Posts Tagged ‘2009’

1. 2009 – Year In Review

   Posted on December 31st, 2009 by Kevin

   DISCLAIMER: Because it has been brought to my attention that this might be an issue, please note that this blog entry was written last night around 10:00 pm.  It is scheduled to be published at 11:00 am on Thursday.  The reason for this is because I’m aiming for lunch time readership.  Thank you and now back to our regularly scheduled blog post…

   Another year has come and gone, and I feel that 2009 has been a great step  for me in my career and my community contributions.  Taking a look back, here are some of my major accomplishments.

   Speaking

   Last year, I was not a community speaker.  I was just a guy that you saw at the code camps and user group meetings.  However, I made a commitment during MSDN Dev Conference in Washington D.C. last year that I would speak at the Roanoke Code Camp in March 2009.  That just started a chain reaction, leading into more and more speaking in the developer community.

   Here’s a line up of the speaking arrangements I had in 2009:

   • • February 10th, 2009 – Hampton Roads .NET Users Group – (Presenter, What Is This WPF Thing?!)
     • March 7th, 2009 – Roanoke Code Camp – (Presenter, What Is This WPF Thing?!)
     • April 25th, 2009 – Richmond Code Camp – (Presenter, What Is This WPF Thing?!)
     • May 23rd, 2009 – NoVa Code Camp – (Presenter, What Is This WPF Thing?!)
     • September 19th, 2009 – Raleigh Code Camp (Presenter, jQuery From The Ground Up)
     • October 3rd, 2009 – Richmond Code Camp (Presenter, jQuery From The Ground Up)
     • October 10th, 2009 – NoVa Code Camp (Presenter, jQuery From The Ground Up)
     • October 17th, 2009 – Philly Code Camp (Presenter, jQuery From The Ground Up)
     • October 22nd, 2009 – Old Dominion University (Presenter, Windows 7 for Developers)

   I’m proud to say that I already have committed to the same number of speaking engagements, and that’s not including Code Camps or larger conferences.  This list also does not include SharePoint Saturday’s, MSDN Events, and User Group meetings that I attended as a community cheerleader.

   Speaking opened up a new world to me.  In college, I didn’t speak in public too often.  It’s not that I had a fear of speaking, it’s that I wasn’t practiced at doing it.  By having to put together sessions, and constantly interacting with audiences, I’ve grown quite a bit as a speaker.  Now I look forward to speaking, and I hope for the largest crowd possible.

   Blogging

   I started this blog in late 2008.  For 2009, I wanted to make it a point to update the blog on a regular basis.  The term ‘”regular basis” is subjective though.  For me, a regular basis was once every two weeks.

   That’s going to change in 2010.  I’ve found that everything is bloggable (is that even a word?).  My biggest problem is remembering that I have stuff to blog about, and I’m making efforts to remedy that.

   Writing

   2009 allowed me to write my first two professional articles.  They sort of came by chance.  A good friend of mine, Steve Presley, passed me a note about an opportunity to write two articles for DeveloperFusion about developing for Windows 7.  So it happened, I was playing around with Windows 7 developer tools.  Everything worked out, and I ended up writing two introduction articles for Windows 7 developers.

   Very exciting!

   Hampton Roads .NET Users Group

   By far, my biggest achievement this year was the starting of the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group.  Before I start the group, it had been years since this area had a group solely focused around .NET and Microsoft technologies.  Susan was running the SQL Server and SharePoint Users Group, and doing a great job.  However, I felt there needed to be more developer centric discussion every month.  Through the help of Susan Lennon, Andy Leonard, Kevin Hazzard, Darrell Norton, and others, the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group took off.

   I couldn’t have done any of it without the local developer community.  They are the glue that holds this group together.  We can’t have a user group without users, and month after month we have a great turnout.  On January 12th, we’ll be celebrating our 1st anniversary!  I can’t wait!

   2010

   2010 is going to be a great year.  I have many goals that I’m going to carry over from 2009, and try to expand on.  But that’s for another blog entry.  I hope everyone has a happy new year!  Thanks for helping me be successful!

   - Kevin Griffin

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

2. Goals for 2009

   Posted on December 31st, 2008 by Kevin

   With the new year almost upon us, I felt it was a good idea to lay down a list of goals I wish to achieve by next year.

   Learn A New Programming Language (or two)
   

   I’ve had my eye on learning a dynamic language for the past few months.  I’m looking at most likely Python and/or Ruby.  I’d love to try my hand at some Rails development, so maybe I’ll work with Ruby first.  I hate just having C# and C++ in my toolbox.  I need more variety.

   Lose 50 Pounds

   I’ve always been a big guy.  But sometime between high school and getting out of college, I ballooned to an outrageous weight.  I’d like to be down to 200 pounds even by the end of the year.

   More Development Community Involvement

   With the start up of the Hampton Roads .NET Users Group, I’d like to be more involved in the user community.  I’d love to start presenting at user group meetings and code camps.  Ideally, I’d love to earn MVP status!

   Publish A Project People Care About

   There are several ideas up my sleeve, but this year I’d actually like to make one of them happen.  Whichever one I pick, I’ll make sure I blog about it a lot!

   Buy a House

   The market is ripe for the picking.  Thank God for people who make poor decisions.  I believe that within the next few months, I’ll be able to buy my first home with my wife.

   Good luck to everyone in the year 2009!  Happy New Years!