Topic:  Exploring Intranet/Extranet Programming with ASP.NET 
Speaker:  Vikram Jairam

Topic:  Learn to program ASP.NET web controls

This seminar will provide the participant with the tools and knowledge they need to build powerful User Controls and Server Controls. The presentation will quickly cover the basics and then move on to more advanced topics. 

Speaker:  Matt Milner from Born 

Matt Milner is a technical architect for BORN specializing in Microsoft technologies. For the past two years Matt has been using .Net to build enterprise web applications for customers in the Twin Cities area and spending most of his free time educating others about .Net through articles and books. Matt was a co-author on "Professional ASP.Net Server Controls" from Wrox Press and has created several production server controls for his clients. 
 

Topic:  Understanding XML Web Services with .NET

This presentation refocuses on the core issues by asking simple questions and exploring the not-so simple answers: What problems do Web services solve? Where do Web services fit in an n-tier architecture? How do I choose between Web services and .NET remoting? What is the current state of Web technology including tools and specifications? What are the issues driving the future of Web services? 

Speaker:  Tom Barnaby from Intertech, Inc. 

Tom Barnaby is an instructor and software architect at Intertech, Inc, an Enterprise Developer training firm. Mr. Barnaby is the author of Distributed .NET Programming in C# and Distributed .NET Programming in VB.NET for Apress and a co-author of Professional Visual Basic 6.0 Web Programming with Wrox press. He has authored a series of workshops with Intertech including Complete VB .NET and Expert Distributed .NET, and is a co-author of Intertech's 60-hour immersion workshop: Extreme .NET. Tom is a Microsoft Certified Professional, Master of Technical Training (MTT), and graduated with honors from Michigan Technological University, Bachelor of Computer Science.

Topic:  XML Programming with .NET  

Speaker:  Mike Amundsen (Author of ASP.NET For Developers) 

Mike Amundsen is an internationally known author and lecturer. He travels throughout the United States and Europe speaking and teaching on a wide range of topics including .NET, the Internet, team development & leadership, and other subjects. He has more than a dozen books to his credit. His most popular titles are ASP.NET for Developers, Teach Yourself Database Programming with Visual Basic in 21 Days, 3rd Ed., and Using Visual InterDev.

Topic:  Performance Tuning ASP.NET Applications

This seminar discusses various caching mechanisms and conduct a series of performance tests to discuss best practices. After discussing caching mechanisms, we will start discussion on best practices related with session management. A good discussion on cache and session can’t be completed without delving into a discussion on view state. We will wrap this seminar by showing various issues related with view state and how to best use it to our advantage 

Speaker:  Farhan Muhammad from ILM

Farhan is the Chief Architect at ILM Professional Services. He is a technology enthusiast, and is an evangelist for the .NET technology since its inception. He leads the Twin Cities .NET User Group, a 400 member strong community focusing on sharing .NET knowledge among its members. He sits in the board of directors for International .NET Association (INETA) where he is responsible for developing strategies for supporting .NET focused communities at every corner of the world. He also leads INETA’s Speakers Bureau, a very successful program that connects user groups through US with top notch .NET experts. Farhan hosts Executive .NET seminar on regular basis where executives are educated on the short and long term impact of the .NET technology on their businesses.

 Topic:  Introduction to the Compact Framework (.NET framework for small devices)  

This seminar will serve as an Introduction to the .Net Compact Framework. This presentation will introduce you to the .Net Compact Framework, the tools and capabilities of the Compact Framework 

Speaker:  Mohammad Faridi and Umer Faruq  

Mohammad Faridi is a highly experienced senior architect/developer. He has held several leadership positions during his career with the responsibility of guiding his project teams to success. Currently he leads Faridianslip, Inc., a Consulting and Training firm. He has been working with Microsoft .NET exclusively since July 2001 and is currently involved in the development of a several projects using .NET. Mohammad has presented at the Twin Cities .NET user group as well as co-developed and co-led .NET training seminars.Mohammad can be reached at Umer Faruq from 3D Business Solutions has been working with the .NET technology since the first beta release of the .NET framework in early 2001. He has architected/developed several web applications as well as middle-ware systems in .NET. He participated in a team that won 2nd prize during a nation wide web services competition and has presented at the Web Builder conference in New Orleans in the past. 
 

Topic:  Effectively Building a Data Access Layer (DAL) 

This session focuses on the strategies and tools used in building an effective data access layer quickly and painlessly. Various data access methods will be compared with respect to performance, scalability, and maintainability. A new generation of tools will be examined which make coding, documenting, and testing the data access layer a much more rapid and deterministic process 

Speaker:  Nick Nystrom from ILM 

Nick Nystrom is a Senior Consultant with ILM Professional Services. He has been involved with .NET since the first public beta and has led R&D and prototyping efforts in addition to the development of systems currently in production use at a Fortune 100 company

Topic:  Handling Data Using Custom Collections (Throw away that DataSet!)

Once you've decided to adopt an object oriented approach to coding in .NET, you undoubtedly have run into the need to create collections of classes. During this seminar we will review best practices for creating these collections. The session will include discussion on different collection class types, sorting information contained in collections, searching for elements that reside in a collection, iterating through collections and binding controls to collections. It's everything you'll need to get collections working in your applications 

Speaker:  Reid Gorder 

Reid Gorder is a software development consultant in the Twin Cities area. In recent years, Reid has focused his technical studies on OOAD using Microsoft.NET. He has implemented several successful projects by utilizing the rapid development capabilities of .NET and the Rational Unified Process. When not busy being a computer geek Reid enjoys music production, the outdoors and relaxing with his new wife Alyssa. 
 

Topic:  Putting Web Services Into Context: A .NET Enterprise Services Example 

Web services tool vendors frequently market how quickly their users can generate a Web service from scratch or expose a .NET Serviced Component as a Web service. While speed of development is important, the broader business needs of an enterprise must be the main driver of new technology adoption Blindly applying new technology ultimately results in poorly conceived software. These applications are just as difficult to maintain as existing applications, only running on yet another technical infrastructure. To take advantage of the promise of Web services, companies must be able to view their existing software development assets (SDAs), including .Net components and .NET-based applications, within the context of the enterprise s strategic business processes. Knowing what assets exist and where they are located is only part of the equation. Understanding how each asset fits into the corporate business landscape (i.e., a model-based approach) is the key to efficient development. 

Speaker:  Brent Carlson. Logic Library (Guest speaker from Rochester) 

Topic:  Building Secure Web Applications With ASP.NET 

Speaker:  Doug Seven of DotNetJunkies.com (Guest Speaker provided by INETA )  

Doug Seven is a world renown .NET expert and speaker. He is a member of INETA's Prestigious speakers bureau, and he is travelling to Minneapolis to teach us how to create secure web applications using ASP.NET. Doug Seven has co-authored five books related to the .NET Framework: Programming Data-Driven Web Applications with ASP.NET (Sams), ASP.NET: Tips, Tutorials & Code (Sams), Professional ADO.NET (Wrox), Developing Custom Controls for ASP.NET (Sams), and ASP.NET Security (Wrox).

Topic:  Amazon.com Web Service - Case Study  

Amazon.com Web Services (AWS) is one of the Internet's most popular Web services programs, opening Amazon's powerful commerce platform to innovative developers far and wide. Learn why Amazon.com chose Web services to help drive innovations based on its platform, as well as offer insight on critical decisions and mistakes made during the implementation of AWS 

Speaker:  Jeff Barr from Amazon.com. (Guest Speaker from Seattle) 

Jeff Barr is a lead architect with Amazon.com. He is leading a team that built and continues to enhance XML Web Services for Amazon.com. He is travelling from Seattle to show us their architecture and teach us best practices. This is an incredible opportunity for all of us to learn about Web Services from the creators of real world and large scale web services.