Last year, I noticed there were more local community-driven events than I had time to attend.  I love seeing that kind of enthusiasm for technology among the community. 

These events are great for me because - although I've been in software development for many years - I love to learn and frequently jump at the chance to learn from and share ideas with other experienced developers and architects.

I have noticed that most of these events targeted experienced developers.  Topics tended to be moderate to advanced and speakers assumed a certain level of expertise from their audience in order to grasp their talk. 

This can be frustrating for less-experienced developers.  It's difficult to understand the details of NHibernate when you are still trying to figure out how to write simple queries against SQL Server.

Chris Woodruff first described to me the idea of a .Net University - a community event targeted at those new to .Net programming.  All the content would be introductory, allowing people to learn fundamentals.

I liked the idea immediately.  When I was a trainer, I always spent time on the first day reviewing the basic prerequisites of the class material.  I knew that no one would understand anything about web development if they didn't know how to construct an HTML document. 

So Chris is now organizing the West Michigan .Net University that will be held April 4 in Grand Rapids. 

The morning sessions will all be introductory and the afternoon will feature more intermediate topics.  Each session will be about 3 hours - longer than at a typical code camp.

I'll be there delivering a morning session titled SQL 101, in which I'll explain the basics of working with a relational database - SQL Server in particular.  I"ll describe how to work with data and how to use code and tools to interact with SQL Server.  I've been preparing for this talk by writing a 'Back To Basics' series on this blog.

Other sessions include .Net Bootcamp; Intro To ASP.Net and AJAX; and Real World Architecture.  You can view the complete session list at http://dodn.org/WestMichiganDotNetU/Sessions.aspx

A lot of great speakers have signed up for this event so I'm counting on some great sessions.