The Leading Edge: .NET 3.0, .NET 3.5 & Visual Studio 2008
1-1	.NET Developer Technology Road Map - Part 1	Tim Landgrave
1-2	.NET Developer Technology Road Map - Part 2	Tim Landgrave
1-3	An Overview of LINQ	Dave Bost
1-4	Silverlight: Why you want it on every web page	Chad Campbell
1-5	Building WPF Apps w/ VS 2008 & Expression Blend	Dave Bost

 

 

.NET Developer Technology Road Map
Presented By Tim Landgrave
Although Visual Studio and the .NET Framework both provide tools that yield an overall increase in productivity during the development cycle, most solution architects and application developers feel like they’re “drinking from a fire hose” just to keep up with all of the new technologies built on this foundation.  This seminar is designed to lead you through a tour of the Microsoft development technologies available today, tomorrow, and into the foreseeable future and to give you the information you need to make educated decisions about which technologies you should be investing in for your organization.  Developers, architects, and technical leads will gain some perspective on the Microsoft road map, the applicability of each technology and the choices and the trade–offs involved in implementing them.
Topic Areas will include:
•         Language and platform trends for .NET 2.0, .NET 3.0 and beyond
•         Designing the data access layer with ADO.NET 2.0, ADO.NET vNext, LINQ
•         Approaches in Windows development with Windows Forms, ClickOnce, and WPF
•         Essentials for ASP.NET web development and the relevance of AJAX and Silverlight
•         Communication stacks like Remoting, Enterprise Services, ASMX and their future applicability towards WCF
•         Approaches in workflow and Business Process Management (BPM), choosing between WF, SharePoint or BizTalk Server
•         Directions in development tools: from Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio Team System to Visual Studio 2008 and the Expression designer tools.

An Overview of LINQ
Presented By Dave Bost

Language-Integrated Query (LINQ) is a set of features in Visual Studio 2008 that extends powerful query capabilities into the language syntax of C# and Visual Basic. LINQ introduces standard, easily-learned patterns for querying and updating data, and can be extended to support potentially any type of data store.  In this session, you’ll learn the architecture of LINQ and the C# and Visual Basic extensions for writing queries within the development tool you’re already comfortable with. We’ll answer questions such as: What is LINQ and how does it work? How do I use LINQ to connect to multiple types of data, including SQL and XML? Why should I use LINQ? Following this session, you’ll leave with a solid understanding of how LINQ gives you the power to query anything.

 

Find out how to Light Up the Web with Microsoft's new offering for designing, developing, and delivering rich interactive applications over the internet.  This session will provide a fast-paced overview of Silverlight and then dive deeply into the seamless integration with ASP.NET.  This demo-rich session will feature a number of illuminating examples that will show you how Silverlight can help you expand beyond the traditional web application.  Come with your questions, leave with the answers.

Building WPF Apps with VS 2008 & Expression Blend
Presented By Dave Bost
Come and learn how to build Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) applications with the help of the new WPF designer in Visual Studio 2008. This session focuses on the construction of a real-world application demonstrating how to get the best out of the tools and process for building WPF-based applications. Learn the basics of building WPF applications in the Visual Studio 2008 WPF designer; have a clear view on when you’ll want to work in XAML Code and on the Visual Studio design surface to get your WPF application built; and see how you can use Microsoft Expression Blend in conjunction with the Visual Studio 2008 WPF designer.