Microsoft hosts tons of events across the country that you can go
to and learn about what's new and exciting in the world of Microsoft.
Some of these cost money, but a lot of them are free as long as you
register in advance. I hadn't been to one in a while and,
looking for an excuse to get out of the office, I decided to
go check out Microsoft's take on "Moving to Microsoft ASP.NET (Level 200)".
Now This is a Small Group
I never have a clue what to expect when I go to these things... the
last MS event I went to was the VS.NET Launch.
At that one, I expected a couple hundred people and walked into a room of over 2,000.
I knew that was different, but I still expected 75-100 people to show up for this.
Wrong again... there were just under 20 of us!
Level 200? What's that mean?
The title included the term Level 200. I have no idea what that
means, but I figured going in that I'd be a little bit ahead of the
curve. I based this assumption on the fact that while I haven't done
tons of migrations, I have done a couple and I've actually presented on
the topic (Migrating to ASP.NET)
so I figured I wouldn't really hear anything new.
Come to find out 200 means about what you'd think 100 does. There was
some good stuff, but for the most part it was all pretty basic and, as I
expected, it was stuff I had mostly heard before.
Conclusions
While the presentation was well done, if you've downloaded the
SDK or played with ASP.NET for more then a day or two, it's probably going
to be mainly review for you. You can probably pick up the same info for
less effort by skimming through the slides from my Migrating to ASP.NET
speech, the Moving to ASP.NET slides, and the couple articles from MSDN listed below.
On the other hand, if you haven't yet started looking at ASP.NET and
want to get an idea where to start, this may not be a bad event for you.
It was a small group, didn't require much background (basic web
building concepts and a passing understanding of classic ASP), and the
presenter was extremely willing to answer
questions and cover topics that the audience requested.
Short answer: great for .NET newbies... experienced developers or
anyone who has already seen .NET in acton should probably pass.
For anyone who cares, the next event I'm planning on hitting is the
"ASP.NET Tips and Tricks (Level 300)" event code:109578786.
Maybe I'll see you there!
