Working with Microsoft MVP, Jeff Schoolcraft, we have organized a wonderful developer learning event on Saturday, March 29th at Strayer University in Woodbridge, Va.

CodeCamp SOUTH

Speakers include:

• Brian Noyes, Microsoft MVP
• Jonathan Cogley, Microsoft MVP
• Sahil Malik, Microsoft MVP
• Frank LaVigne, Microsoft MVP
• Antonio Chagoury, DotNetNuke Team Lead

and many more.

Topics to be covered include a host of new technologies along with some introductory courses. Here is a sample (you can see the rest at the NovaCodeCamp site).

• Visual Studio 2008
• SQL Server 2008
• SharePoint 2007
• DotNetNuke Module Development
• Office 2007 Development
• Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) Development
• Ajax
• Silverlight

For you developers, this is a golden opportunity to see presentations that would typically be presented at high priced conferences like Microsoft TechEd and VSLive. And it is FREE. However, registration is limited to the first 100 that sing up - so make your reservation today!

First, let me congratulate our fearless leader, Scott Lock on being selected as a Microsoft MVP. This is a wonderful accomplish and it is about time Microsoft got around to recognizing all the people who organize events and connect developers together. Scott's recognition is long overdue. He's not only a technologist, but a community leader.

On most nights there is a user group somewhere in the Washington DC metro area with someone presenting technical content that would typically cost significant monies in travel, lodging, and registration fees to see the same content at a conference or training scenario. Without a doubt, the CAPAREA user group has had a stellar list of presenters and topics. Without people like Scott, who work tirelessly to make these presentations happen - and for no compensation - the developer community would not have access to these wonderful resources. Thanks Scott - and kudos for a job well done.

Scott is giving a presentation tonight at the Capital Area .NET User Group (CAPAREA) on VSTO - Automation and Customizing Excel 2003.

Here's the summary:

Tuesday, July 24, 2007 at 7:00 PM

Building office applications has never been better.  You've heard all of the hype about Office 2007, Ribbons, etc.  This session is based on what the majority of us are in today...Office 2003.  Customizing and automating Excel 2003 is a great way to build dynamic workbooks that solve some cool problems.  This presentation is an overview of what Visual Studio Tools for office is about and how it applies to Excel 2003 and Office 2003.