So it looks like my travelling is starting back up here pretty quickly. This weekend Natalie and I are headed to Colorado to do another round of house hunting. We’ll be back in town either Sunday or Monday, thankfully Kim is staying at our place again to watch the dogs while we are gone, thanks Kim! For more info on that trip check out http://www.going2colorado.com/

Next weekend I’ll be cruising around Missouri and Illinois on a Harley with Kevin, we did this two years ago and wanted to do it again before the move to CO. The week after that I’m headed to Virginia for a couple of days of DotNetNuke Training. I’ll be back in town the weekend of our niece’s birthday party, and then the following week I head to Tampa Florida for the Day of DotNetNuke. The DayOfDNN is actually on Saturday but I’ll be doing a DotNetNuke Essentials Workshop on Friday, and also a DotNetNuke Best Practices Workshop on Sunday following the event.

In other news I also got word this week that I’ve been accepted as a speaker for the third year in a row for the DotNetNuke OpenForce conference held in Las Vegas in November. I’m honored to have been selected to speak again, there were a lot of submissions this year and a lot of big names in the community included in those submissions. Also a quick congrats to my fellow Engage employee Cuong Dang for having two sessions at OpenForce this year, his second time attending and presenting.

It’s turning out to be a busy summer, hopefully we find a house this weekend so we can get our move on and get settled so we can enjoy all the upcoming things!

Well it's Tuesday afternoon, nearing 3 O'clock and coming up on the end of the first day of sessions for OpenForce07. I don't think this will be my last post, but I am taking a short break and sitting in the speaker room to type this up. So far things have been moving along really well. After Shaun's Keynote I went to his session entitles "DotNetNuke Business Opportunities". At the presentation he gave an overview of the various ways that an individual or business can make money by utilizing DNN. Here are some of the highlights from the presentation. The CMS market currently is currently around 1.5 Billion Dollars annually and by 2010 will be 2.5 billion. Some of the products that you can use in a DNN business include Modules Components and Controls Skins Vertical Market Apps Documentation Materials/Books Service opportunities within the DNN community include Consulting Custom Module Development Skinning Hosting SaaS - Software as a Service Documentation Training Translation Services The presentation actually finished up a little early for Shaun so there was nearly 30 minutes of questions and answers, mostly revolving around the DotNetNuke Partner program that will be launching soon, hopefully later this month. Shaun's session was the last before lunch, it's amazing that they can serve this many people food at once, but from what I saw it went pretty flawlessly. After lunch there was time to wander around the exhibition hall, I ended up hanging around the DNN Corp booth and answering questions as the Charles and Vincenc were staffing it and there were plenty of people stopping by to chat! There's one more set of sessions this afternoon, starting around 4:15pm, I think I'm going to take in Cathal's "Creating Secure DotNetNuke Modules" More later! Posted from...

DotNetNuke 4.6.0 released today, just in time for OpenForce Europe! You can download it from the Downloads Page on DotNetNuke.com To see a list of what has changed in 4.6.0 check out Joe's blog post from last week. Posted from...

Well it's been a busy summer for me and it looks like it isn't slowing down just yet. Earlier this month I spent a week in the Washington DC area conducting some advanced DotNetNuke Module Development Training for a new client. In just over a week I'll be in Topeka Kansas for the SCCA Solo Nationals, I'm definitely looking forward to getting away from computers for a week and just enjoying racing a car or two! I've got quite a few speaking engagements coming up this fall, here's a quick list, I'm sure i'll go into more detail before each event. October 2nd I'll be speaking at the Information Systems Programming club at UM St. Louis October 19th and 20th I'll be giving 2 or 3 presentations at the 2nd Tulsa Tech Fest, I presented there last year and look forward to speaking at this event again. November 6-8th I'll be at OpenForce07 in Las Vegas! I'm really looking forward to this trip. There's also a St. Louis DotNetNuke User's Group meeting on Monday evening, I'll be sending out an email to all the users for that here shortly. More details later! Posted from...

Here's a quick list of why you should go to the OpenForce07 conference in Las Vegas in November 2007! Feel free to copy the list and create your own. OpenForce07 is the first DotNetNuke specific conference You get to hear presentations from the brightest in the DotNetNuke World Vegas Baby, Vegas Meet the Core Team Mandalay Bay DevConnections Asp.net Connections SQL Connections I'll be there! It's Vegas, how can you say no? Don't forget, if you can't make it to Vegas you should try to make it to OpenForce Europe in September! Registration is open, so start bugging your bosses, get them to foot the bill for your trip! It will be a great time for anyone who uses DotNetNuke, either as an administrator, content editor, or developer. There is plenty of information to learn with the best resources in the business there to learn it from! Posted from...

Are you going to OpenForce07 in Las Vegas November 5-8th 2007? I am! And I even have the badge displaying on http://chrishammond.com Have you seen the agenda for the conference yet? If not take a look at it here. There will be 3 days of DotNetNuke topics, two tracks each day. It looks like I'm up second, on the second day, of the second track. We're also lining up a vendor booth for Engage Software, I'm hoping to write a demo version of Engage: Publish by then and have it there to distribute to visitors to the Engage booth! Posted from...

A day or so ago Joe posted a link to the speaker announcements for the OpenForce 07 conference in Vegas in November. There are some very cool topics that will be covered out in Vegas. I hope to meet as many of you as possible, and see you in my presentation as well! Here's a link to the OpenForce page. Here's a list from the current Speaker's page. GENERAL DGN100: DotNetNuke Open Force ’07 Keynote AddressShaun Walker DGN103: Panel Discussion: DotNetNuke – The Road AheadJoe BrinkmanNik KalyaniScott WillhiteShaun WalkerIn this panel discussion, the four co-founders of DotNetNuke Corporation will share their vision for the company and the DotNetNuke Open Source project. The resources, approach and business model required to manage and grow a large Open Source project such as DotNetNuke are substantially different than those required for a commercial software company. Get an inside look at how DotNetNuke Corp. is addressing today’s challenges while preparing for the future. DGN102: The Quiet Enterprise Web Revolution: DotNetNuke as a WeaponMark TrenchardEnterprises are grappling with ways to reduce system complexity and cost yet increase capability, speed to market, and flexibility. Current web technologies give enterprises the rare opportunity to get it all and the ones that get it are quietly reinvesting in web architectures to achieve competitive advantage. In this session, Mark looks at DotNetNuke from an IT leader’s chair and believes that the solution has a strong value proposition for companies that want to build out a multi-portal platform with a rich set of shared services.  He will discuss the DotNetNuke advantages from an IT leadership view and explore the dimensions that are unique to larger enterprises that may need additional investment. SKIN DESIGN DSD201: Creating Accessible DotNetNuke Skins Using CSSLee SykesCathal ConnollyIn this session you will learn how to create a clean, simple, search engine-friendly and accessible skin that takes advantage of the features that CSS layout designs provide: accessible, flexible, search-engine-friendly, small file size, and cross-browser compatible. You will also become familiar with issues that need to be considered when creating skins that meet accessibility legislation and are XHTML compliant. We will take a freely available XHTML- & CSS-based skin, convert it to a DotNetNuke skin, and configure it to ensure that it renders compliant markup. In addition, we'll look at transforming non-compliant portions of markup, and look at techniques to ensure that your site remains compliant. DSD101: Introduction to DotNetNuke SkinningTracy WittenkellerThis session will give you a better idea of how to create great-looking and flexible skins for DotNetNuke that utilize CSS. First we will review how to create properly formatted and flexible HTML and CSS for DotNetNuke skins and containers. Then we will take a closer look at XML attributes and the important role they play in defining skin and container functionality. The session will also touch upon customizing the default DotNetNuke menu and its CSS styles. Finally, we will review the proper process for packaging DotNetNuke skins and containers. DSD202: Menu Controls for DotNetNuke SkinsPeter SchotmanIn this session we will compare and review various free and commercial menu controls for DotNetNuke skins. We will use a range of examples to understand best practices, advantages and drawbacks of the various menu controls.  This is a session for the intermediate to experienced skinner who wants to expand her/his toolbox. MODULE DEVELOPMENT DMD303: Advanced DotNetNuke Module Development ConceptsCharles NurseThis session will focus on some advanced module development topics, including: module skinning/templating techniques, DAL+ and database agnostic tips, module plug-in architecture, use of the property editor and other...

I'm happy to announce that I've been selected to speak at the OpenForce07 DotNetNuke conference in Las Vegas during this year's fall DevConnections. DevConnections looks to be one of the larger conferences this year now that the PDC has been cancelled for this year. I'll be presenting on "Portal Administration Best Practices". I look forward to sharing what I've learned over the last 4+ years working with DNN in corporate and noncorporate environments, I've worked on some of the largest DNN implementations out there and hope to be able to share some of my experiences with those projects. Being selected to present at the first DotNetNuke conference is a great honor. I know quite a few other guys from my company (www.engagesoftware.com) will be in attendance as well. My wife will also be coming out to Vegas, as OpenForce 07 is the 5th though the 8th of November, and her birthday is on the 4th, she'd kill me if I left her home. I've already got plans to rent a Harley out there for a day with another Core Team Member, and may setup a few rounds of golf while out there as well. On a sad note, I had also hoped to make it to the SDC in the Netherlands in September, but received notification this morning that I wasn't accepted as a speaker for that conference. I guess that means I can spend time in September prepping for the SCCA Solo Nationals, assuming I have my car built by then. See you all in Vegas! Stay tuned for more OpenForce 07 info as I have...