I'm off to the Cambridge chapter of the Next Generation User Group on Tuesday 20th January 2009 to present another outing of What's New In C# 4 ?. Here's the abstract:-

• At PDC 2008 Microsoft unveiled C# 4 and all of the new features within. So now we start the roller-coaster of catch up all over again as we desperately struggle to keep up with what's new and why we should be interested in the latest flashy feature. In this session we will look at dynamically typed objects, optional and named parameters, type embedding, type equivalence, loose type coupling and more. In addition if we have time we will look at the "compiler as a service" feature to be released after C# 4.

You can register for the event here.

Next month is the The .NET Developer Network's Christmas meeting on Tuesday 2nd December 2008 and I'm giving two presentations. The first is hot off the press:-

• What's New In C# 4 ?
  At PDC 2008 Microsoft unveiled C# 4 and all of the new features within. So now we start the roller-coaster of catch up all over again as we desperately struggle to keep up with what's new and why we should be interested in the latest flashy feature. In this session we will look at dynamically typed objects, optional and named parameters, type embedding, type equivalence, loose type coupling and more. In addition if we have time we will look at the "compiler as a service" feature to be released after C# 4.

The second is a look at one of the latest collaborative development tools (ahem):-

• Strategic Development Methodologies Using Rock Band
  Developers tend to get stuck in a rut using the same old tools over and over again. Visual Studio, C#, .NET Framework, SQL Server, NUnit, Cruise Control. It might come as a shock to learn that one of the best development tools is Rock Band on the Xbox 360. This session introduces us to Rock Band and through the use of numerous demos drawing on heavy audience participation we learn to code better, be not just better developers but better people and, most importantly to solve world hunger and develop peace and harmony for everyone. (And just so we're clear here - this session has absolutely nothing to do with strategic development methodologies - it's just a clever title).