by Alvin Ashcraft

Last month we published another awesome session from TechBash 2019. Subscribe to our YouTube page so you'll be notified of all the great new content from TechBash every year.

Zero to Eighty: Getting Your Testing Initiative Off the Line

Nicole Tibaldi

Just over a year ago, my team’s frontend codebase lacked any meaningful test coverage. Our release process was painful, requiring us to complete nearly one hundred manual QA steps to give us even the smallest amount of confidence that new features didn’t break existing functionality. Now, our tests are automated, fast, stable, and nobody complains about having to write them! As I recount the tale of how I became the team’s “test captain” and led us to testing bliss, you’ll learn about mistakes we made, how we changed course when needed, the milestones we achieved, and some general dos and don’ts for creating better habits within your team.

Check back soon for more announcements about TechBash 2020!

- Your TechBash Organizers

by Alvin Ashcraft

Last week we published another session from last November's TechBash 2019 event in the Poconos. Subscribe to our channel today to get notified when we publish new videos.

Gene Gotimer - Get to Green: How to safely refactor legacy code

For many of us, legacy code is a fact of life. Code without tests -- no safe way to make changes, no safety net, no hope of untangling the web of accumulated ugliness, an incomplete understanding (or less) of how it really behaves. And your next set of changes is just going to add to the garbage pile and make it worse. You need tests so you can safely make changes, but you can't add tests without changing the code. It is a chicken-and-egg problem.

So how do you turn legacy code into code you can change confidently? Slowly, one step at a time. Join Gene as he shares his experiences working with a monolithic codebase that was so bad it made national news. He'll go over the steps he and his team used to refactor the code safely by using mocking frameworks, mutation testing, and patience to build an understanding of how the code worked so that they could change it confidently.

This talk is for anyone that has inherited legacy code that they aren't confident in and wants to make it something they can work on and improve. You'll leave with some tools and techniques that will help you change your legacy code into something maintainable.

by Alvin Ashcraft

Catch four new TechBash 2019 session recordings on the TechBash Dev Conference YouTube channel today. Here's what you've missed if you aren't subscribed to our channel:

7 Habits of Highly Effective Developers - Gaines Kergosien

Software and website developers are in extremely high demand and rates continue to climb, but many developers have not yet realized their potential. Being good at what you do is important, but it's equally important that you can communicate the value you bring to an organization and build a reputation that will provide opportunities for growth, both professionally and financially. We will work together to measure your accomplishments, establish a personal brand, and walk away with a resume that conveys your true value!

From Razor to Blazor with ASP.NET Core - Bill Wolff

ASP.NET keeps adding exciting new features. See the progression from web forms to MVC, WebAPI, SignalR, and Razor Pages. The newest trend is client-side C# web development with Blazor and Web Assembly.

.NET: Past, Present, and Future - Scott Kay

.NET is a proven platform for building every conceivable category of software with an exciting and transformative future still ahead.

Impostor Syndrome: Slaying the Beast - 'Tine Zekis

Impostor Syndrome is a nasty beast that preys on us at all levels of our careers. But there are times when we are particularly vulnerable to its lures. Learn how to recognize the beast when it starts to sneak up on you, and more importantly, what to do about it! You will leave this talk armed with tools for fighting off Impostor Syndrome, and the confidence to strut into your next meeting, standup, or job interview. Once you’ve learned to slay the beast, you’ll be ready to just slay, in general.

Happy viewing, and keep an eye out for our call for speakers in the coming days!

by Alvin Ashcraft

The TechBash 2019 Keynote is now available to watch on our YouTube channel.

Learning at Lightspeed - Jeffrey T. Fritz

Is the speak of Open Source frameworks stressing you out? Do you need to be watching all of the podcasts and reading every blog about your favorite technology or else your career will be left behind? Distractions are everywhere in our community. We’ll learn how to focus our projects on the technologies they’re built on to manage the pace of change for our organization while still maintaining support where available.

Let's learn from Microsoft's open source journey over the last 5 years and how to interact with developers and ensure they get the latest updates without overwhelming them.

Stay tuned for another recorded session later this week!

by Alvin Ashcraft

It's that time again. The next TechBash 2019 recorded session is now available on our YouTube channel!

Getting Started with Docker - Tim Corey

Docker is everywhere but maybe you aren't quite up to speed yet. You can talk about it or at least fake your way through a conversation but you haven't had time to get started actually using it yet. If that sounds like you, this is your session. We will walk through Docker from the beginning. Don't be fooled though. This isn't a PowerPoint session. We won't be doing fun pictures and abstract concepts. We will be taking code and putting it into containers. Then we will look at how to use those containers, how to communicate with them, how to manage them, and more. After we cover the basics, we will get into orchestration and other more complicated topics. While this is a language-agnostic talk, we will use the Visual Studio tools for some sites and situations.

Check it out and subscribe to our channel to get notified when new sessions are posted each week.

by Alvin Ashcraft

The first of our TechBash 2019 recorded sessions is now available on our YouTube channel!

The Impact of Diversity - Rachel Beard, Danica Pascavage, Anna Bateman, & ‘Tine Zekis

The news is rife with articles on diversity in technology, but what does this mean to our everyday lives? Why should diversity matter to me? What can I do to help foster a more diverse environment? What are some of the experiences of minorities in the workplace?

Check it out and subscribe to our channel to get notified when new sessions are posted. (Hint: You'll get one tomorrow.)

by Jason Gaylord

Are you interested in speaking at TechBash 2019? Our call for speakers is now open. We expect TechBash 2019 to have 5 breakout rooms and will have about 70 total sessions, depending on the talks received and audience size. You may submit as many talks as you like, but we recommend no more than five. Most TechBash speakers will be asked to present one or two sessions.

TechBash is a 3-day event (Wed/Thu/Fri) with an optional day of full-day workshops on Tuesday.

If you're interested in submitting one or more sessions, visit https://sessionize.com/techbash2019/

Topic suggestions include, but are not limited to:

Software Development

  • Front-End Web Development (Angular, React, Vue, Aurelia, Ember)
  • Back-End Web Development (Node.js, ASP.NET Core)
  • Mobile Development (Native and Cross-Platform)
  • Development Tools and Frameworks (npm, Bootstrap, .NET Core, VS Code, CLIs & More)
  • Programming Languages (JavaScript, C#, Python, Go, Swift, Dart, F#, TypeScript)
  • Bots and AI
  • IoT

Cloud Infrastructure & Development

  • PaaS
  • IaaS
  • Private Cloud
  • Security
  • AWS
  • Microsoft Azure
  • Google Cloud

DevOps

  • Build Tools, Version Control
  • CI/CD
  • Scripting
  • Tools & Monitoring
  • Containers & Virtualization

Requirements & Methodologies

  • Unit Testing
  • Functional Testing
  • Code Reviews
  • UX
  • Performance
  • Requirements / User Stories
  • Software Architecture

Soft Skills

  • Presentations & Storytelling
  • Interviewing
  • Leadership
  • Coaching & Team Building
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Self Awareness
  • Problem Solving

Database & Enterprise Solutions

  • SQL Server
  • NoSQL
  • Salesforce

All speakers must agree to the TechBash Code of Conduct to be accepted to speak.

For more details, please be sure to check out the Sessionize page at https://sessionize.com/techbash2019/.  

by andy

TechBash 2018 was an awesome event! We had a ton of great content, some of which was recorded. So, if you couldn't make it to the Poconos last fall, you can still see some of the great sessions. Or, maybe you were at TechBash but missed out on these talks? Whatever the case, we've got the content for you!

Which sessions can you watch? Here is a list with links:

Want to binge watch them all? Check out a playlist of all the sessions that were recorded at TechBash 2018, or save it to watch later with your team.

In addition to these great talks, check out the video testimonials from attendees and speakers. Here's a playlist of our 2018 testimonials.

If you enjoy this content, we hope you'll make it out to the Kalahari Resort for the next TechBash on Nov 12-15, 2019.