I had a terrific time yesterday at the Lansing Day of .Net yesterday. 

This was the last in an ambitious string of community-sponsored events in Michigan and Ohio under the "Day of .Net" branding.  In the past two months, DODN events have been held in Wilmington, OH, Grand Rapids, MI, Cleveland, OH, and Lansing, MI.  I managed to make the two Michigan events but family commitments kept me from the ones in Ohio.

A Day of .Net event features numerous speakers (usually about 30) speaking on topics related to software development.  The primary focus is .Net development but peripheral topics are almost always included.  I heard a very good talk yesterday by Dan Rigsby on the agile methodology in which software was barely mentioned.

Prior to yesterday, I wondered if the Lansing event might be anticlimactic coming so soon after three similar events.  I worried for nothing.  In fact, the opposite was true.  They managed to attract an excellent group of speakers, a full slate of sponsors (meaning, among other things, many cool door prizes) one of the better facilities I've seen (Lansing Community College West Campus) and the mayor of Lansing.  People were generally excited about this event.  I've heard - but can't confirm - that the Day of .Net was covered by two TV stations.  Jeff McWhirter and his group did a great job putting this together.  I don't know who thought of inviting the mayor, but that was a good idea.

The best part of these events is interacting with the people in the community.  There was a lot of good discussions about various projects, the state of the industry, the role of the community and the various approaches to developing software. 

When it was over, many of us headed over to Jeff's house to celebrate into the night.  I left at around 11 and the place was still packed and the bonfire was blazing.  Mike Wood, an old friend from my Cincinnati days stayed at my house before heading home this morning.

I picked up some nice swag - a copy of Camtasia, a logo t-shirt, and a pint glass featuring the LDODN logo.  This morning, I noticed that the t-shirt includes the slogan "I was there" but the pint glass has a modified slogan "I think I was there".

Here are some photos of the day: Photos.