The .NET B-Day Bash & Geekfest

A few days ago I had the privilege and pleasure of attending a birthday party.

It wasn't your normal run-of-the-mill birthday party. This was a b-day bash and geekfest for the 15th anniversary of .NET

Who remembers NGWS?

The Geekfest B-Day Bash was put on in conjunction with the Microsoft Alumni Network, Dee Dee Walsh and Beth Massi. (Click2Tweet) There were a lot of other people making it happen, but Dee Dee and Beth (and the MSA crew) get the credit for making it a great event in my book.

A big thanks goes to Richard Campbell for his interviews for taking the time to setup the video interviews in the Hi-Fi Brewing back brew room.

Thanks to John Carothers, President of Hi-Fi Brewing for hosting us too. John gave us a great tour and talked about how they make the beer we all want to drink.

There was a running set of video Interviews - notably this video with Anders Hejlsberg and there are a few others (including one with yours truly) that you may find on Ch.9 (Click2Tweet)

Also, there were some great flashback pics that Dee Dee pulled from the archives that were on rotation on the big screen. And, as usual there were lots of laughs and reminiscing about the early days of .NET. The vibe was loud and strong. If you were there you know. If you missed it … there will be more.

If you are interested in these kinds of events ... they are open to Microsoft Alumni Network members, Microsoft employees and friends of both.

If you want more information about the Microsoft Alumni Network take a look here. If you are a Microsoft alumni ... you should think about joining. Start here!

Bonus: For Alumni that are looking to return to Microsoft there are a few ways the Microsoft Alumni Network can help. (Click2Tweet)

Read more about the event and get some additional insights and factoids on the .NET blog

Thanks to my colleagues at the Microsoft Alumni Network for making this event happen - Ali Spain, Molly von Mitschke Collande (aka MollyVMC on Twitter and in other walks of life). Audrey Bastian, Marylou Brannon.

Visual Studio is Turning 20 (Click2Tweet)

While we celebrated .NET at this Geekfest Bash it should also be noted that Visual Studio is turning 20 and launching the next version on March 7th.

Follow along here

And, if you are new to it ... The Visual Studio Community Edition is available at no charge to get you started.

Did this strike a chord with you? I would appreciate it if you’d share it with a friend, colleague, or better yet … a Microsoft enthusiast!

This is cross posted on Medium and LinkedIn

I have contributed 200+ articles to Entrepreneur, Elite Daily, Yahoo, US News and to the #1 Career blog for Millennials, the Personal Branding Blog