Welcome to 2006, the first day of the rest of your, err... nevermind

Okay, here we are kids. It's 2006 and life is grand ain't it? So what would the first post of the year be for me, why it's the sessions I'm holding at this years SharePoint tracks as part of the DevConnections conference April 2-5, 2006 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando, Florida (whew, that's a mouthful).

As I tripped over Bob Mixon's blog I see that the final PDF brochure thingamajig is avaiable (why am I always the last to know?). You can check out all the good stuff you could see (for a few thousand dollars) right here, but since this blog is all about me, here's my happy-go-lucky SharePoint sessions for you to look forward to:

RABBIT TEST: BUILDING UNIT TESTING WEB PARTS USING TDD AND SHAREPOINT
In this session, we’ll talk about some of the real problems developers face when trying to test Web Parts in the real world with real applications. We’ll explore some techniques for making Web Part development a little more testable (using NUnit), build a Web Part using a Test Driven Development (TDD) approach, and have an open discussion about when and where we might want and might not want to implement unit tests in real world applications.

HARD CORE LOGO: A DEEP DIVE INTO SHAREPOINT BRANDING
Customizing a portal or Web site is always the first order of business when someone implements SharePoint. Companies always want their sites to look and feel right to their customers. Employees want to feel at home with their portal so it looks like the rest of the organization. Custom applications need to look like
they’re part of the big picture. You’ll start from the humble beginnings of customization from simple logo changes up to complete overhauls of the look and feel of SharePoint. This includes both portal and theme customization and some tricks and tips you can use to get big results for very little effort. By the end of the session, you’ll be able to take that drab and dreary SharePoint look and make it your own.

MINORITY REPORT: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF BUILDING REPORTS FROM SHAREPOINT DATA
What good is data if you can’t report against it? The reporting capabilities of SharePoint are basic, but in this session we use some custom and third-party solutions to dive into the contents of your lists and document libraries in order to get good value out of what you put into them. We’ll build some reports on the fly using existing tools then rip open the covers in the object model to turn your SharePoint list into a well-tuned data reporting machine.

Not only do you get to listen to me blather on about SharePoint for many hours, but you also get:

• A free one-year subscription to MSDN magazine
• A one-year subscription to SSWUG.ORG (with something to do with SQL, like that's important or something)
• A six-month subscription to SQL Server magazine (only six months?)
• Three fun-filled happy meals, err, lunches
• Live organ transplants (as we seem to have missed out at PDC with these)
• Three continental breakfasts
• One low-fat carb-free reception (well, I can't guarantee the low-fat or carb-free part)
• One Theme Party (come as your favorite 6-0 Hive!)
• Conference T-Shirt and Bag (to wear to the Theme Party of course)
• Software (non-specific but I'll be it's not porn)
• Proceedings Book and Resource CD

Should be a blast so hope to see you there! Remember to book early at DevConnections.com for some cool deals and tell them Bil sent you (well, don't actually as it may hinder my ability to be there and I've already got my spiderman jammies all packed for the trip).