Orlando .NET Code Camp 2013

With over 750 registered attendees, 12 tracks and 7 time slots, there were many choices on what topics to attend at the Orlando .NET Code Camp (http://www.orlandocodecamp.com) on March 16, 2013.

Many of the speakers...thank goodness...made their presentations and materials available online after the fact, so I could review those I was unable to attend.

The ONETUG (Orlando .NET User Group, http://www.onetug.org/Home.aspx) did an excellent large-crowd-management job and they were actually able to organize all the talks in one building. 

The hardest part of the code camp was selecting which sessions to attend; I chose the following:

• Introduction to Azure Web Sites, Randy Patterson
• Build a REST API in 5 minutes with ServiceStack, John Sonmez
• NuGet – What is it and why should you use it?  Colin Blakey
• Persistence in The Cloud: How to use Azure Storage, David Giard
• Exposing Cloud Data Through Services, Stan Schultes
• Create your First Virtual Machine in Azure, Jason Milgram
• Early Stage Funding and Your Startup Business, Sara Hand

John Sonmez (http://www.simpleprogrammer.com) talked about REST with ServiceStack (http://www.servicestack.net).  Having done WCF in the past, I believe ServiceStack could be a viable alternative to simplify implementation and maintenance.  True to his word, John was able to get a demo application running in ServiceStack in 5 minutes (good thing because there were technical issues that cut into the session’s time!).

Colin Blakely (http://zeffron.wordpress.com) discussed NuGet (http://nuget.org).  NuGet is a Visual Studio extension that makes it easy to install and update third-party libraries and tools in Visual Studio.  NuGet package updating becomes straightforward, ensuring all dependencies are updated appropriately if needed.

Both the cloud and Azure are increasingly more popular at developer public events.  With nearly everyone either in the cloud or moving to the cloud, gaining knowledge is imperative.  This year's dedicated track on Azure provided me the opporuntiy to attend a number of related sessions. 

Many attendees are trying to determine what they can and cannot do in Azure; there are more questions than answers.  From simple web sites, data storage considerations and building virtual machines, Azure has everyone's business needs covered.

A big thanks to all the volunteers, speakers and sponsors for making the Orlando .NET Code Camp 2013 a success!