Tag Archives: Ann Arbor events

Software Engineering Tools at SRT Solutions

Next week, on Tuesday, May 20, we're holding a 1-day open spaces event at SRT Solutions.  The theme is Software Engineering Tools.  The participants will define the topics for discussion, but we think that people might want to talk about version control, continuous integration, and other things that make their lives easier (or more miserable).

We're using Bazaar with one customer, and so that may come up.  We use subversion for most of our customers.  And, of course, there are cool tools that connect to version control systems, like Atlassian's FishEye.

And if we're talking about Atlassian tools, I would sure like to learn more about what Bamboo can do for us, and how that differs from Cruise Control. 

What I always find invaluable about bringing people together to talk about tools is the collective knowledge. We all have our own little subset of the software tool universe that we live and breathe in, and stepping outside of that world for a day to experience what other people find useful is a way to quickly become more effective.

Jay Wren always seems to have something to say about tools, and he's coming. 

The more the merrier.  Registration is at http://srtsolutions.com/static/SoftwareEngTools.html.  The $100 registration fee includes a continental breakfast and a boxed lunch.

Event for businesswomen in Ann Arbor area

Over the past few months, I have been involved in organzing an event geared toward the professional women in the Ann Arbor area.  I think that it offers a unique opportunity for women to learn about what other women are doing, and to gauge the prominence of women in our community. 

So, you might ask the question, "WHY is this a gender-specific group?".  That's a rational question, and being in a male-dominated profession, I have spent a lot of time thinking about gender-specific groups. The truth is that the number of women who are active in the business community in Ann Arbor is substantial, but not well publicized.  I've been honored to be working with many of them on the committee putting together this event.  I have a lot to learn, and I feel that bringing together women for an event will go a long way toward an understanding of what is being accomplished in our area by some top-notch women.  I learn a great every day from the men that I'm surrounded by in my field.  I'm happy to stretch that a bit and see what I can learn, or what I can offer, to the business community that is comprised of women.  In truth, we all benefit from diversity, and having access to both male and female perspectives is critical.

The Women's Exchange of Washtenaw (WXW) is not a membership organization.  Rather, its purpose is to organize, encourage, support, educate and strengthen the businesswomen of our region by providing a venue for business connections, skill-building, professional support, and growth.  There are several membership organizations in the area (Association for Women in Computing, National Association of Women Business Owners, etc.) that serve a different purpose.  I'm interested to see how this group grows and distinguishes itself.

The event is being held on Wednesday, May 7th. The event begins at 1:00 pm and includes a thought-provoking panel discussion (with the best line up of panelists you've seen in a long time), breakout sessions where all attendees participate, and a happy hour (and a half) beginning at 4:30 p.m.


In addition to the panelists (check out the bios on www.wxwbusiness.com), the afternoon will be filled with roundtable discussions on issues decided by the participants.  We will include the following breakout sessions:

  • Managing Growth
  • Learning to Lead and Creating Culture
  • Relationship Building
  • Visioning: Creating a Path for your Company

The event will be held at Kensington Court Ann Arbor, 610 Hilton Blvd, Ann Arbor, MI.  The cost to attend is $50 and includes refreshments and one drink ticket.

Register at http://www.wxwbusiness.com. 

I hope that the 5 women who read this blog will join us. <grin/>

 

Flex User Group meeting next week (Monday)

SPARK and Janeeva are coordinating to determine if there is interest in a Flex User Group.  Toward that end, and toward introducing Flex to people who might not know about it, they are holding a meeting next Monday evening, February 11, from 6-8 pm.

Introduction to Flex : Creating Rich Internet Applications (RIA)

Janeeva and SPARK are pleased to invite you to a seminar on creating RIAs using Adobe Flex technology. Flex is a cross-platform development framework for creating rich Internet applications (RIAs). Flex enables you to create expressive, high-performance applications that run identically on all major browsers and operating systems.

Seminar leaders Raj Rajen and Michael Bergens, both of Janeeva, will use examples to demonstrate the key concepts of Flex, then progressively build upon the examples to illustrate how Flex applications interact with backend server applications. The seminar is designed for web application developers experienced in using Java, PHP, Ruby, Python or .NET.

We will also discuss the potential to create a Flex User Group, depending on the level of interest. If you are unable to attend but interested in a user group, please register anyway.

The session is scheduled for February 11th, 6-8pm, at SPARK Central in Ann Arbor. Please register at www.annarborusa.org/events.

Raj Rajen is currently the CTO of Janeeva Inc., an Ann Arbor based SaaS company delivering Rich Internet Applications to fortune 500 customers. Previously, Raj was an Information Architect at Mechanical Dynamics Inc, MSC Software, and BlueGill Technologies. He has 20 years of industry experience in the IT and Computer-Aided-Engineering space with a focus on Enterprise Systems development.

Michael Bergens is currently a Senior Software Engineer at Janeeva. He is a graduate of the Mendeleyev University in Moscow's Computer Science department.  He wrote and sold his first computer program in 1976, and has more than 30 years of software industry experience.