Houston TechFest is upon us again! It’s free, it’s filled with tons of sessions, I hear people say there’s going to be ping-pong… (ok, I digress…). If you’re in the Houston area, or within driving distance (or if you just like flying), make sure to attend to this event.
I’ll be there involved with 4 sessions that I’m totally looking forward to:
Design Patterns
Design Patterns are often used every day by every developer in one way or another. A basic understanding of patterns and how to implement them is very useful for all .NET developer, and this session tries to clarify design patterns in a way that everybody can understand and start thinking about patterns in a more natural way. Attendees will learn: The definitions of some of the main patterns, how patterns improve code quality, how to implement and use the patterns. covered such as Command, Observer, Adapter, Strategy, Factory, etc.
This is NOT the same session I’ve been doing for year; I’ll be doing this session with my buddy Jonathan Birkholz (aka JB), and we created all new material from scratch.
Virtual Brown Bag
Introduction to the Virtual Brown bag online sessions.
The Virtual Brown Bag has come long ways since I started year over a year and a half ago. It’s been growing a steady regular attendance, we’ve incorporated a wiki, we’re publishing all the recordings online just a few hours after the meetings end, and we continue working on improving our experience there. At the Houston TechFest, we’ll be giving people a quick introduction at what the Virtual Brown Bag is all about, and will pretty much do a “live virtual brown bag” right then and there, sharing the top things people learned since we started, and whatever else comes up there. Several “VBBers” are going to be there, including myself, JB, George Mauer, Jared Lobberecht, and other VBBers.
Synchronized Development for Distributed Teams
EPS Software/CoDE Consulting has a highly distributed team with developers in Houston, New Orleans, Knoxville, and Sao Paulo all working on overlapping parts of the same project. This talk, developed by George Mauer and Claudio Lassala for Houston Techfest 2010 will cover some of the tools and techniques used to keep the team synchronized and working together toward a common goal.
I’m excited about this session too. I’ll be doing this one with my buddy, co-worker, and VBBer, George Mauer. We’ve been working together for several months now, and we thought we should share some of our experiences with other people.
Tips and Tricks to Boost Productivity
Any serious developer must have settings, tools, habits, and anything that can boost productivity. This session goes through a list of things that can shave off precious seconds, minutes, or even hours, allowing one to devote more time to other important things. From shortcuts to tools, through best practices in writing and refactoring code and setting up your environment, we’ll cover as much as possible on the time allocated for the session. Attendees will learn how to get things done faster, shortcuts, tools, habits that can improve productivity, practices to improve your code so that both you and others spend less time maintaining it. Life is short, so make the most out of it
This is one of my favorite sessions. Very laidback, and totally focused on my real life experiences.
So that’s it: make sure to register for the conference (have I mentioned it’s FREE?), and I hope to see you there. Make sure to stop by and say hi!
Oh, and to finish off a great day, after the conference is over I’ll be heading out to catch Nevermore’s gig at Numbers. That’s my favorite metal band, and it’s been 5 years since I saw them live in Austin, so I’m totally looking forward to that too! 🙂
Claudio Lassala's Blog 