thatConference is your “Summer Camp for Geeks”. Held at the Kalahari Resort in the beautiful Wisconsin Dells, it’s your last chance to get away before summer slips away. Spend three days with a thousand of your fellow campers, geeking out on everything Cloud, Web and Mobile.

Your camp counselors are the best survivalists in the industry, and will make sure you leave with the skills you need. With over 125 sessions to choose from, your head may overheat, so cool off in one of the many nearby pools. Unlike your usual technology conference, you will be camping at the best waterpark in the region. Not happy with all the content we crammed under the tent? Feel free to join our open spaces and tailor your conference experience.

UPDATE: We’ve added another Boot Camp to take place in Chicago on November 18th! Register at http://aka.ms/wpchicago.

Last year, my team ran a series of boot camps to introduce the ins-and-outs of developing Windows Phone applications to the masses. In honor of the upcoming release of Windows Phone 7.5, I’m happy to announce a new round of events taking place to lay down the new development features in Windows Phone 7.5. These boot camps are a free, full-day learning environment to help you become a Rock Star developer on Windows Phone.

We kick this round of boot camps off with a special 2-day event in Austin, TX on October 3-4. The first day will be our standard boot camp, where as the 2nd day will be a full hands-on lab learning opportunity with experts on hand to help you along the way. We’ll follow up with events in Dallas (Oct. 11), Columbus, OH (Oct. 12), Minneapolis (Nov. 10) and Chicago (Nov. 18).

Get more details for each city at:

For additional cities across the US, check out http://msdnevents.com.

Start Something! Bring your apps to life on Windows Phone

Do you have the next million dollar idea that you just can’t find the time to finish? Do you already have an app for Android and iPhone that you want to expand into new markets? Windows Phone is here – and with it comes a new world of opportunity for passionate, creative developers. Windows Phone gives you the power to build complex, robust applications using consistent hardware specs, a comprehensive development toolkit, and the all-new, full-service Marketplace for selling your apps.

Date & Time: Tuesday, Oct 11^th; 5:30pm-7:30pm

Location:
Tribeca Flashpoint Academy Stage at the Merchandise Mart
222 W Merchandise Mart Plaza
20th floor Chicago Illinois 60654
Map

Registration: http://aka.ms/ciwphone

Tomorrow afternoon, in partnership with the AT&T Developer Program, I will be giving an overview of the new Windows Phone “Mango” features for developers. In this talk I will discuss at a high-level the new features in the next major release of the Windows Phone OS. Also, one lucky participant will walk away with a brand new Windows Phone!

What: An Overview of Windows Phone “Mango” for Developers
When: Thursday, May 26th, 2011 @ 12PM CST/10AM PST

You can register at http://developer.att.com.

I’m happy to announce the upcoming Boot Camp series of free developer training events including: Web Camp, Windows Dev Boot Camp and Azure Boot Camp.

Web Camp

Microsoft’s Web Camps are events designed to teach you all about building websites using ASP.NET MVC, WebMatrix, OData and more. There are 1-day and 2-day events being offered with interactive sessions on:

• Introduce ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web Pages and WebMatrix; discuss possible uses of these
• Explore new features of ASP.NET MVC 3
• Take a dive deep into jQuery
• Facilitate an in-depth discussion on when to migrate ASP.NET WebPages applications to ASP.NET MVC
• Discuss configuration and deployment of web applications.

Clark Sell has more details on the Web Camps taking place in the Central US.

Windows Dev Boot Camp

The Windows Development Boot Camp is a one-day deep dive class on client development. The event covers developing for Windows 7, Internet Explorer 9, and Silverlight 4 out of browser. The class includes a trainer with deep real world experience presenting content, as well as a series of labs so you can write some code and practice what you just learned.

Interactive sessions will include topics from throughout the Windows development platform. We will look at application compatibility and transitioning your applications to Windows 7, integrating with the Windows taskbar, developing for IE9, utilizing the cool functionality in the Sensors and Location Platform so that your application better responds to its current environment, leveraging the multi-touch capabilities (especially in kiosk scenarios), and creating Silverlight 4 out of browser applications.

Azure Boot Camp

Windows Azure Boot Camp is a two day deep dive class to get you up to speed on developing for Windows Azure. The class includes a trainer with deep real world experience with Azure, as well as a series of labs so you can practice what you just learned. The agenda will cover:

• Introduction to Cloud Computing and Windows Azure
• Web Roles and Worker Roles
• Queues, Tables and Blobs
• Convincing the Business to use Windows Azure
• Diagnostic and Management API’s
• SQL Azure
• App Fabric
• Cloud Scenarios

For details and locations for each of these events, visit the respective website for each boot camp.

Start Dreaming. Start Building.

There has been a tremendous amount of buzz and excitement in the developer community as we get ready to launch Windows Phone 7. There have been over 300,000+ downloads of the Windows Phone 7 developer tools as developers are eager to take advantage of this next wave of computing. To help you along the way, my team is sponsoring a number of *free* Windows Phone 7 Boot Camp training events across the area. The purpose of these boot camps is to provide guidance around building apps and games that target Windows Phone 7 and lead  you down the path to start earning money in the Windows Marketplace.

Training and Hands-on Labs

Throughout the day, we’ll dive deep into the Windows Phone developer tools along with the services and components that allow you to light up your apps on Windows Phone 7. Bring your laptop! In the afternoon, we’ve set aside time for people to walk through various hands-on labs and give them an opportunity to get their hands dirty with the tools. We’ll have experts on hand to answer your questions as well.

Prerequisites for the Hands-on Labs

Unfortunately training machines will not be provided. You are welcome to bring your own machine with WiFi capability. To prepare for the labs, please download the Windows Phone Developer Tools and Windows Phone 7 Training Kit prior to the event. (Note: please check the system requirements on the Windows Phone Developer Tools download page)

App Testing – Bring your XAP!

Have you been working hard over the past few months building the next Angry Birds or the next great Social App? Bring your XAP and we’ll provide an opportunity for you to test it on a real device!

Windows Phone 7 Boot Camp

8:00 am – 8:30: Registration Opens

8:30 – 12:00pm:

• Overview of the Windows Phone 7 Platform
• An In-Depth View of Building Applications for Windows Phone 7 with Microsoft Silverlight
• WP7 + Data

12:00 – 12:30pm: Lunch

12:30 – 2:30pm:

• Building Games for Windows Phone 7 with XNA
• Making Money with the Windows Marketplace

2:30pm – 5:00pm:

• Hands-on Labs and App testing

And before you ask, we’re planning something special for Chicago, so stay tuned.

My colleagues over on the East Coast are running a series of Windows Phone training events as well. Check them out!

• Glen Gordon – Windows Phone 7 developers – free training and app building workshops!
• Joe Healy – Windows Phone Garage East Coast Tour – Fall 2010

You can get a 1-month *free* pass to kick the tires of Windows Azure and SQL Azure.

Once you’ve requested your pass, there is a plethora of training material to lead you down the Windows Azure path, including:

• Learning all about Windows Azure as a cloud computing platform
• Great tutorials to get you publishing your first Windows Azure application
• Watch videos about SQL Azure
• Learn how to publish your PHP Apps on Windows Azure
• Read up on how to Develop a Windows Azure Application
• Watch a series of Web Casts to lead you down the path of Windows Azure
• And by all means… download the Windows Azure Training Kit!

Two of our MVP’s and future MS Press authors, Andy Wigley and Rob Miles, will be presenting a 12-hour online course on Windows Phone development spread over two days. This course is organized into four virtual instructor-led sessions to give you the jump start needed to start building your phone applications.

• July 20 – 8am: Session One: Getting Started with Microsoft Windows Phone and Silverlight
• July 20 – 1pm: Session Two: Programming Game Applications with XNA
• July 22 – 8am: Session Three: Programming Applications with Silverlight
• July 22 – 1pm: Session Four: Review and Wrap up

All times are Pacific Daylight Time (PDT)

Get Registered!

This webcast is designed to provide a developer overview of how to build games for Windows Phone 7 with Microsoft XNA Game Studio 4. Learn about the developer tools, the XNA Framework, and the resources available to build interactive, compelling, games with Windows Phone 7.

When: Thursday, July 15, 10-11 AM Pacific Time

Registration is required

In this instructor-led lab, we will spend the day walking through the facets of building applications for Windows Phone 7 using Silverlight and XNA.

What: Hands-On-Lab Series: Windows Phone 7
When: Tuesday, June 29, 2010, 9:00AM – 4:00PM
Where: Microsoft, 500 E. 96th Street, Suite 460, Indianapolis, IN

This is a BYOM Lab. Bring-Your-Own-Machine. You’ll get more out of this if you can follow along with the labs.

You should come prepared with the Windows Phone 7 Developer Tools loaded and ready to go. We’ll use the Windows Phone 7 Training Kit as the basis of our content for the labs.

Here is a  list of links to everything you need…

Windows Phone Developer Tools CTP – April Refresh

Windows Phone 7 Training Kit

(Optional)

Microsoft Expression Blend® 4 Release Candidate (RC)

Expression Blend Add-in Preview 2 for Windows Phone

Expression Blend Software Development Kit (SDK) Preview 2 for Windows Phone

You can read Rob Cameron’s blog post for help on getting the latest tools (April Refresh) installed.  Specifically if you’ve installed prior versions of the Phone Developer Tools.

Please note, as dictated in the Release Notes – No, you can’t install the environment in VPC. However, with Windows 7, I have set up a Boot-to-VHD environment that works very well. Scott Hanselman has a great post on getting a Boot-to-VHD environment up and running.