(from their press release)

DevReach 2006 debuts in Bulgaria

The conference is the first of its kind to be held on the Balkans, focused on the latest trends in building software applications with Microsoft development tools.

SOFIA, Bulgaria – September 04, 2006 – National Academy for Software Development – a private education center, specializing in professional training of software engineers, and Telerik Corporation – a leading vendor of UI and data components for ASP.NET, announced today the DevReach conference to be hosted in Bulgaria with the sponsorship of Microsoft Corporation.

DevReach conference is the first of its kind to be held on the Balkans, focused on the latest trends in building software applications with Microsoft development tools.

Over two days, more than 500 attendees will meet 12 world famous lecturers, engaged all year round in such events as TechEd, VSLive!, Microsoft DevDays showcasing their latest knowledge in creating more reliable, scalable and secure solutions using Microsoft technologies in more than 20 technical sessions.

DevReach will be held at the International Exhibition Center on October 9-10 in Sofia, Bulgaria. The conference is hosted by National Academy for Software Development and sponsored by Telerik Corporation and Microsoft Corporation.

DevReach is the premier development event on the Balkans, featuring in-depth exposure to the latest Microsoft development technologies and a chance to interact with other members of the developer community.

Teodor Milev, managing director of Microsoft Bulgaria is scheduled to deliver a keynote presentation unveiling the latest Microsoft platform innovations for developers.

Keynote highlights also some industry-recognized innovators, including Plamen Vatchkov, chairman of the State Agency of Information Technologies and Communications, Nikolay Vassilev, minister of Public Administration and Administrative Reform, and others.

Developers at DevReach can benefit from sessions arranged in 3 parallel tracks that present vital information on important topics such as best techniques for accessing data with SQL Server and ADO.NET, writing high performance and extensible ASP.NET sites, writing secure and efficient .NET applications in integration with 2007 Office System and SharePoint.

As a part of the event attendees have the unique chance to participate in technology “Question & Answer” forums and network with more than 10 world known gurus in software development with Microsoft tools.

The target of the event is to become a place for passionate Microsoft developers from Eastern Europe to get in touch with the latest trends and to become a significant part of the global community.

Huge congrats to Charles on another important Windows programming classic-to-be: Applications = Code + Markup: A Guide to the Microsoft Windows Presentation Foundation

Karsten J (who knows WPF well enough to be a great judge of the book’s worthiness) has high praise for the book: “The book is pedagogically brilliant”.

I especially love that he says:  “It actually does read like a novel to me, with a narrative arch as it negotiates its methodical way through the WPF jungle of APIs.” This is what makes Charles’ books such awesome reading. He’s very literate and a great story teller. So even when writing about technical stuff, it’s so palatable. Who else would so naturally insert analogies to Greek mythology or the affairs of 18th century French courtisans into explanations of software development?

I am so currently mired in VS2005 stuff that my inability to dive into WPF, Vista, WCF, ADO.NET v.next, etc. is a constant challenge to my attempts to keeping some balance in  my life. Perhaps when I finish my current bedside reading, I’ll just have to break my golden rule again, and stick this on the nightstand!

Okay all my Seattleite pals: Alison Bechdel, author of Dykes to Watch Out For, who has been rocketed to wider fame beyond her popular strip by her new book Fun Home, will be at Bumbershoot tomorrow night (Monday). She won’t arrive in Seattle loaded down with maple syrup and Vermont Coffee Company coffee like I usually am when I come to Microsoft (she’ll be happy if her necessary liquids arrive), she’s slinging a lot more interesting stuff than code!

Monday, 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm @ Alki Room

Alison lives nearby, so I love watching what she’s up to and making sure nobody’s missing out on her! I know Fun Home has been making the rounds here in Huntington!

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

This is another thing I’ve been meaning to get up on a rooftop and shout for joy about! Sasha Krsmanovic, who for years has been a star in the MSDN Canada office as the MSDN Project Manager, was not a Microsoft employee but what we call a “v-dash” (vendor with a very close relationship).

Recently, Sasha became a full-fledged Microsoft employee as he stepped into the role of MVP Lead for Canada which is an awesome position for him, and continued great fortune for developers (and now other geeks) in Canada.

We finally prodded him to blog about it so that there was something to link to!

I’m still in denial but can’t put off blogging about this any longer. The  .NET developers and user group leaders in New England have long known that we have been extraodinarily fortunate to have a true mover and shaker as our Microsoft Developer Evangelist. Thom Robbins has constantly pushed the envelope with respect to Microsoft providing amazing resources to the developer community. He has also made himself very available to developers. Personally, Thom has pushed and encouraged me relentlessly over the years and there is only one time I dared say “no” to him! 🙂

We knew the day would come when Redmond could no longer put off bringing him closer into the fold.

He is off to Redmond to continue to spread the word about .NET, but in a much bigger way, as the Director of .NET Platform Marketing.

It’s going to be pretty tough to fill his shoes in Waltham, and prospects be warned, I have told Thom that whoever it is will have to get my stamp of approval before they can be hired. Heh heh.

I am not going to say that I’ll miss Thom, because I expect to continue to work with him regardless of east coast or west coast living. The only difference is that I probably won’t be able to ask him to cruise up to Vermont to present at Vermont.NET or VTSDA again. He amazed me with his willingness to drive the 3+ hours each way in one day – something I have not been willing to do as he well knows now: I hate road trips.. Of course, what takes me 3 1/2 hours might only be 2 for him!

Congratulations to Jim Smith and EQ2 for their recent award of Microsoft Gold Certified Partner! EQ2 creates solutions for the health care field. Health care software is big business in Vermont. Thanks to IDX (now G.E. Healthcare), a lot of talented people have spun up related businesses here.

There are now five Gold Partners in our tiny little state Vermont.

1. EQ2
2. Competitive Computing
3. SynEcology
4. SymQuest
5. Network Perfomance

I was hoping to do an impressive per capita comparison, but after looking at Mass, Washington and New York, I think I better wait a few more years. But we are growing!

Geeze, it only took them about 30 years to figure that out! 🙂

Still catching up from being on vacation, I saw that Jason is going to work for Microsoft. Great going, Jason!!

Hip hip hooray! Roman Rehak has been awarded an MVP for SQL Server. Roman co-leads the Vermont SQL Server User group (with Laura Blood) and has been track chair for SQL PASS and the DevTeach SQL Track for a number of years.

As far as I know, there are now four six MVPs in Vermont. Zoe Hart has also been one for a while and she works at the same company as Roman in Burlington. Anne Stanton is on the NH/VT border and runs a small business server group and is a total CRM guru. Also, Kate Chase (a renowned author and Office MVP) and Steve Hebert who is an I.E. MVP live in Vermont.

[Roman was smart enough to find a search by state feature and there are 6, count ’em, six, MVPs in our little state. Vermont always has the “highest per capita” rankings because of our small population of app. 625,000, so I wonder if 1:100,000 is it? 🙂 ]

It’s been a long time coming and through a variety of teams, proposals from outside companies, budgets, and plans -with one roadblock after another preventing it from coming to fruition over the past few years, but INETA NORAM (North America) is finally getting a new website and, according to the current site , is going to be launched soon.

Congrats and muchos gracias to all of the volunteers who have worked hard on this.