NAVTechDays 2013

Wow, this has been a mind rush.Β 

I was sitting in the Keynote session on Thursday, still remembering a very interesting workshop on the Pre Conference day. It was a long time since I had blogged about sessions on conferences, and I intended to do so for this wonderful event – as I knew it deserves all attention it can get. There I was sitting, noting down my thoughs while Michael Nielsen and Thomas Hejlsberg kicked off NAVTechDays with a most promising KeyNote. And I knew I had to be quick .. writing and immediately posting .. because NAVTechDays is over in less then a “blink-of-the-eye”..

I blinked :(.

And all that happened between the “blink” and now, seem to have happened unconsciously .. . I have a 2-page report on the Keynote session – and it just doesn’t make any sense to publish it, as .. as I said .. NAVTechDays is just that good. You can download the entire convention (including keynote session) already on the site of the organizer .. you know .. Luc Van Dyck .. you know .. www.mibuso.com :-). If I would be an American, I’d say .. “That dude is AWESOME”! But I’m not .. so I’ll just say .. “He rocks”! (no, I’m not getting paid to say that .. although that would be an excellent idea! ;-)).

I found 2 people that actually managed to do a few wrap ups per day :-). Gunnar Gestsson (a recent MVP which we had the pleasure to have in our pre-conf class :-)) and Tino Ruijs (a NAV consultant from the Netherlands which I didn’t have the chance to meet this year unfortunately πŸ™ ) did take the efforts to put up their thoughts.. .

Organization

If you weren’t there .. just try to imagine:

  • One of the biggest cinema’s in the country (if not THE biggest), which means: huge screens, comfortable seats (for some too comfortable), top-of-the-bill presentation equipment.
  • All sessions are being recorded (you can already download the sessions here)
  • Presentation material where presenters can see what is displayed in front of them, can switch upto 4 pc’s, high definition sound, .. .
  • 2 people at the session that are constantly checking sound and video.
  • A professional photographer (look at the pictures).
  • Food .. I don’t think there were people that didn’t like it .. the choice was huge, especially at the reception.
  • A conference App on all phone platforms
  • Pictures of the previous session are displayed as welcome-slideshow in the next session
  • A sponsor-presentation corner, where sponsors get 15 minutes to show off their product
  • A very enjoyable expo-center, with enough room to just sit and relax, meet, talk to sponsors, …

And I just know I’m forgetting so much .. as I’ve been saying the last 3 years: NAVTechDays is the most professionally organized convention for NAV! And I’m sure not only for NAV…

Pre Conference Day

As every year, this year, there was something new: A Pre Conference Day. And with everything you try out, it’s a risk to fail. Well, the Pre Conference Day didn’t fail at all. Three full-day workshops, 127 people and 5 over-motivated “teachers” were the ingredients. We (with Partner Ready Software) have done our first workshop on “Development Best Practices and Design Patterns for NAV”. Although I haven’t received any feedback or evaluation, it did seem that the concept we were aiming for, worked somehow. And the feedback was good. I’m a happy man, I hope the attendees got what they came for ;-).

I did the class together with Mark (Brummel) and Gary (Winter). So, the complete team, except for Vjeko, who was entertaining a 50-people class with .Net Interoperability. A class where I only got good feedback from.

The third class was about reporting by Claus Lundstrum. Also Claus had to enjoy 50 people.

Nevertheless .. I think the NAVTechDays’ Pre Conference Day is something worth repeating .. at least, that’s the feedback I got from Luc :-).

The sessions

It was during the Keynote that we realized that we had to change our own session a bit. Namely, Thomas was talking about the things they were working on for “Crete” (which is the codename for the next release). In the roadmap, there is “upgrades”: Microsoft is going to make upgrades easier for us! One concept Thomas mentioned was “working with Hooks”. And he explicitly mentioned that they “had been talking with MVP’s about this”. Well, let’s just say we felt ourselves a bit forced in “making the circle complete”, we had to include the “hook pattern” in our presentation. It was already a big part of the Pre Conference Day, but it actually wasn’t part of our session. In fact, me personally, didn’t have a part in the session – or so it was planned ;-).

That meant for me: no time for sessions, only time to come up with content for about 20 minutes of session for the next day. So after enjoying the NAV Patterns session of Bogdana and her team, I somewhat started in preparing that slot. No cinema-seats for me .. .

Well, I guess we pulled it off somehow. We got quite some questions and feedback during and after our session. Also the hooks seemed to have catched some attention. So much that my next thing to do is describe it to put it on the wiki (See Mark’s post if you want to know more..). It IS a pattern after all :).

Some impressions

Yet again, I’m proud to have been part of that wonderful team. In fact, lately, I’m proud do be part of so many teams :-). Too bad no picture of the iFacto-team, but nevertheless ..

The NAVTechDays Speakers:


The MVP’s


The NAV Design Pattern Team (at least this is part of it):


Partner Ready Software Team


During our session, I made a joke that the screens weren’t big enough .. Cool to see this appear on twitter by Tino Ruijs πŸ™‚


This is our class at The Pre Conference day:


Even Kamil was there! :-). We even tried to make it somewhat interactive:






If you want more impressions, it’s best to go to the conference site :-). There is even a video of Kai Kowalewski: http://youtu.be/dPAu8gjWdzc.

I just know I’m forgetting so much to mention. As I said .. it was a mindrush. For example, I have been spending lots of time with the NAV Design Patterns people (also before the conference), attended their session, and the feedback on the patterns was great as well .. and a lot is still coming in .. . I did somewhat not mention this on this blog, but it deserves separate attention to say the least ;-).

Anyway .. let’s publish this one .. because I really need to blink my eyes now .. πŸ˜‰

Ps, I did receive som mug shots of myself .. but that is going to need some serious photoshop-ing before I’m going to put it up here .. :-/.

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Permanent link to this article: https://www.waldo.be/2013/11/13/navtechdays-2013/

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  1. The pre conf P.R.S. Class was worth of it. I think that everybody could learn something new there. The minds used to some patterns for last 10 years need some time to get used to different patterns which are much better… πŸ˜‰

  2. It was a good joke. πŸ™‚
    And great session!

  3. It was a greate presentation πŸ™‚ But I did not attend your presentation on Friday. Will this be published ?

  4. Thanks all πŸ™‚
    I got the message the the rendering of the presentation had to be re-done, but it’s coming online asap πŸ™‚

  5. Waldo, you got me! This time, especially after heaving read your article, I am soooo sad that I missed the event and all you guys I could have met … If I attend next year – will you still talk to me …?

  6. πŸ™‚
    of course!
    But I take it as a promise .. you’ll definitely be there next year!

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