Where do you get your “In Person” fix?

My team is in the midst of our planning cycle right now and a question came up that has us scratching our heads. “What conferences or face to face activities do developers and architects in Canada attend in order to get training and keep up to date on what’s out there?” Times have changed – there used to be a lot of conferences and activities years ago – but what about now? Oh – I am also talking about ones NOT PUT ON BY MICROSOFT. We’re trying to think outside of the box here. Drop me an email (jonathan.rozenblit@microsoft.com), tweet me a reply (@jrozenblit), chime in on Twtsurvey or LinkedIn or comment below!

There’s the big conferences such as TechDays and Prairie Dev Con, or alternatively, your company might have internal lunch and learns and team knowledge building activities, but there has to be more out there .

This is part of a larger conversation that we’ve had together. You’ve heard me talk about investing in yourself and your skills – external training /info sessions/partner events are one avenue to stretch that training budget. It still takes a withdrawal on your personal time budget. Going out and participating in community driven technology meetups/user groups/professional associations also take a tax on your personal time, but it’s a necessary evil.

Do you take the time to make this type of investment? If so – where do you go? I ask once again: “What conferences or face to face activities do developers and architects in Canada attend in order to get training and keep up to date on what’s out there?” Drop me an email (jonathan.rozenblit@microsoft.com), tweet me a reply (@jrozenblit), chime in on Twtsurvey or LinkedIn, or comment below!

I’ll make sure to post the replies back to share with all of you.