Our May 2012 Meetup is scheduled for May 21st from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
Game Design Essentials & FaceBook Integration!

Abstract:
The first part of this month’s discussion will be about games! Making a game is no simple task. It takes organization, planning, and a lot of skill with code. Anything less, and your game may not be fun, playable, or balanced. We will be going over some of the details on how games are made. Particularly, Sarah will be discussing the Game Design Document. This is the document that is often referred to as the “game bible”.

For the code part of the discussion, we’ll discuss the ins and outs of Facebook integration in your app. This should be useful to everyone, not just the game developers out there. Unlike iPhone and Android, Windows Phone does not have a standardized API for Facebook. As a result, we have to do things a bit differently.

Speaker Bio:
Sarah is the head of mobile development at Multivarious Games. She is a graduate of DeVry University, and has a BS in Game and Simulation Programming. Her ability with Silverlight and iTorque 2D has resulted in the rapid production of 9 games through various game companies. One of her games, Move Like Me (iPhone), has received the prestigious Parent’s Choice Award: Recommended. She is also involved with the Ohio Game Incubator, Columbus Ohio Gamedev Group (formerly known as Columbus Ohio Game Developers Meetup), Central Ohio Windows Phone User Group (COWPUG), and her personal game development company, One Month Games. She currently resides in Powell, Ohio with her wife of 16 years and 4 cats.

For more info, please visit:
http://sarahjohnsonbliss.com/portfolio
http://onemonthgames.com/
http://multivariousgames.com/

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

PS: We’re meeting in Conference Room A this month.

Our April 2012 Meetup is scheduled for April 16th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
ComponentOne Windows Phone Controls = Awesomeness!

Abstract:
Want to give your Windows Phone app some jazz? Needing a complex custom control; but don’t want to re-invent the wheel? Well, step in ComponentOne with their (Studio^®) for Windows Phone suite. Expand your toolbox and enhance your apps. ComponentOne Studio^® for Windows Phone includes over 20 UI controls for data visualization, rich text editing, data input, PDF viewing, layout and more. During this talk, Greg shows us how to add pop to our Windows Phone apps by incorporating ComponentOne Studio^® controls. We take a deepdive on how to leverage these feature-rich controls to create unique rich UX & compelling apps!

Speaker Bio:
Greg Lutz is the ComponentOne (@componentone) product manager for several products: Studio for WinForms, WPF, Silverlight, Windows Phone, OLAP and Entity Framework. You’ll find me blogging about these awesome technologies and speaking around the country at various code camps, tech fests and tradeshows.

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Our March 2012 Meetup is scheduled for March 19th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
Real-World Windows Phone Conference App + Metro Design Tips!

Abstract:
Organizing a Conference or Meetup? Some event with lots of people & even more data to handle? How about a Windows Phone app to keep information at your fingertips! In this talk, we’ll walk through a real-world conference setup with backend server, data catalog, web service & how to put it all together in a Windows Phone app. We’ll finish off with some Metro Design principles/tips & tricks .. developer to developer!

Speaker Bio:
Samidip Basu (@samidip) is a technologist & gadget-lover working as a Manager & Solutions Lead for Sogeti USA out of the Columbus Unit. With a strong developer background in Microsoft technology stack, he now spends much of his time in spreading the word to discover the full potential of the Windows Phone/Windows 8 platforms & cloud-backed mobile solutions in general. He passionately helps run the Central Ohio Windows Phone User Group (http://cowpug.org), labors in M3 Conf (http://m3conf.com/) organization and can be found with at-least a couple of hobbyist projects at any time. His spare times call for travel and culinary adventures with the wife. Find out more at http://samidipbasu.com.

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Our February 2012 Meetup is scheduled for February 20th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
The 31 Demos of Windows Phone Mango!

Abstract:
This session will be a fast-paced look at some of the new development features available to you on the Windows Phone 7.5 platform. This will include the gyroscope, the camera API, tile updates and 28 more examples. Getting 10 demos packed into a session is generally unheard of. Getting 31 of them is insane. Come see Jeff Blankenburg have tremendous success, or fall flat on his face. In either case, you’re certain to see something entertaining.

Speaker Bio:
Ultra passionate. That’s how Jeff Blankenburg  (@jeffblankenburg) describes his relationship with technology. Over the past 10 years, Jeff has enthusiastically applied his technical expertise to build industry-changing websites and marketing efforts for mega brands including Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ford Motor Company, Sony and several pharmaceutical companies. He’s especially proficient in user interface design, web standards and mobile application development. In addition to his developer evangelist role for Microsoft, Jeff contributed to the O’Reilly title Windows Developer Power Tools on the subject of code validation services, and authored a Windows Phone development book out now on Amazon. He also serves as an organizer for the CodeMash and Stir Trek conferences. On the academic front, Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Ohio’s Bowling Green State University.

Anything Special?:
Yes! February 2012 marks the 10 year Birthday of INETA, the mothership of .NET related User Groups. Thanks for all the support!! We’ll celebrate with some good food & great prizes, along with tweeting to win weekly drawings. Awesome speaker + Birthday-bash = Great COWPUG Meetup . Come join us!

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Let’s start the New Year with a bang! Our January 2012 Meetup is scheduled for January 16th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
BDD for Windows Phone Developers!

Abstract:
Automated testing has become a focal point of good software craftsmanship.  One of the types of development that we use is Behavior Driven Development (BDD). SpecFlow is a BDD tool that we can use to write applications in a test first process.  In this presentation, we talk about how you can develop Windows Phone applications using Behavior Driven Development with the SpecFlow tool. This will be an introductory talk on the process and as such there will be plenty of code examples.

Speaker Bio:
Jerrel Blankenship (@theJerrel) is a developer and author based in Columbus. His book “Pro Agile .NET Development with Scrum” is available on Amazon. Check out his ramblings at www.jerrelblankenship.com.

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Our December 2011 Meetup is scheduled for December 19th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
7 Deadly Sins for Windows Phone Developers .. then, we celebrate the Holidays!

Abstract:
It is the most magical time of the year .. the Holidays are upon us! So, surely we don’t want a long-stretched technical presentation, right? But, we are a passionate group of Windows Phone Developers & we love what we do! How about this? 7 Deadly Sins for Windows Phone Developers (this is not religious in any way ) — 3 minutes per sin for a total of 21 minutes!! We shall draw from our dev experiences over the past year and share tips & tricks, along with must-avoid pitfalls.

So, we usually meet for 2 hours .. what do we do for the remainder of the time? Well, we party !! We celebrate the Season’s mirth and COWPUG reaching it’s 6 month mark. It has been a fabulous ride with a closed-knit group of passionate developers & great presentations. So, we cherish why we have this User Group — not for a technology, not for a platform; but a unique group of fantastic folks who make it all happen. We celebrate what our technical community stands for — people, who care & share.

Anything Special?
Yes! We are co-hosting this December Meetup & Holiday Party with our sister User Group — the Central Ohio Cloud Computing User Group [COCCUG -- http://coccug.com/]. They are helping out with food & prizes. So, expect double the fun!

What about food?
A geek shirt once made the manifesto for developers — “Eat, Sleep, Code”. See the priorities? So, we will break away from our traditional Pizza & do something special for food to kickstart the Holiday eating frenzy.

Anything else?
Yes!! Hate the raffles each month? Think we all deserve something for Christmas? So be it …

Speaker Bio:
Know this guy Samidip Basu (@samidip)? Let’s see how seriously you can take him as he presents with a party hat on !! More about him @ http://samidipbasu.com.

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Our November 2011 Meetup is scheduled for November 21st from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
Real World Windows Phone Dev from the Trenches!

Abstract:
How about some real world experience developing applications for the Windows Phone platform? In this session, Matt talks to us about his experiences developing apps, lessons learned, maintaining and upgrading apps (including taking advantage of the new features in Mango), reusing code between Windows Phone applications, user interface design, and rapid development and prototyping of Windows Phone Applications using Visual Studio, Expression Blend, and Telerik RadControls for Windows Phone.

Speaker Bio:
Matt Eland (@integerman) is a developer who has been working with the WPF and Silverlight stack since 2006. During the day he’s a Senior .NET Developer working on rich internet applications for project management at TeamDynamix, LLC. On nights and weekends he works on Windows Phone 7 app development and currently has 5 published apps for Windows Phone 7 and several upcoming articles on Windows Phone development.

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Our October 2011 Meetup is scheduled for October 17th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
Let’s Tango with XNA & MakerBot!

Abstract:
Think you do cool stuff with XNA on Windows Phone? Also, heard the buzz around MarkerBot & wanna know why it’s cool? Well, join us as we host William Steele, the XNA guru & maker of his own MakerBot Cupcake CNC for our October meetup.  You’ll see how you can use one of these fantastic homebrew CNC 3D Printers to construct anything you can imagine.  You’ll also learn how you can utilize the Thing-A-Verse to find, create and share your own ideas with others.  3D Rapid Prototyping is a fast growing segment of the homebrew space … here’s your chance to see what all the fuss is about!

Oh, and wondering how we can combine XNA & MakerBot talks into one? Well, how about we build a 3D object in XNA & have it printed out with MakerBot!! Heck, this is SciFi & Minority Report isn’t far off

Speaker Bio:
Ladies & Gentlemen – William Steele (@wjsteele). That is all ..

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Our September 2011 Meetup is scheduled for September 19th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
Tale of Two Awesome Games!

Our next meetup should be fantastic .. we have two very passionate XNA/Silverlight developers come talk about developing their respective XNA games for the Windows Phone platform. These two games are quite popular & have real-world complexity in development & eventual certification for Marketplace publication. We shall hear first-hand from the developers on what their experience has been like!

Topic 1:
Lessons Learned while writing “Koi Pond” Game!

Abstract:
What could be so hard about creating a “Koi Pond” game for the Windows Phone?  Doug Mair will give an overview of what it took to build the WP7 “Koi Pond” from Corpria.  The game/application was ultimately built in XNA for Windows Phone; but a Silverlight version was also attempted.  For a simple game, it uses quite a lot of the Windows Phone features, including Multi-Touch, Sound, Accelerometer, Vibration, Microsoft Ad SDK, Pre-Emptive Analytics and Obfuscation. Other challenges encountered while developing the game were —  Finding Art, Finding Sounds, Making waves, Making fish swim, XNA Menus, Metro UI Standards, Alpha Blending & Using DrawUserPrimitives (for 3D effects). Want to learn more? Come on out & we shall walk through the steps above for a thorough run-down of what it took to write “Koi Pond“.

Speaker Bio:
Doug Mair (@doug_mair/Email: doug.mair@corpria.com) has been developing software on Microsoft stack in the Columbus Ohio area for over 25 years. Applications built range from custom Rules Engines and Graphical Kiosk Systems to Assembly Line Integration and Website development.

Recently Doug has focused his “after work” application development on the Windows Phone platform & loves developing apps that challenge his mind. He learnt Silverlight and XNA in order to develop these apps; Silverlight has been a blast to learn and use, while on the other hand, XNA is super powerful, but not so friendly.

Topic 2:
An XNA Adopter’s Experience

Abstract:
Many who enjoy video games often wonder how it will be to build their own video game.  This talk will take the group through one enthusiast’s experience in making the transition from game consumer to game developer. We shall do a complete walk-through of what it took to develop & publish the “Piggie Chase” XNA game for Windows Phone.

Speaker Bio:
Matt Middendorf (@MiddenMob/Email: Matthew.Middendorf@us.sogeti.com) is a Senior Consultant with Sogeti USA specializing in .NET, ASP.NET, XNA, and Silverlight application architecture on SharePoint, Windows Phone and other platforms.

Both the “Koi Pond” & “Piggie Chase” games are in the Windows Phone Marketplace. Go check them out!!

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!

Our August 2011 Meetup is scheduled for August 15th from 6PM to 8PM @ TechColumbus. Please see details below & kindly RSVP.

Topic:
What’s new in Windows Phone Mango!

Abstract:
Heard the buzz about “Mango”? Yep, it is the next release of Windows Phone OS slated for this Fall, and it is looking really good! This code-heavy presentation will focus on the new developer features of the Windows Phone 7.1 SDK release. We’ll cover topics like Augmented Reality, Search Extensibility, many of the sensor APIs (like camera, gps, gyro, and compass) and, of course, multi-tasking. This presentation definitely assumes some knowledge of Silverlight or Windows Phone development, but you’ll learn plenty even if this is your first exposure to the technologies.

Speaker Bio:
Ultra passionate. That’s how Jeff Blankenburg  (@jeffblankenburg) describes his relationship with technology. Over the past 10 years, Jeff has enthusiastically applied his technical expertise to build industry-changing websites and marketing efforts for mega brands including Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch, Ford Motor Company, Sony and several pharmaceutical companies. He’s especially proficient in user interface design, web standards and mobile application development. In addition to his developer evangelist role for Microsoft, Jeff contributed to the O’Reilly title Windows Developer Power Tools on the subject of code validation services, and is currently authoring a Windows Phone development book due out in November 2011. He also serves as an organizer for the CodeMash and Stir Trek conferences. On the academic front, Jeff holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Ohio’s Bowling Green State University.

Please RSVP on our Meetup site @ http://meetup.com/cowpug. Hope to see you all there!