3 Microsoft Certified Masters (MCM) and 24 Microsoft Most Valued Professionals (MVP).

At SQLBits 8 they are looking to trump that with even more experts to deliver the 3 days of content.

Day 1 - 7th April - Pre-Conference Training Day - Choose from one of eight Full day seminars by SQL Server experts on a wide range of aspects of SQL Server.
Day 2 - 8th April - 20-25 sessions throughout the day spread over 5 rooms covering all aspects of SQL Server
Day 3 - 9th April - 20-25 sessions delivered by the UK SQL Server community and this day is FREE

the SQLBITS site

Don't Miss the VBUG Conference

Sat, 12 Feb 2011 04:27:00 GMT

VBUG UK are holding their annual conference on 28th and 29th March 2001 in Reading. Rich and Dave will be there!

VBUG UK are holding their annual conference on 28th and 29th March 2001 in Reading. There are a host of top UK speakers and also Rich and Dave will be there!

Check out the details here or call Nicky Gordon at VBUG on 01242 531065.

NxtGenUG Open Eighth Region!

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 19:03:00 GMT

NxtGenUG are pleased to announce the launch of another region this time Shenfield near Brentwood Essex

NxtGenUG are pleased to announce the launch of another region this time Shenfield, near Brentwood Essex.

Rob Silver who has attended NxtGenUG meetings in Cambridge is the region's coordinator and is assisted by Anis Batiwala a friend and work colleague. "Having always tried to keep at the forefront of technology, I thought it time to share my passion by organising these meetings" says Rob.

If you're in the North East London/Essex area on 23rd of February, come along to meet the coordinators and a lot of like-minded developers passionate about technology. You'll also hear a great session from one of the UK Community's top speakers Guy Smith-Ferrier. Dave McMahon will be there to help the proceedings along on the first evening and to talk about the benefits of being part of the UK Community.

You can register for this event here.

Good luck to Rob and Anis!

Help Rich get to Mix11 - Vote for his Session!

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 09:44:00 GMT

Help Rich celebrate 10 years of running a user group by sending him off to MIX11, by voting for his Mix Session...

As you may know NxtGenUG co-founder Richard Costall is currently celebrating 10 years of being involved with the UK Community. If you didn't know, well, he is, and he's reminding you in his latest article on the NxtGenUG site here !

In that time he's been involved in organising hundreds of meetings for the benefit of developers around the UK and in Europe too. Due to his outstanding efforts (genuinely!) in the Community he feels he is in need of a holiday and he would love your support in getting one. Microsoft have kindly arranged for a Saga Holiday special for the old chap to Las Vegas if only he can get enough votes for his session which he has submitted to MIX11.

Go on, support a fellow developer and community stalwart, and vote for Rich here , It's all about how he has helped with a game for the Windows Phone 7 Market Place using Silverlight.

He'll thank you for it, probably bring some swag back for us all and you'll feel good about helping a veteran of the UK Community show the US how to do a great presentation!

Go for it Rich!

SilerlightShow ECO Contest 2011

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 16:22:00 GMT

Enter the Silverlight Show ECO Contest and you could bag yourself a Ticket to Mix11, including 3 nights accommodation and $800 flight expenses

Silverlight Show are running a Forests Eco Contest, and are trying to spark the creativity of all environment friendly Silverlight developers and designers. They invite you to create a Silverlight application that helps convey the idea of the need for sustainable forests management and will award the best entries with great prizes. The Grand Prize winner will receive a trip to MIX11 event, 12-14 April 2011, in Las Vegas! The trip includes a MIX11 pass, 3-night hotel stay at Mandalay Bay Hotel and travel expense coverage of up to $800! Two more MIX11 passes and many Telerik developer licenses await the winners!

More info on the rules and prizes you can find on the page of the contest: http://contest.silverlightshow.net/

Costall on 10 years of user Groups

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 09:36:00 GMT

Richard Costall has just realised he's been running user group meetings since June 2000. Here he reflects on the decade.

Read it here

Videos are back

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 14:41:00 GMT

After a Lengthy delay, due to the demise of SoapBox - The NxtGenUG Videos are back. Tag your NxtGenUG videos with NxtGenUG to have them appear on the site.

After a Length delay, due to the demise of SoapBox - The NxtGenUG Videos are back. Tag your NxtGenUG videos with NxtGenUG to have them appear on the site.

See the videos here

Silverlight 4 Star Wars Highlights

Sun, 02 Jan 2011 04:09:00 GMT

A short highlights compilation, from Richard Costall's Silverlight 4 Star Wars Session is now on YouTube...

A short highlights compilation, from Richard Costall's Silverlight 4 Star Wars Session is now on YouTube...

A chance to speak at a major SharePoint Conference ...

Sat, 11 Dec 2010 06:55:00 GMT

A great opportunity to get onto the SharePoint speaking circuit! Read on ...

Steve Smith one of the leaders of the SharePoint User Group UK (SUGUK)is offering up speaking slots for the Community Track to people who have perhaps only spoken at a User Group. These talks are 'from the trenches' types of talks and are expected to be based on personal knowledge and experience. They are a great opportunity to get onto the SharePoint speaking circuit.

Go to SUGUK for more details.

frantic, energy-fuelled, entrepreneurial weekend!

Thu, 14 Oct 2010 13:11:00 GMT

If you’re interested in web apps, the internet, business, and want to be involved in launching a brand new web app, register for Launch48.

frantic, energy-fuelled, entrepreneurial weekend!

Event type:Entrepreneur, web, techy

Date:Friday 12th – Sunday 14th November 2010

Time:Fri: 6pm – 10pm, Sat: 8:00am – 9:00pm, Sun: 8:00am – 9:00pm

Location:Faraday Wharf, Birmingham Science Park Aston.

Event description: Launch48 – be involved in creating and launching a web business in 48 hours!

Signup: http://birmingham.launch48.com/tickets/

What is offered:

If you’re interested in web apps, the internet, business, meeting new people, and want to be involved in launching a brand new web app, register for Launch48.

The aim of Launch48 is to bring together participants from different backgrounds and levels of experience in the web industry to think/plan/develop and launch one or multiple web apps in one weekend. That’s right, in 48 hours! It’s a frantic, energy fuelled, entrepreneurial event designed to engage all participants while offering the opportunity to learn and meet new people.

The aim of the event is to create a web app and anyone who is interested in learning or participating can attend. Typically launching a new business will require the following skills, so if you possess any of these skills please consider attending:

Management
Design
Development
Marketing/PR/Communications
Finance
Legal

For more information visit the website http://birmingham.launch48.com/

Mentors:

We have industry leading mentors to help guide the teams throughout the weekend.

Registration - To book a ticket please go to http://birmingham.launch48.com/tickets/

Act now if you are interested whilst places are still available!
Not sure about the event and want to see what happened at the March event – check out the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLwNqLV8vG4

DDD - Windows Phone 7

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 16:46:00 GMT

If you want to learn about the new Windows Phone 7 - don't miss DDD - Windows Phone 7 - a free event in Manchester!

This event is all about Windows Phone 7. One day of demo-rich presentations where you can learn about developing Silverlight and XNA apps for Windows Phone. Come along and get ready to share in the excitement of the launch of this brand new phone platform.

We’ll have a keynote from a Microsoft UK speaker, and then the rest of the day you’ll hear from speakers and MVPs from Appa Mundi and the .NET developer community including some of the top-rated speakers from Tech Ed! We will have some of the Microsoft UK Developer Team on hand to help out and chat to attendees.

We’re also holding a XAPathon! If you have already been working with the Windows Phone 7 developer tools but haven’t been able to run it on a real phone yet, compile it with the RTM dev tools and bring along your XAP and we’ll be providing some real phones you can try it out on.

So please register for the day, come along to talk and learn about Windows Phone 7 development. We’ll have great talks and of course, we’ll be giving away SWAG – including at least one very special platinum uber-prize! Guess what it is??? Could be...!

The day is put together by the community for the community, in other words, you. Microsoft UK very kindly providing the venue and logistic support.

Special Tech Days Event with Steve Ballmer!!!

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 08:25:00 GMT

Special UK Tech Days Event with Steve Ballmer - special User Group Registration code available!

As a NxtGenUG paid up member, we wanted to give you a heads up before the public announcement Microsoft are are running a Tech Days event on 5 October with their biggest VIP, CEO, Steve Ballmer!

It should be a great day and follow on from Tech Days for those that want to catch up on IE9, Azure, Phone and Windows developer “stuff” (to use a MikeT-ism). There will be some repetition in content but will be a great refresh for those that attended some of the sessions and for those that couldn’t attend a Tech Days event in April. And having the opportunity to hear from SteveB and maybe even ask a question should make it a cracking day.

Contact Dave for more details on dave at nxtgenug.net

Win a FREE Ticket to DevCon London

Thu, 02 Sep 2010 16:10:00 GMT

10 lucky NxtGen-ers can win a FREE ticket to DevCon London - worth over £500!!

DevCon London is a brand new conference which will provide an exciting forum for software developers, project managers and architects to learn about the latest Technology, Architecture and Agile Methodologies. Its roots lie in Germany, where since the late nineties the BASTA! conference has become one of Europe's leading resources for .NET experts, enabling them to delve into technical knowledge that facilitates their success.

DevCon London puts a special focus on sessions and workshops, to provide delegates with hands-on experience: useful programming tips, insights into new technologies, and the invaluable experience of networking and sharing ideas with other experts. DevCon London sets out to inspire attendees.

Yes, and as a fully paid up member of NxtGenUG you can have the chance of winning this free offer simply by clicking the following link and sending the subsequent email generated : freedevcontickets@nxtgenug.net.

We will pick the 10 winners from an electronic 'hat' and inform them by no later than midnight Friday 11th September.

Remember, you only have to be a fully paid up member of NxtGenUG and click the above email link. Simple!!

SQLBITS 7 - NxtGenUG Members can get a 20% Discount!

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:22:00 GMT

NxtGenUG paid up members qualify for a 20% discount for SQLBITS 7. Contact Dave for details!

NxtGenUG paid up members qualify for a 20% discount for SQLBITS 7. Contact Dave for details.

SQLBits - The 7 Wonders of SQL

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 11:02:00 GMT

SQLBits - The 7 Wonders of SQL conference, which will be taking place from September 30th to October 2nd at York University

SQLBits - The 7 Wonders of SQL conference, which will be taking place from September 30th to October 2nd at York University. SQLBits is the largest SQL Server conference in Europe and the previous six conferences have established it as a must-attend event for DBAs, developers and BI professionals who work with Microsoft SQL Server in the UK and Europe. This is the biggest event ever with capacity for over 500 SQL Server professionals. You can Register Here.