Update: Slides and code are now available over on the Events page!

I will be presenting 2 sessions at Visual Studio Live! in Redmond on the Microsoft campus this August 19 – 23.  The conference is a full 5 day event and there’s still time to register and save some cash!  For this event, I’ll be presenting:

T20 Windows Store Application Contracts and Extensibility
Date: Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Time: 4:15 pm – 5:30 pm
Level: Introductory

In this session, we will explore these contracts and how they can be used in any Windows Store application to provide a seamless, integrated experience for users.  Contracts are a new feature of Windows 8 Store applications that allow interaction with the operating system and other Store applications in a standard way. With contracts, applications can implement interfaces to allow searching, sharing, settings, app-to-app file picking, and more.

TH03 Building Your First Windows Phone 8 Application …

I will be presenting a session at Visual Studio Live! in Chicago this May 13-17 at the Hilton Chicago.  The conference is a full 5 day event and there’s still time to register and save $400!

W01 Building Your First Windows Phone 8 Application
Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Time: 9:15 am - 10:30 am
Level: Introductory

Expand your mobile horizons with Windows Phone 8!  Developing applications for the phone is extremely similar to building a XAML application for the desktop.  In this session, I will demonstrate the fundamentals of Windows Phone development while building a very simple application which covers all of the important points of the new platforms architecture, including the developer tools and device emulator and touch input.

W13 Windows Store Application Contracts and Extensibility
Date: Wednesday, May 15, 2013
Time: 3:00 pm – 4:15 pm
Level: Intermediate

In this session, we will explore these contracts and how …

Update: Slides and code are now available over on the Events page!

I will be presenting a session at Visual Studio Live! in Las Vegas this March 25-29 at the MGM Grand.  The conference is a full 5 day event and there’s still time to register!

W01 Building Your First Windows Phone 8 Application
Date: Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Time: 9:15 am - 10:30 am
Level: Introductory

Expand your mobile horizons with Windows Phone 8!  Developing applications for the phone is extremely similar to building a XAML application for the desktop.  In this session, I will demonstrate the fundamentals of Windows Phone development while building a very simple application which covers all of the important points of the new platforms architecture, including the developer tools and device emulator and touch input.

W20 Building a Windows Runtime Component with C#
Date: Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Time: 4:15 pm - 5:30 pm
Level: Intermediate

A properly written Windows Runtime components can be …

If you're writing (or plan to write) a Windows Store app, check out our Windows Store App snippets project!  In partnership with the Visual Studio team, we have created a collection of around 60 IntelliSense Code Snippets for common Windows Store app programming tasks. The snippets are available for Visual Basic, C#, C++, and JavaScript developers.

For more details, please see:

• Installation
• List of Snippets

With the Windows Store now open for submissions, use these snippets to get a jump start on your project.

After installing, just right-click and select Insert Snippet, and select the snippet from the list. Then press Tab to jump between fields.  Here's an example:

Give them a try and let us know what you think!

I will be speaking at Visual Studio Live! in Las Vegas this March 26-30.  The conference is a full 5 day event and there’s still time to register!  If you use code VLSPK21, you can save a nice chunk of cash off the all-access Best Value Conference Package. The three sessions I’m presenting are:

T05 - Windows 8 Metro-style Application Contracts and Extensibility
Date: Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Time: 10:45 AM – 12:00 PM 
Level: Intermediate

Contracts are a new feature of Windows 8 Metro-style applications that allow applications to interact with the operating system and other Metro-style applications in a standard way. With contracts, applications can implement interfaces to allow searching, sharing, settings, app-to-app file picking, and more. In this session, we will explore these contracts and how they can be used in any Windows 8 Metro-style application to provide a seamless, integrated experience for users.

W04 - XNA Games for Windows Phone
Date: …