Today, I attended the Windows Phone 7 Bootcamp, which was organised by Microsoft and UK Tech Days. The event was also being supported by the Windows Phone MVP’s from Appamundi. You can find details of this event here. This was hot on the heels of the Windows Azure Bootcamp which I attended yesterday. The event broke down as follows:
- A series of sessions covering:
- Design Session: User Journey
- Intro to Windows Phone Dev
- Controls & Control Toolkit
- Execution Model
- Storing Data
- Launchers and hookers
- Background Tasks
- Marketplace & Submissions
- A series of Hands On Labs
In a change to the “normal” format of these events, each of the sessions were voluntary. The idea was that you could dip in and out of the sessions, and carry on with “Hands on Labs”, or ask questions of the volunteer helpers, or socialize with the other attendees. I have to say that I wasn’t prepared for this format, I was instead expecting a similar format to the Bootcamp yesterday (i.e. a more rigid structure), but I have to say, that it worked.
I think that this was helped by the fact that the venue was set up to encourage interaction. There were loads of open spaces to talk to delegates, a table tennis table, multiple table football tables, a pool table, and comfortable seats. The only thing that I would say is, when you were in the auditorium trying to listen to the speaker, the sound of people playing table tennis was slightly off-putting, but that is a minor complaint.
I have to say a big shout out to hit+run, you can find them on Twitter here. They were creating custom Windows Phone 7 t-shirts, which each attendee got for free. There was a “huge” queue to get one, but the end result was very impressive, and worth the wait! Thanks!
As per yesterday, I would thoroughly recommend that if you get a chance to attend a UK Tech Days event, you should definitely grab it. For a list of upcoming events, you can check out this list here.
the organisers, presenters, helpers, and venue
The people who were involved in the event were Pete Vickers, Andrej Radinger, Mike Ormond, Paul Lo, Raiz Ahmed and of course, the venue, which was provided by LBi London. Big thanks for everyone involved!
Where to find Windows Phone 7 resources
- Hands On Labs
- This is the set of Hands On Labs that people were working on through out the day.
- appamundi blogs
- The team members of appamundi mentioned that they will be blogging about the resources for the Bootcamp, so make sure you check them out.
- User Design Experience Guidelines
- This is the official set of guidelines for developing the User Interface for Windows Phone 7.
- Windows Phone Screenshot Tool
- An essential tool for creating the screen shots for submission to the Marketplace.
- Mike Ormond Blog Post on Screenshots
- Related to the above, more information about submitting screen shots to the Marketplace for your application.
- Mango Jump Start
- A series of videos on MSDN Channel 9 regarding getting started with Windows Phone 7.
- SketchFlow Template for Windows Phone
- An add-on for SketchFlow which allows you to stub out prototype screens for your application.
Book recommendations
Unfortunately, I forgot to ask the organisers and presenters for the Windows Phone 7 books that they recommend, however, here are some of the ones that I own and highly recommend:
Timothy Binkley-Jones, Massimo Perga, Michael Sync
Adam Nathan
Charles Petzold
****Book Details
Also, check out my list of free eBooks which includes some Windows Phone 7 ones.
Looking ahead...
I asked this question yesterday, with regard to Windows Azure, but what am I going to do, going forward, with Windows Phone? The answer to this question is, a lot! This is for a couple of reasons, not least because of the brand new, shiny, Nokia Lumia 800, which I got while I attended this event! Oh sorry, did I not mention that until just now. Yes, you heard me correct, I received a free Nokia Lumia 800. In attendance at the event were representatives of Nokia who are running a program where if you can prove that you intend to create and publish an app onto the Windows Phone Marketplace, they will give you a phone. I have been toying with the idea of doing a couple of applications, and this is really the reason that I wanted to attend this Bootcamp, to give me the “kick” to get them done. I knocked up a quick storyboard to indicate the intention of my first application, and with that in place, I put this to them, and they gave me a phone. Huge thank you to Nokia!!!
So, if nothing else, I will be creating a Windows Phone 7 application in the next month. However, I really feel that this platform has a lot going for it, and I definitely want to get more involved with it, and I am actually thinking about doing some talks on it in the near future.
Other Blog Posts...
If I find out about anyone else blogging about they day, I will update this section with references to them.
- Windows Phone 7 - App in 30 days - Steven Gray