To TechDays 2012 and Beyond

Many of you have been with us since TechDays kicked off in Canada in the fall of 2008.  We’ve been fortunate to have you as a guest or a presenter in the past - many of you several times over.  For those of you that haven’t been a part of TechDays, it was Microsoft Canada’s fall technical readiness conference providing technical professionals (developers and IT professionals) in various regions across Canada with the opportunity to gain technical knowledge of and grow their skills on the Microsoft platform.

From the great feedback we’ve received from you and your community leads, we saw two common requests: reach every region in Canada and do more hands-on training. With your feedback in mind, this year, we’ll be taking a different approach to do just that. Rather than a single conference, we’ll be coming to you with the technical content and hands-on training you’ve asked for through various Microsoft-led, partner-led, and community-led events and activities. 

Moving forward, you’ll be able to take part in more in-person events than previous years and all brought to you by the same team that has delivered Microsoft Canada TechDays.  The in –person events will be available in various learning formats including workshops, camps, hackathons and others, allowing you to gain those skills by learning and then applying through hands-on activities.  In fact, if you attended an IT Camp, a Windows Phone Workshop, a Windows Azure DevCamp, or a Windows 8 Hackathon, you’ve already experienced some of what is coming your way. By partnering with the broader technical community, user groups, and other organizations, we’re able to connect with you in more cities more frequently than was possible with a once-a-year large-scale conference.

If you prefer to learn online, you’ll see those in-person  and hands-on events  being offered online, giving you the same experience virtually - tune in, learn, ask questions, apply with hands-on activities, and interact with us LIVE, as if you were right there in the room. If you won’t be able to make it to a desired event, many, if not all, of the virtual events will be available on-demand helping to ensure that you don’t miss a thing.  

With the combination of in-person and online events and activities to choose from, you get to pick where, when, and how you learn.While we’re still finalizing the details of some of the events and activities, here are a few that you can already register for and plan to attend:

IT Professional

Windows Server 2012 Launch Tour

Toronto – September 5^th

Vancouver – September 12^th

Edmonton – September 20^th

Ottawa – September 27^th

Montreal – October 3^rd

Windows Server 2012 IT Camps

·         October/November

o   Toronto

o   Vancouver

o   Montreal

o   Ottawa

o   Edmonton

o   Calgary

o Winnipeg

o Waterloo

o Saskatoon

o Halifax or Fredericton

o St. John’s, Newfoundland

AlignIT Manager Tech Talk video series (for Infrastructure and Development Managers)

·         September 13^th

·         October 11^th

·         November 8^th

·         December 13^th

·         January 10^th

·         and more planned in February, March, April, May and June.

OR

Developer

Windows Azure DevCamps and Windows Azure Online Workshops

• Windows Azure DevCamp Mississauga– September 10^th, 2012
• Windows Azure Virtual DevCamp – September 10^th, 2012
• Windows Azure DevCamp  Toronto – September 15^th, 2012
• Windows Azure Virtual DevCamp – October 3^rd, 2012
• Windows Azure Online Workshop - Cloud Variations – October 15^th, 2012
• Windows Azure Online Workshop - Building Connected Applications with Windows Azure – October 22^nd, 2012
• Windows Azure Online Workshop - Migrating Applications to Windows Azure – October 29^th, 2012

App Building With Windows 8

·         Ottawa – September 8^th

·         With more events to be confirmed for October

App Building With Windows Phone

·         Events in multiple cities to be confirmed for October

24 and 48 Hour Hackathons for Students

·         November – Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver

·         Dates to be confirmed and posted to the GoDevmental Blog

Visual Studio 2012 Launch and ALM

·         Virtual Launch – September 12

·         Consumer Software Challenge tour – October (registration available September 13)

·         .NET Rocks! Visual Studio 2012 Launch Road Trip -  Vancouver Sep 19, Toronto Oct 13

Next Steps

If you aren’t already, get connected with us. We’ll make sure that you know what’s happening when and where.

·         Subscribe to the TechNet eNews Newsletter to receive news, featured articles from community members, and listings of upcoming events and activities every two weeks in your inbox.

·         Subscribe to the Canadian IT Pro Connection blog via RSS or check back often to see what’s going on in the world of Windows Server, System Center, and others.

·         Join the Canadian IT Professional Connection group on LinkedIn to share stories, ideas, ask questions, network, and learn from fellow Canadian IT professionals.

Thank you for all the support you’ve given TechDays over the past four years. We look forward to seeing you at conferences, camps, hackathons, workshops, etc. across the country and/or online – all brought to you by the same team that has delivered Microsoft TechDays Canada!

By the way, if you have or know of any local conferences or user groups you’d like us to be a part of, let us know! We’d be happy to evaluate the opportunity to participate. Email us at td_can@microsoft.com.