Blog

A Note of Appreciation and Gratitude to our Valued Members and Sponsors

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Dear Enterprise Developers Guild Community,

With a mix of emotions, we write this letter to announce the closure of the Enterprise Developers Guild after an incredible 24-year journey. Over the years, we have had the privilege of connecting with thousands of talented individuals like you, and together, we have forged a vibrant community focused on Microsoft-centric technologies.

Throughout this remarkable journey, our dedicated volunteers have been the backbone of our organization, pouring their time, energy, and expertise into organizing monthly meetups and conferences and facilitating meaningful discussions. We owe a tremendous debt of gratitude to each and every one of our esteemed volunteers. Your passion, curiosity, and eagerness to learn have made the Guild a unique platform for knowledge sharing, networking, and personal growth.

We extend our most profound appreciation to our sponsors, who have generously supported us. Your unwavering commitment to the Guild’s mission fostered an environment where technology enthusiasts can thrive. Your contributions have enabled us to offer valuable resources, guest speakers, and unforgettable events, making the Guild an unparalleled community resource. Your belief in our mission has had a profound impact on the lives and careers of countless developers.

We want to express our gratitude to every member who has attended meetups and conferences, shared their expertise, asked thought-provoking questions, and made the Guild the thriving community it has been for all these years. Through your active participation, we have created an environment of inclusivity, respect, and continuous learning.

It is not without a touch of sadness that we have made the difficult decision to bring this chapter to a close. Over the years, the technology landscape has evolved, bringing forth new opportunities and challenges. As we adapt to the changing dynamics of the industry, it is time to bid farewell to the Guild while cherishing the incredible memories and connections we have made together.

The decision to remove our Meetup page was a challenging one. Still, it is necessary to close this chapter properly. However, our dedication to empowering the developer community remains steadfast. We encourage you to continue seeking knowledge, building connections, and fostering collaboration in your respective endeavors.

In closing, while the Enterprise Developers Guild may be closing its doors, the connections and friendships we have built will endure. We encourage you to stay connected with your fellow members, leverage your collective expertise, and continue fostering collaboration within your local developer communities.


Thank you for being integral to the Enterprise Developers Guild’s incredible journey. We are honored to have had the opportunity to serve you, and we look forward to witnessing the great things you will accomplish in the future.

With deepest gratitude and warmest regards,

Mark A. Wilson
First Vice President/Organizer
Enterprise Developers Guild

[Online] Responsible App Tailoring: Creating Effective Architecture with Seams

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us online on Tuesday, November 24th, at 6:00 PM. In 10 years of software development, Jamie rarely created or encountered the perfect design. He is continually growing and finding new techniques that constantly evolve his architecture.

Seams are places where you can alter behavior without editing any code consuming the behavior. Seams allow the architecture to evolve as the system grows by creating areas that can easily be changed.

In this talk, we will cover techniques and patterns to create seams in your architecture. We will start with how classes should interact with one another, progressing towards system integrations. Intended for developers of all experience levels, the techniques learned can be used immediately to create seams in applications effectively.

The meeting presenter is Jamie Phillips.

Jamie is a Senior Cloud Engineer and works remotely from East Tennessee. He has been programming professionally since 2007 after discovering software development in graduate school. His Geology degree has given him an appreciation for large systems and processes, which has created a keen interest in Solutions Architecture, DevOps, and the Cloud. During the day, he works on Windows, but at night he is all about Linux.

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_Mjk5MmFkZWEtZTc1Yi00OGNjLThkMjYtODNiOWQ1MDQzMTcy%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cb9bec90-76b1-4992-96fe-d8d470564931%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%221e037519-e0f0-454a-828a-3878b1cd7e03%22%7d

Please RSVP.

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[Online] Succeeding with ADHD

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join us online on Tuesday, October 27th, at 6:00 PM. The things that make us different are also often a potential advantage. People with conditions like ADHD must overcome challenges to conform and, in the process, often develop skills that make them exceptional leaders and entrepreneurs.

In this session, we will explore how many of the most successful have turned these tendencies into an advantage and how you can do the same, regardless of your diagnosis.

The meeting presenter is Gaines Kergosien.

Gaines Kergosien leads Corporate Systems Development for AllianceBernstein and is founder and CIO for Music City Tech, an educational non-profit responsible for organizing the Music City Code, Music City Agile, and Music City Data conferences in Nashville, TN. With over 20 years of experience in software development, Gaines is a three-time recipient of the Microsoft MVP award and served as a board member for Technology Leaders of Nashville and the Nashville Technology Council.

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MDc4ZWQzZGMtNzhiOC00OGZlLTg2OTUtYjMwZWEwYjY2NzFj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cb9bec90-76b1-4992-96fe-d8d470564931%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%221e037519-e0f0-454a-828a-3878b1cd7e03%22%7d

Please RSVP.

{"meta":{"date":"2020-10-27","speaker":"Gaines Kergosien"}}

Downloads: Slides

[Online] Configure It Out: A Better Way To Manage Cloud Apps

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Insight Digital Innovation and us online on Tuesday, September 22nd, at 6:00 PM. Product managers like the ability to change every little aspect of apps dynamically. Creating configuration systems from scratch can be time-consuming. And suppose your application employs a microservices architecture. In that case, you can increase the configuration complexity tenfold to account for intra-services communications. If your team is interested in building apps with flexible configuration, this session is for you!

Product Manager: We want to integrate our app with an external service to see their data in one place. We talked with their team, and it looks like we can get all the data we need from five endpoints.
Devs: Sure, this sounds easy enough! Do we have more details?
PM: Yes, these five endpoints are from three of their services, so that we will have three different URLs. They have three different environments UAT, staging, and prod, which we will query against in each phase of development. Each will have its own set of usernames and passwords. They throttle their endpoints, and those limits can change per our agreements. Hence, they mentioned having flexible wait/retry policies when hitting their services. I am discussing it more with the PMs of our existing services. We don’t know which internal triggers will be initially turned on/off. We initially want to roll this feature out to only a few customers with relatively less traffic, monitor their responses, and gradually roll out to other customers. I want to manage this and am hoping there is some UI that I can work with.
Devs: We might have spoken a little too soon when we said this would be easy. Creating configuration and feature management alone would take more effort than the actual API calls.

The meeting presenter is Sachin Pandit.

Sachin, an Azure consultant at Insight Digital Innovation, will walk us through one of Azure’s latest offerings – Azure App Configuration. Sachin is a software developer with over ten years of experience in building distributed applications and is currently in a team lead role at Insight. His primary focus is to provide best practices in cloud-native architecture to clients in and around the Charlotte region.

The meeting sponsor is Insight Digital Innovation.

Insight DI is a services firm specializing in Cloud Enablement, Data & AI, Intelligent Apps, IoT & Smart Edge, DevOps, Digital Strategy, and Transformational Services, providing services for companies globally.
Learn more at https://www.insight.com/en_US/what-we-do/digital-innovation.html

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_NmE4ODA1N2ItZWEwZS00NmZkLTgyZTMtYTdiM2U5OWE1OGZm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cb9bec90-76b1-4992-96fe-d8d470564931%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%221e037519-e0f0-454a-828a-3878b1cd7e03%22%7d

Please RSVP.

{"meta":{"date":"2020-09-22","speaker":"Sachin Pandit","sponsor":"Insight Digital Innovation"}}

[Online] Azure Feedback

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Microsoft and us online on Tuesday, August 25th, at 6:00 PM. Microsoft would like to understand better the pain points, and thereby opportunities, our customers are reporting building apps on Azure using .NET Core code. Please come with questions and constructive feedback. Nothing about setting up v-nets or other infrastructure questions, please.

The special meeting guests are Brady Gaster and Shayne Boyer.

Brady Gaster is a Principal Program Manager in the ASP.NET team at Microsoft. He works on SignalR, microservices, and APIs, and integration with Azure service teams in hopes to make it exciting for developers who work on .NET apps to party in the cloud. You can find Brady on Twitter or Twitch at @bradygaster when he’s not learning with (or from) his two sons, tinkering with code, or making music in his basement.

Shayne Boyer works for Microsoft as a Principal Cloud Developer Advocate creating content on ASP.NET Core, Docker, and Cross-Platform development tools for the Azure platform. He is a former ASP.NET MVP, INETA community speaker, and Telerik Developer Expert. Shayne often publishes content on ASP.NET, TypeScript, Node.js, JavaScript, and Web API development and can always be found on Twitter @spboyer or his blog at tattoocoder.com.

The meeting sponsor is Microsoft.

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_MjlhNjhkM2MtZTg5OC00OTFmLTk2NTQtNDE4MmVhN2E1MDVm%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cb9bec90-76b1-4992-96fe-d8d470564931%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%221e037519-e0f0-454a-828a-3878b1cd7e03%22%7d

Please RSVP.

{"meta":{"date":"2020-08-25","speaker":"Brady Gaster, Shayne Boyer","sponsor":"Microsoft"}}

[Online] Microsoft ASP.NET Team Updates

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Microsoft and us online on Tuesday, June 23rd, at 6:00 PM. We are gathering some colleagues from the Microsoft ASP.NET team to show us the cool stuff they are doing. Hear highlights on .NET 5, ASP.NET, Web API, Blazor, Power Apps, and more. They will also be available to answer your coding questions. (We are all developers here, no infrastructure questions, please.)

The special meeting guests are Jeff Fritz, Brady Gaster, and other surprises.

Jeffrey Fritz, or simply “Fritz,” is a Program Manager for Microsoft on the ASP.NET and .NET Community Outreach teams. He’s lead the ASP.NET Web Forms, and WCF teams, and managed the MSDN Web Developer Tools blog. Fritz plans and assists in delivering all .NET and Visual Studio developer content at major Microsoft conferences. He’s also the founder of an online-only conference put on by The Live Coders team on Twitch coming up on June 20th! You can find Fritz on Twitter or Twitch at @csharpfritz.

Brady Gaster is a senior program manager in the ASP.NET team at Microsoft. He works on SignalR, microservices, and APIs, and integration with Azure service teams in hopes to make it exciting for developers who work on .NET apps to party in the cloud. You can find Brady on Twitter or Twitch at @bradygaster when he’s not learning with (or from) his two sons, tinkering with code, or making music in his basement.

Other special guests will pop in briefly during the meeting. You will have to join us to find out who!

The meeting sponsor is Microsoft.

Please click the link below to join the webinar: https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_OTcxODRhOWUtMTkzMi00YjM5LTg5NWUtYWE2Y2E4MDk5NWVj%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22cb9bec90-76b1-4992-96fe-d8d470564931%22%2c%2

Please RSVP.

{"meta":{"date":"2020-06-23","speaker":"Jeff Fritz, Brady Gaster, Scott Hunter","sponsor":"Microsoft"}}

[Online] Strategies for Automating Cloud Resources

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Insight Digital Innovation and us online on Tuesday, May 26th, at 6:00 PM. How do you automate cloud resources and use simple requests to kickoff automations? In this presentation, Scott and Ben will review some of the steps to build repeatable cloud resource creation using IaC and different tools. They will go over use cases where they have clients implementing these technologies across their digital estate.

More specifically, we will dig into these elements in the journey:

  • How to develop virtual machine images using Packer and Ansible
  • Implement virtual machine and other resources using Terraform
  • Build automation pipelines in Azure DevOps
  • Show tagging policies in Terraform Cloud
  • Implement automated resource request processes from ServiceNow
  • Discuss chargeback/show back approaches

The meeting presenters are Scott Morgan and Ben Westmoreland.

Scott graduated from Miami University (Ohio) 30 years ago this year and is in his 17th year with Cardinal/Insight DI. After moving to the Raleigh office in 2012, he became a Practice Manager for ten years before taking a Southeast Regional Cloud Enablement/Architect role in April. Scott is an avid surfer and into paddleboarding. He lives in Raleigh with his wife and children.

Ben graduated from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte 20 years ago this year and has been with Cardinal/Insight DI for four years. He was a Practice Manager for two years before taking a Southeast Regional Principal role in April. Ben is an avid saltwater fisherman and into boating. He lives in Huntersville with his wife and twin boys.

The meeting sponsor is Insight Digital Innovation.

Insight DI is a services firm specializing in Cloud Enablement, Data & AI, Intelligent Apps, IoT & Smart Edge, DevOps, Digital Strategy, and Transformational Services, providing services for companies globally.
Learn more at https://www.insight.com/en_US/what-we-do/digital-innovation.html

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7049051675?pwd=dlBhWFNnTkdjWXZaeEpNMU9RUXNrdz09

Please RSVP.

{"meta":{"date":"2020-05-26","speaker":"Scott Morgan, Ben Westmoreland","sponsor":"Insight Digital Innovation"}}

[Online] I’ll Get Back to You: Task, Await, & Async Methods with Jeremy Clark

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Signature Consultants and us online on Tuesday, April 28th, at 6:00 PM. There’s much confusion about async/await, Task/TPL, and asynchronous and parallel programming in general. So let’s start with the basics and look at how we can consume asynchronous methods using Task and then see how the “await” operator can make things easier for us. Along the way, we’ll look at continuations, cancellation, and exception handling.

The meeting presenter is Jeremy Clark.

Jeremy Clark makes developers better. By drawing on over 15 years of experience in application development, he helps developers take a step up in their skillset with a focus on making complex topics approachable regardless of skill level. Jeremy is a Microsoft MVP for .NET and has authored seven courses for Pluralsight, including “C# Interfaces,” aimed at giving developers a clear understanding of abstraction. He loves speaking and has delivered over 300 technical presentations in the last ten years in the United States and Europe. Jeremy lives in northern Washington with his lovely wife, three cats, two dogs, and a banjo.

The meeting sponsor is Signature Consultants.

Headquartered in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, Signature Consultants was established in 1997 with a singular focus: to provide clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. For the ninth consecutive year, Signature was voted as one of the “Best Staffing Firms to Work For” and is now the 14th largest IT staffing firm in the United States (source: Staffing Industry Analysts). With 28 locations throughout North America, Signature annually deploys thousands of consultants to support, run, and manage their clients’ technology needs. Signature offers IT staffing, consulting, managed solutions, and direct placement services. For more information on the company, please visit http://www.sigconsult.com.

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://zoom.us/j/98265571357

Or iPhone one-tap:
+19292056099,,98265571357# US (New York)
+13126266799,,98265571357# US (Chicago)

Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
+1 929 205 6099 US (New York)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Washington)
+1 301 715 8592 US (Maryland)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
Meeting ID: 982 6557 1357
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/alq8C2Ogp

Please RSVP.

Downloads: Slides & Code | Recording

{"meta":{"date":"2020-04-28","speaker":"Jeremy Clark","sponsor":"Signature Consultants"}}

[Online] Make Your Remote Transition Successful with Scott Hanselman

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join TEKsystems and us online on Tuesday, March 31st, at 6:00 PM. Our special guest speaker, Scott Hanselman, has been working remotely for over 13 years. He will sit down and talk about his favorite best practices as a remote employee. What are some “life hacks” that we can use to be successful remotes? Scott will discuss:

  • The challenges and myths of remote work
  • Collaboration technologies for sharing resources, networking & management
  • Experiments and improviasation in communication methods over ten years
  • How being remote is terrific and it sucks

The meeting presenter is Scott Hanselman.

Scott Hanselman is a programmer, teacher, and speaker. He works out of his home office in Portland, Oregon, for the Web Platform Team at Microsoft. Scott has three podcasts and a YouTube channel. He has also written several books for developers worldwide and has been working remotely with Microsoft for over 13 years now. Learn more at http://www.hanselman.com.

The meeting sponsor is TEKsystems.

By working for TEKsystems, you become part of our dedicated Microsoft Technologies Practice. Since its inception, our Microsoft Technologies Practice has helped hundreds of Microsoft Specialists to find an ideal job opportunity in the marketplace. Our program at TEKsystems specializes in the cornerstone technologies of the Microsoft stack – .NET, SQL Server, and SharePoint. Our team consists of Delivery Experts, in the primary market geographies, with ties to the most cutting-edge work opportunities.

As a member of the TEKsystems Microsoft Technologies Practice, you will have access to a Market Delivery Expert that focuses on Microsoft Technology jobs around the clock in your local region as well as across the US. In some cases, we may offer you the opportunity to become a full-time employee of TEKsystems and work as a Microsoft expert on our staff or at our most prestigious clients. Be sure to speak with your local TEKsystems contacts Lindsey Thomka Hardin, Jenny Guffy, Emily Richard, Layla Sharifi, and Alexis Dragan about our Microsoft Technologies Practice and how it can benefit your career.

People are at the heart of every successful business initiative. At TEKsystems, we understand people. Every year we deploy over 80,000 IT professionals at 6,000 sites across North America, Europe, and Asia. Our deep insights into IT human capital management enable us to help our clients achieve their business goals – while optimizing their IT workforce strategies. We provide IT staffing solutions, IT talent management expertise, and IT services to help our clients plan, build, and run their critical business initiatives. Through our range of quality-focused delivery models, we meet our clients where they are and take them where they want to go, the way they want to get there. Learn more at http://www.teksystems.com

Please click the link below to join the webinar:
https://zoom.us/j/585293959

Or iPhone one-tap :
US: +19292056099,,585293959# or +13126266799,,585293959#
Or Telephone:
Dial(for higher quality, dial a number based on your current location):
US: +1 929 205 6099 or +1 312 626 6799 or +1 301 715 8592 or +1 346 248 7799 or +1 669 900 6833 or +1 253 215 8782
Webinar ID: 585 293 959
International numbers available: https://zoom.us/u/alq8C2Ogp

Please RSVP.

Downloads: Recording

{"meta":{"date":"2020-03-31","speaker":"Scott Hanselman","sponsor":"TEKsystems"}}

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

The Enterprise Developers Guild is an independently run, volunteer user group that meets monthly to discuss and share information on a variety of Microsoft-centric technology topics. With our first meeting held on 8/11/1998, we have been meeting continuously for over 21 years! While many things have changed over the years, the need for social distancing and self-quarantine is not going to stop us. During these challenging times, we are going to figure out how to continue to hold monthly meetings, just virtually instead of in-person. Stay tuned as we will announce our next monthly meeting shortly!

Carl Franklin’s Blazor Road Show!

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Carl Franklin from .NET Rocks! is hitting the road for a world-wide Blazor Road Show! In just a couple hours, Carl will share architecture best practices, how to make and consume generic components, how to call JavaScript to enhance your apps, and how to implement Authentication/Authorization. He’ll show you how to monitor the traffic going back and forth between the browser and the server, measure your app’s memory footprint, and how to optimize it. And he’ll introduce you to some exciting Blazor controls, including a data grid and appointment scheduling component. Everyone gets a copy of the demo code and the Blazor controls. Perhaps most importantly, dinner is included courtesy of DevExpress!

The meeting presenter is Carl Franklin.

Carl Franklin is Executive Vice President of App vNext; a software development firm focused on modern methodologies and technologies. Carl is a 20+ year veteran of the software industry, co-host and founder of .NET Rocks!, the first and most widely listened to podcast for .NET developers, a Microsoft MVP for Developer Technologies, and Senior Executive of Pwop Studios, a full-service audio and video production/post-production studio located in Southeastern Connecticut.

The meeting sponsor is DevExpress.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

{"meta":{"date":"2020-02-19","speaker":"Carl Franklin","sponsor":"DevExpress"}}

GRPC & Protobuf: Intro to next generation inter-service communication protocol.

Posted on by Mark A. Wilson

Join Signature Consultants and us on Tuesday, January 28th, at 6:00 PM in the Mt. Kilimanjaro/Mt. Everest rooms of the Microsoft Charlotte Office (AP2). With the rise of distributed architectures over the past several years, it has become more critical than ever to have robust inter-service communication methods. Many different technologies and communication methodologies have arisen to address the challenges of this shift in architecture. One of the standout technologies in this arena is GRPC.

In this talk, we will explore the what, why, and how of GRPC. We will explore the inner workings of GRPC, how it compares to other communication technologies and frequent use cases where GRPC is an excellent solution. We will finish off by going over what it takes to build a system based on GRPC from the ground up so you will be armed with the knowledge to implement it in your next project!

The meeting presenter is Adam Vaden.

Adam and his wife Theresa are owners of V2Tools, a software and technology consulting firm specializing in helping small and medium businesses meet their technological needs. Adam is a passionate developer and outdoor lover; when he is not developing or exploring new web technologies, you can usually find him running, riding, or hiking with his dogs.

The meeting sponsor is Signature Consultants.

Signature Consultants started in 1997 with a singular focus: Provide our clients and consultants with superior staffing solutions. At Signature Consultants, it’s not just about the bottom line; it’s about the people. We focus on the relationships we have with our clients, consultants, and candidates. Our motto, “Getting IT Right,” is reflected in every aspect of our company – it guides our decisions and actions and ensures that our consultants and clients always come first. As a result of these efforts, Signature has been recognized as one of the best staffing companies to work (over the last seven years by Staffing Analyst International). Learn more at http://www.sigconsult.com.

Please RSVP so we know how much food to order.

Downloads: Slides

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