I feel the need from time-to-time to provide you with an aggregated list of some of the major events and opportunities coming to the St. Louis area in the near future. March and April are going to be big months for St. Louis. Here are a few of the events coming your way.

Midwest SharePoint Conference 
The Midwest SharePoint Conference is a two-day event that will be conveniently held at the Ameristar Casino right off of Interstate 70 in St. Charles, Missouri. This conference will be jam packed with business and technical content pertaining to the SharePoint platform. The 2009 Midwest SharePoint Conference delivers the hard-hitting information, experiences and networking opportunities to help organizations get the most value from their Microsoft SharePoint, SQL Server and PerformancePoint investments, and promises to provide more than just tips and tricks.

• Learn, share and network with peers, Microsoft technologists, authors and industry experts
• Discover innovative ideas that leading organizations are using to extend the software they already own
• Ideal for companies who have, are planning or considering SharePoint or Business Intelligence projects
• Select from more than 20 different discussion topics
• Choose tailored business, technical and deep-dive technical discussion tracks or attend individual sessions
• Visit exhibits from leading providers of value-added SharePoint extension solutions

Registration for the event costs $499, but if you register before February 28th, you’ll get a $150 discount, so register today.

Event Name: Midwest SharePoint Conference
Date: April 6-7, 2009
Registration Cost: $499 ($150 early bird discount) Register Online
Location: Ameristar Casino St. Charles, One Ameristar Boulevard, St. Charles, MO  63301

ArcReady: Cloud Computing
For our next ArcReady, we will explore a topic on everyone’s mind: Cloud computing.  Several industry companies have announced cloud computing services .  In October 2008 at the Professional Developers Conference, Microsoft announced the next phase of our Software + Services vision: the Azure Services Platform.  The Azure Services Platforms provides a wide range of internet services that can be consumed from both on premises environments or the internet.

Session 1: Cloud Services
In our first session we will explore the current state of cloud services. We will then look at how applications should be architected for the cloud and explore a reference application deployed on Windows Azure. We will also look at the services that can be built for on premise application, using .NET Services. We will also address some of the concerns that enterprises have about cloud services, such as regulatory and compliance issues.
Session 2: Mesh and Live Services
In our second session we will take a slightly different look at cloud based services by exploring Live Mesh and Live Services. Live Mesh is a data synchronization client that has a rich API to build applications on. Live services are a collection of APIs that can be used to create rich applications for your customers. Live Services are based on internet standard protocols and data formats.

Event Name: ArcReady
Date: March 5, 2009—9:00 AM
Registration Cost: FREE! Register Online
Location: Microsoft Offices, Three City Place Drive, Suite 1100, St. Louis, MO  63141

MSDN Events Unleashed
Enhance your coding capabilities with new tools, tips, and inside secrets from MSDN Events. You’ll see how developing for a Windows Mobile phone leverages your current coding skills and can make it simple to build, deploy and debug cool new devices.  Additionally, we’ll be showing you how to take full advantage of the Visual Studio debugger. We’ll offer some great tips and tricks to help you debug faster and more efficiently, while applying fresh techniques to ramp up your problem solving abilities.

Session 1: Tips & Tricks for the Visual Studio 2008 Debugger
The Visual Studio debugger is a highly underutilized tool for many developers. In this session, you’ll learn how to use it like a pro, while picking up new techniques to fast-forward your problem solving and debugging abilities. We’ll show you how to use advanced breakpoints, advanced watch window / Expression evaluator tricks, modifiers, assertions on the fly, remote debugging, and more. Whether you’re writing C#, VB, WPF, ASP.NET, Windows Forms, or services, we’ll provide tips and tricks that will have you debugging faster and much more efficiently. The debugger is your primary tool for finding bugs, so join us and learn how to make the most of it.

Session 2: Developing for Windows Mobile Devices
Mobile development is growing fast, and Windows Mobile is at the forefront with over 18 million phones shipped last year and many more cutting-edge devices on the way. Visual Studio developers have tremendous opportunities in this space. Why? Developing for a Windows Mobile phone leverages your existing coding experience and takes it to new heights. In this session, we’ll look at some of the coolest new devices, you’ll learn how to set up Visual Studio with the latest SDK and device emulators, and you’ll see how to build, deploy and debug Windows Mobile applications. We’ll also explore how Internet Explorer Mobile 6 provides new AJAX capabilities that offer the richness of the desktop with pan and zoom features tuned for mobile devices.

Event Name: MSDN Events Unleashed 
Date: March 5, 2009—1:00 PM
Registration Cost: FREE! Register Online
Location: Microsoft Offices, Three City Place Drive, Suite 1100, St. Louis, MO  63141

TechNet Events Unleashed
Working in partnership with our IT Professional Evangelists, we're very excited to introduce TechNet Events Unleashed to our schedule, and the first topic digs into Windows Server 2008.

Windows Server 2008
In this session we will look at Windows Server 2008 and the improvements that have been made to Microsoft’s premier server operating system.  Microsoft Windows Server 2008 is the most advanced Windows Server operating system yet, designed to power the next generation of networks, applications, and Web services. With Windows Server 2008 you can develop, deliver, and manage rich user experiences and applications, provide a highly secure network infrastructure, and increase technological efficiency and value within your organization.

Windows Server 2008 introduces several new capabilities including 64bit virtualization, a robust web and development platform, improvements in networking, security, high availability and disaster recovery.  In addition, there is a new “Core” installation option that reduces the operating system overhead by removing the graphical user interface thus freeing resources and lowering the potential security attack surface.  Come see demonstrations on many of the features in a technical deep dive you won’t want to miss!

After we discuss Windows Server 2008, we’ll briefly discuss the improvements coming in Windows Server 2008 R2 which is in development and now available for beta testing.

Event Name: TechNet Events Unleashed 
Date: March 5, 2009—3:00 PM
Registration Cost: FREE! Register Online
Location: Microsoft Offices, Three City Place Drive, Suite 1100, St. Louis, MO  63141

Also coming soon, the 2009 St. Louis MOSS Camp. I’ll post on this event as soon as the details are available.