Our noses were pressed against the inside of the 19th floor window when the giant RV drove by. I called Richard to tell him we saw them and he asked where they could park their 37-foot vehicle. “Ask the valet to park it,” I joked. Within seconds, I heard Richard asking a terrified valet if he would park his car.

A few minutes later, Richard Campbell, Carl Franklin, and their driver found a few concurrent spots to park the RV and arrived at the 19th floor for a special meeting of the Great Lakes Area .NET User Group (GANG) and a special live recording of the Tablet Show. The event was part of the 2012 DotNetRocks Road Trip that spans 39 cities and nearly 3 months. At this stop, Richard delivered a presentation on DevOps; Carl a presentation on Building Windows 8 applications; and Jeff Wilcox of the Microsoft Azure team gave a brief presentation about his life and work. Afterward, Carl and Richard interviewed Jeff about his Fourth and Main application, built for Windows Phone 7. You can listen to that interview here.

The trip was initiated by Carl and Richard, who are the famous hosts of a number of popular podcasts, including The Tablet Show, DotNETRocks, and RunAs Radio. When I heard the trip would include a stop in Michigan, I immediately contacted the Great Lakes Area .NET User Group volunteers and a great many people worked hard to make the October 9 stop in Southfield a great success.

We billed it as a second October GANG meeting with President Kent Fehribach hosting, New World Systems chipped in some extra sponsorship money and we ordered a barbecue dinner from Lockhart’s of Royal Oak. About 120 people packed the room and nearly all stayed for the entire 4 hours. Many went to the pub after the show to continue the conversation.

Somehow, I ended up getting the credit for the local event, but that simply isn’t fair – many people contributed to the night’s success and I’m proud to have been one of them.

I’m hoping this isn’t the last tour Richard and Carl organize and I’m hoping it’s not the last time they visit Michigan. We have a lot more valets waiting to be terrified.

 


Links

Photos

Dot Net Rocks Road Trip

The Tablet Show

Interview with Jeff Wilcox