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This blog has moved to a new blog host (www.kansascityusergroups.com)

I am moving this blog to a new host.  The new URL really is www.KansasCityUserGroups.com.  If you are following this blog, you probably need to begin following the new blog URL in order to continue.  I’m sorry for the inconvenience.
Rob Kraft
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August 6th: Agile SIG – Agile and the PMBOK

The next meeting of AgileKC will take place on Thursday, August 6,
2009 — 6:30 PM at:

Pizza Shoppe
5285 W 95th St
Overland Park, KS 66207
(913) 381-3338

Meeting Topic: Agile and the PMBOK®

To many observers, Agile and the Project Management Institute PMBOK®
seem about as far apart as Jay-Z and Andy Williams.  In reality, the
differences are not as great as they might appear.  This presentation
will compare Agile with the PMBOK® and will describe how the two can
co-exist peacefully and productively.

Ron Montgomery is a management consultant and owner of OnPoint, LLC.
Ron has over 32 years of hands-on experience with projects that
encompass business planning, software development, process
improvement, and deployment of software solutions.  He began using
Agile methods in 2005.

In 1997, Ron achieved the Project Management Professional (PMP®)
certification by the Project Management Institute (PMI) and has held
the office of president on the local PMI board.  He holds a B.A degree
in Industrial Relations from Rockhurst College in Kansas City.

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July 21st: .Net SIG – Integrating WPF & WCF into Your Office Business Applications

Meeting Date: Tuesday, July 21st 2009 — 6:00PM – 8:00PM
Location: Centriq Training 8700 State Line Rd, Leawood, KS‎

Topic: Integrating WPF & WCF into Your Office Business Applications

This session will highlight many of the ways that the Windows
Presentation Foundation (WPF) and the Windows Communications
Foundation (WCF) can be leveraged in Office applications built with
Visual Studio Tools for the Office System (VSTO).

Visual Studio® 2008 introduced an array of new features aimed at a
wide range of Office solution types. With Visual Studio 2008, you can
build solutions that incorporate the native capabilities of the Office
client applications (like Outlook) combined with the sophisticated UI
capabilities of WPF that’s connected to remote data and services via
WCF and use the RAD features of LINQ to manipulate that data.  These
new technologies provide opportunities for building powerful solutions
with functionality that was previously difficult or impossible to
achieve.
Now that Office has evolved into a true development platform, office-
based solutions are becoming increasingly sophisticated, less document-
focused, and more loosely coupled. This session will show you how easy
it is to build robust solutions that leverage the latest technologies.

Speaker Tim Huckaby, INETA Speakers bureau

Tim Huckaby is currently focused on RIA & Smart Client Technologies
like WPF, VSTO, Surface, and Silverlight.  He has been called a
“Pioneer of the Smart Client Revolution” by the press.

Tim has been awarded multiple times for the highest rated Keynote and
technical presentations for Microsoft and numerous other technology
conferences around the world by Microsoft Corporation.  Tim has done
presentations on Microsoft Technologies at technology events like
Microsoft Tech Ed, Product Launch events, Dev Days, MEC, World Wide
Partner Conference, MGB, MGX, and the PDC, along with 3rd party
technology conferences all over the world is consistently rated in the
top 10% of all speakers at these events.  Tim was selected by
Microsoft as a “Rock-Star” speaker for the International .NET
Association and speaks world-wide on their behalf.  Tim has done
keynote demos for numerous Microsoft executives including Bill Gates
and Steve Ballmer.

Tim founded InterKnowlogy, experts in Microsoft .NET and Microsoft
Platforms, in 1999 and has 25+ years experience including serving on a
Microsoft product team as a development lead on an architecture team.
Tim is a Microsoft Regional Director, an MVP and serves on multiple
Microsoft councils and boards.

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July 21st: Windows Freeware – Skype, Digital Cameras, and more

Meeting Date: 7/21/2009 from 6:30pm to 9:30pm

Where: New Horizons Computer Learning Center Metcalf
South Shopping Center

 

At this meeting lets have a little fun. Skype has version
4 out now and it offers some new features you may be interested in. If you have
a laptop or PC with a network connector, wired or wireless, and a microphone
and speakers then you have the minimum needed to work the Skype software. You
can also use a PC camera for video and most of these cameras have a microphone
built in. If you have a laptop bring it to the meeting. If you do not have a
camera and need a microphone, Micro Center has a headset with a microphone
builtin for $6.99. If you have a recent vintage laptop, even a cheap one, most
now have the microphone builtin.

If you do not have the software bring it anyway. You can
get the software at the meeting and it is free. With Skype you can make conference
calls and in version 4, share your desktop.

 

Also, we will again look into digital cameras. What you
can do with them and look at several pieces of free software to catalog
pictures, recover pictures from a corrupt digital card or one that has been
accidently erased. Do you ever need to change the size of a number of pictures
at one time. There is free software to do that also. We will even cover
software allowing you to quickly make major chamges to those pictures requiring
editing. Have you ever noticed the off color you get when certain lighting is
present? What if you could correct this with a single click? Come see what free
software can do here.

 

Another interesting and recently discovered software type
is one that will you to control another PC remotely. There are free utilities
allowing you to remote into another PC and correct problems on the remote PC.
You can even reverse the role and let them work your PC remotely. How many of
you have friends/relatives that call you up wanting help with a PC problem and
you have a hard time understanding their problem, or difficulty describing
exactly what they need to do to correct the peoblem even if you understand what
the problem is because they are using an operating system you have not worked
with for some time and you do not have a PC handy with that operating system on
it. We are still looking into this and if it is not ready for the July meeting
it will be for August.

 

Please join us for these discussions and bring your
experiences in these areas and do not forget to bring your laptops and cameras.

 

Meeting Date: 7/21/2009 from 6:30pm to 9:30pm

 

Where: New Horizons Computer Learning Center Metcalf South
Shopping Center 96th & Metcalf, Overland Park, KS (Please enter the door of
Metcalf South on the lower level of the shopping center on the West – You will
find New Horizons inside the center area.)

Room: 6 see a map at

www.newhorizonskc.com

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July 28th: KCIT – Networking Event

Please join us on July 28th @ 5:00pm at Roul’s Velvet Room on 119th and Metcalf.

We have selected a handful of speakers throughout the to discuss various topics including: surviving a downsizing, using social media to research your next career & get a step ahead of the competition, and much more. This event will bring together local entrepreneurs, corporate business and IT professionals, and more. Based on our analysis, we’re expecting 200 people for this event! There will also be a drawing for some great door prizes.

**Note: You must register in order to attend – http://kcit.eventbrite.com/

Please also keep in mind, KCIT will have an event in mid August with a much different focus. More details TBA, but keep your calendar open…you won’t want to miss either of these high powered networking opportunities!

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July 15th: Access SIG – Lookup Wizard and Splitting a db

The July Access SIG meeting will take place @ 6:30 – 8:30 pm on Wed,
7/15, 2nd floor of the Regnier Center @ JCCC

Presentation 1 — Lisa Friedrichsen from JCCC — Lookup Wizard.
Lisa will demonstrate how to use the Lookup Wizard to provide a list of
values for a field.  We’ll also examine the Lookup properties, and how
the Lookup Wizard relates two tables behind the scenes.

Presentation 2 — Earl Long from FairTaxKC — Splitting a Database.
When more than one workstation has access to the same tables, the
technique normally used is to split the database with the tables in one
location (the server) and the front ends (queries, forms, reports,
macros, etc) on the remote workstation, this is referred to as a split
database. Earl will demonstrate how to split a database and use the
built in Synchronize utility to distribute the front end changes to all
remote computers.

Interesting Access experience of the week….

Ever had an Access database get corrupted so badly that you couldn’t
even open the file?  "Recovery for Access" software to the rescue.  This
$400 utility recovers all database tables and queries (from a database
that was so badly corrupted, it wouldn’t even open).
http://www.officerecovery.com

To all…

Please bring your Access problems, challenges, and victories to the
meeting.  Please email me ahead and bring any database you want us to
work on.  We’ll weave that into the evening’s activities as much as
possible.  Also, be ready to volunteer for a future presentation so all
can get involved.

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July 14th: Sharepoint SIG – Work Flows

The SharePoint SIG of the Heartland User Group will meet at its regular
time and place at Johnson County Community College in the Regnier Bldg,
2nd Floor on July 14th at 7:00 PM. Kevin Hughes will present the first
of a two part series on Work Flows.

Part 1 will be on the five Basic Out-of-the-Box SharePoint Workflows.
Covered will be the Approval, Collect Feedback, Collect Signatures,
Disposition Approval and Three-state workflows. Examples of their uses
will be demonstrated and a walkthrough of creating a basic approval
workflow will include creation steps and some pitfalls of using these
workflows. As time permits a discussion on the use of Alerts vs.
workflows may be included.

Part 2, tentatively scheduled for the August meeting, will continue
SharePoint Workflows with a basic overview of declarative workflows
created in Microsoft Office SharePoint Designer 2007.

Kevin Hughes is currently the SharePoint Architect at HNTB Companies in
Kansas City, MO. He has been involved in the Information Technology
field since 1979 and has been an application developer, network
engineer, database administrator, trainer and architect. He has worked
for diverse companies such as Raytheon, US Army, Texas Instruments,
Embarq and Truman State University as well as small business owner. He
has been involved in developing and deploying SharePoint solutions since
1999. Kevin is a Microsoft Certified Trainer, having taught courses on
SharePoint, SQL Server, Windows Server and Network Design at Vatterott
College and New Horizons Learning Centers, and holds the following
certifications: MCT, MCSA, MCITP, MCTS, MCP, Network+, A+, and ITIL
Foundation.

This will be an excellent opportunity to learn about WorkFlows from an
experienced developer and expert in the Share Point community. See you
there.  EARL

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July 9th: Sharepoint – Dazzling SharePoint with Silverlight

Topic: Dazzling SharePoint with Silverlight
Abstract: Silverlight and SharePoint are two up and coming technologies in the development world.  SharePoint developers can create robust applications with a variety of tools, such as web parts, user controls, and workflows.  Silverlight Developers can create aesthetically pleasing interfaces by harnassing the power of Expression Blend.  In this session we will discuss how to blend together SharePoint and Silverlight.  We will create some basic Silverlight Applications and discuss what changes a SharePoint Server needs before a Silverlight Application is viewable in a SharePoint Site Collection. 

Bio:
Becky Isserman has been a SharePoint Developer, since 2005 when she attended the Portal University with Levi, Ray, and Shoup in Springfield, IL. She is an Microsoft Certified Professional (MCP) and a Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD). She has been a web designer/developer since she was fifteen hand coding HTML 3.0 websites in NotePad. She enjoys working with SharePoint 2007, because she can perform the roles of administrator, developer, designer, and architect. She has presented at seven code camps, two conferences, and three user groups in the past two years. She currently lives in Olathe, Kansas working remotely for B&R Solutions. She lives with her two cats, Gambit and Rogue, plus her boyfriend, Johnny. If you would like to contact her you can e-mail her at rebecca.isserman@gmail.com or fill out the contact form at her blog http://www.mosslover.com.

Sponsor: Mimosa Systems,
Mimosa Systems offers an archiving solution for SharePoint, Exchange and File Systems.

Registration: http://www.clicktoattend.com/?id=139317
 
*By registering with the Click to Attend you receive one ticket for the prize drawing.  You can receive another ticket if you fill out the survey after the meeting.

Upcoming Events
SharePoint Saturday Toronto, July 11th (free), http://www.sharepointsaturday.org
SharePoint Saturday Ozarks, July 18th (free), http://www.sharepointsaturday.org
SharePoint Saturday Baltimore, July 25th (free), http://www.sharepointsaturday.org
SharePoint Saturday Dallas, July 25th (free), http://www.sharepointsaturday.org
devLink (Nashville) , August 12-15th ($100), http://www.devlink.net

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June 23rd: .Net SIG – Highlights from MIX09

Date: Tuesday, June 23, 2009 – 6:00 – 7:30 pm

 

Topic: Highlights from Mix 2009

This month Lee Brandt and Clint Edmonson will be demonstrating highlights from the MIX09 conference! You’ll get to see some of the great new technologies that were introduced at MIX09 as well as detailed information and in-depth demonstrations on the upcoming release of Silverlight 3 and Expression Blend 3. Plus we’re giving away an Xbox 360 and Zune. You don’t want to miss this special meeting!

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