My Week in Evangelism – SoCalDevGal gets around

I am often asked, “Just what does an evangelist do?”.  In answer to this question, I thought I’d describe my activities for last week. 

Monday/Tuesday

I attended and spoke at Agile Open SoCal at UCI.  I spoke on tools for remote pair programming and participated in a coding dojo (in Java!).  This is an annual unConference, held in OpenSpace style.  Proceeding are recorded on a wiki.  I really like Open Space conferences, because they consist of people who are interested talking about topics they are interested in and being listened to by people who are interested in those topics.  It seems hokey, but this format really works – also @DianaOfPortland is an incredible facilitator, and that MATTERS in this type of conference.

My favorite session from Monday was ‘Napkin Drawings’ and from Tuesday it was ‘Best Ways to Teach Agile and Lean’.  I am learning more and more about Agile software development (check out Llewellyn’s Agile ‘Thoughts-of-the-Day’) and there’s lots here to benefit my .NET developer friends (who are mostly NOT at these types of events).  Microsoft is sponsoring Agile Open NorCal on Oct 11 – 12, check it out here.  Also, if you are interested in learning more about Agile practices, such as TDD, pair programming and more, then I encourage join to visit the local UGs for Agile – they meet monthly, in the OC – here; in San Diego – here.   

Wednesday

I attended the 140con birthday bash for Twitter social media leader and 140con conference founder, @Jeff Pulver.  With around 370,000 followers on Twitter, Jeff Pulver is a leader in the social media world.  He’s from NYC, but travels the world organizing 140cons.  The next one in Los Angeles will be on Oct 4 – 5, day 1 schedule – here.  Jeff has worked in many areas, including programming and now believes that Twitter is changing the world.  Attend one of his global 140cons to find out why.

Thursday

I spoke at the SharePoint Intelligence conference in Anaheim on SharePoint Business Connectivity Services (my deck is here) for developers.  SharePoint Developers are IN DEMAND.  It’s been interesting to see how the technical employment agencies are pairing with or even hosting, SPS Dev UGs – there are now 4 of these in SoCal – more info here.  Technical training company, QuickStart has been hosting this conference for 4 years in SoCal and they had record-breaking attendance this year again. Also they are hosting in NorCal on Nov 5, register here.

I spoke at the SQL LA User Group at UCLA on SQL Azure (my deck is here).  Yes two talks in one day!  This UG hosts mostly DBAs and it’s quite fun for me to talk with them about Cloud Databases.  They meet every OTHER month and are one of the few DBA UGs in SoCal.  If you are a DBA – this is your tribe!

Friday

I prepared sessions for TechEd Africa (to be delivered Oct 17-20 in Durban, South Africa).  Check out the featured speakers – it should be a great conference!  I am scheduled to deliver at least 4 sessions (on SQL Server, SQL Azure and Windows 7 for Developers), all sessions will be recorded and posted on Virtual Tech Ed after the conference, so I’ll share the links here after those sessions are posted.

Saturday

I spoke at the first-ever SQL Saturday event in San Diego on SQL Azure, my deck is linked above.  This is a national event series for SQL Server professionals and by SQL Server professionals.  Great technical information – stuff like, ‘Profiler Traces in Detail’, ‘How to Analyze Query Execution Plans’, etc… Fun!

Sunday

Write trip reports, do paperwork, answer customer email, etc…and prepare to leave for AFRICA.  I leave next week for my annual, personal volunteering trip to Lusaka, Zambia.  While there I’ll be working side-by-side with the local developer team on the SmartCare Electronic Medical Records project.  I’ll be back in November!  Until then, happy coding.