April 20, 2011 
DevDays. It is the biggest Developer event in the Netherlands. I cannot remember exactly when I visited the DevDays for the first time, but that is getting bigger every year is pretty obvious. The biggest difference with other events in the Netherlands is the great variety of speakers and the huge amounts of sessions.
In the past I went to the DevDays to follow as many sessions as possible. Since I have the privilege to speak on this conference (and others) for myself, I spent less time in the sessions. Nowadays I spent more time at our company booth (Delta-N) and walking around, speaking with colleagues and customers.
Because this year is really promising, I created an agenda of the sessions I want to follow to share with you.
This year, it is the first time that the Developer Days are combined with the Techdays, which are targeted on the IT Pro’s. For the developers, there is a new day. The Pre-Conference day. There are 3 pre-conference. One on Azure, one on phone and one on ALM.
I have the honor to be one of the presenters of the ALM Pre-Conference. Together with Dennis Doomen, Marcel de Vries and Ewald Hofman we will talk about adopting Agile practices.
My session is all about Scrum and how to adopt it in your organization. After that I will show you how to use TFS 2010 to streamline the scrum process. After that, the other guys walk through development, builds and testing in an agile way.
9:15-10:45 Keynote
No conference without a keynote. Like everybody I will be attending this. After the MIX and VSLive, there is a lot to tell about new technology and the way Microsoft is going. Keynotes are (almost) always nice!
11:05 – 12:20 Windows Phone 7 (title to be disclosed after MIX)
When I was writing this, the title of this session was not yet known. Title to be disclosed after the MIX, it said. Reason enough to follow this session. I love new things. When a session is not disclosed only 2 weeks before the event, it certainly says something. Besides that, WP7 is an area where I and my company want to focus on.
13:30-14:45 Windows Azure AppFabric: Building, Managing, and Connecting High-Density, Multi-Tenant Cloud Applications
I must admit that I did not dive into Azure yet. Mainly because of planning and time related issues. However, for me it is certain that Azure is the way to go. AppFabric as Middleware for the cloud is going to be essential. I hope to see what is possible now and to get some ideas for some great applications.
15:05 – 16:20 NuGet In Depth: Empowering Open Source on the .NET Platform
This slot does not really have sessions that I want to follow right away. I think I will choose the easy way, and follow a sessions that is going to be good in any case. Scott Hanselmann is always entertaining. Besides that, Microsoft and Open Source is something to consider….
16:30 – 17:45 To be decided
For me it would have been better if some sessions in this slot had been moved to the previous slot. There are a few sessions that I would really like to see. First of all, Lightswitch. This product fascinates me. Mainly because I’m still hoping for a real good tool that does all the boring but necessary stuff (CRUD, Validation etc.). I have played around with the Beta of Lightswitch, and it certainly looks promising. A session about Silverlight 5 looks very interesting as well. I’m also considering the “Behind the Scenes” session. Just because level 400 sessions are really hard to find nowadays.
To be honest, I’m not really a GeekNight fan. I don’t like stereotyping hard working programmers and specialists to geeks. But I understand, it is only a word and the sessions are less business related. I have to get over it I think, because the sessions can be really nice.
19:30 – 20:15 De Oneindige Mogelijkheden van Kinect
I don’t have an XBOX Kinect, but I definitely want one. Kinect got me with the first movie I saw from it. I have seen some movies on the internet about Kinect and other possibilities. I want to see for myself now.
20:30 – 21:15 Interactive Devices @ Microsoft (Future Interactions with Computers)
I like new and I like what the future will bring us. This is THE reason why I want to follow this.
21:25 – 22:10Enter the WebMatrix
Heard a lot about it, but did not see it in action yet. Hope to see some nice features.
9:15-10:30 Identity & Access Control in the Cloud
I attended a session of Vittorio for the first time on Tech-Ed in Barcelona. He was really passionate about CardSpace and ADFS (that was it was called back then). After his sessions I became real enthusiastic about this whole concept and I understood it as well. I hope to get the same felling after this session.
10:50-12:05 Silverlight vs. HTML5: An Apples-to-Apples Comparision
I have heard many people try to start this discussion but I have never heard a real good comparison between the two. Because SL and HTML 5 are both technologies with an interesting future I would love to hear the opinion of an expert.
13:15-14:30 TFS Best Practices TFS Reporting: Garbage In – Garbage Out.
In this slot, it is my turn to present. I will present a session about TFS Reports. I will show you what you need to do to fill up your out of the box reports and some basics of setting up your environment to start building your own.
14:50-16:05 Designing Windows Phone Applications met Expression Blend
Probably I will not follow any session because I’m too pumped up with adrenaline after my own session. If I am going to attend a session, then it will be this designer session. I always like to hear best practices and opinions of people who are experts in their area.
16:15-17:30 Developing SaaS Solutions with the Windows Azure Platform
I think, as a finalizer, I will follow the Azure SaaS session from Vittorio. Azure is really powerful and I hope to learn more about the possibilities of the platform.
You can find met at the Delta-N booth or in one of my sessions!
Hope to see you there!
The Road to ALM 
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