Conference Chair Letter

Co-Chair PhotoSummer always brings memories. Trips with families, summer camp, and good times seem to be the big themes. For your co-chairs, summer also means sharing knowledge. With 2018 being the 25th year for Visual Studio Live!, the memories come back to warm summers in New York at VBITS to the many great events we’ve had in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.

We’re Andrew Brust, Rockford Lhotka, and Brian Randell, and as Conference Co-Chairs for Visual Studio Live! Redmond, we’d like to personally invite you to join us this August at Microsoft’s headquarters in Redmond, WA. With 2018 in full swing, Microsoft and the rest of the technology world will continue to push the new with the old. As veterans of the show and longtime speakers, we may be biased, but we firmly believe that an in-person experience, where you get to have two-way conversations about the latest tools and technology, with some of the finest expert speakers in the business—and with the chance to network with your peers—continues to deliver the highest level of value.

Visual Studio Live! in Redmond gives you more of what you’ve asked for: 75-minute breakout sessions and two full-days of workshops, covering a wide array of development technologies for everyone. From security to databases to the latest Web and mobile technologies, we’ve got you covered. Our speakers will present on AI, mixed reality, bots, and enterprise software solutions in-depth, with experience on Windows, macOS, Linux, and mobile platforms. Being in Redmond means will get to hear from Microsoft team members who work on the products and get to interact with them one-on-one.

We have picked every workshop and session with the goal of transferring knowledge to you, so you can be a better developer and help your organization succeed in this ever-changing world.

You’ll find coverage on Microsoft Visual Studio 2017, the full .NET Framework, .NET Core, .NET Standard, container technologies and Big Data analytics. If the Web is more your style, you’ll find coverage of JavaScript, TypeScript, Angular and VueJS on the client as well as ASP.NET and ASP.NET Core on the server. Feeling confused about .NET? We’ve got sessions to clear it up. Want to improve the quality of your software? We’ve got sessions on unit testing, writing testable code, and versioning APIs. Mystified as to how you can bring DevOps to your organization? Our speakers will answer your questions with practical guidance on mobile development, Web, database and more.

Our workshop content provides coverage of Cross-Platform Distributed Application Architecture, SQL Server and DevOps with ASP.NET. If that’s not what you’re after, we’ve got two other great workshops on UX and design for developers and modern web development in 2018. Our sessions and workshops drill deep into the subjects you need to master and the fundamentals that are always important.

Our industry continues the march toward the future. To keep up, you need to absorb rapidly and adapt. Go beyond Internet-based content to a live experience, where you get to ask questions in real-time and engage directly with the experts and your peers. Find a way to get to Visual Studio Live! Redmond and get the tools to help yourself grow.

Come celebrate 25 years of great learning and make your own memories with us! We hope to see you there!

Andrew Brust
Founder & CEO, Blue Badge Insights

Rockford Lhotka
CTO, Magenic

Brian A. Randell
Partner, MCW Technologies