Spending the summer at camp… Web Camp, that is

Microsoft is sponsoring a series of Web Camps this summer. They’re a series of free two day events being held worldwide, and I’m really excited about being taking part.

The camp is targeted at a broad range of developer background and experience. Content builds from 101 level introductory material to 200-300 level coverage, but we hit some advanced bits (e.g. MVC 2 features, jQuery templating, IIS 7 features, etc.) that advanced developers may not yet have seen. We start with a lap around ASP.NET & Web Forms, then move on to building and application with ASP.NET MVC 2, jQuery, and Entity Framework 4, and finally deploy to IIS. I got to spend some time working with James before the first Web Camp refining the content, and I think he’s packed about as much goodness into the time available as is scientifically possible. The content is really code focused – we start with File/New Project and spend the day building a real, working application.

The second day of the Web Camp provides attendees an opportunity to get hands on. There are two options:

• Join a team and build an application of your choice
• Work on a lab or tutorial

James Senior and I kicked off the fun with the first Web Camp in Toronto a few weeks ago. It was sold out, lots of fun, and by all accounts a great way to spend two days.

I’m really enthusiastic about the format. Rather than just listening to speakers and then forgetting everything in a few days, attendees actually build something of their choice. They get an opportunity to pitch projects they’re interested in, form teams, and build it – getting experience with “real world” problems, with all the help they need from experienced developers.

James got help on the second day practical part from the good folks that run Startup Weekend. Startup Weekend is a fantastic program that gathers developers together to build cool apps in a weekend, so their input on how to organize successful teams for weekend projects was invaluable. Nick Seguin joined us in Toronto, and in addition to making sure that everything flowed smoothly, he just added a lot of fun and excitement to the event, reminding us all about how much fun it is to come up with a cool idea and just build it.

In addition to the Toronto camp, I’ll be at the Mountain View, London, Munich, and New York camps over the next month. London is sold out, but the rest still have space available, so come join us!

Here’s the full list, with the ones I’ll be at bolded because - you know - it’s my blog. The the whole speaker list is great, including Scott Guthrie, Scott Hanselman, James Senior, Rachel Appel, Dan Wahlin, and Christian Wenz.