UPDATE:
This event is sold-out! If you were not able to register in time and need help getting your app published, send me an email and I’ll help you directly.
WPDev Day
Me and several other experts will be spending 6 hours with you on Saturday February 1st, 2014 to help you over come any obstacles that is preventing you from publishing an app. If you do not have any apps in the works, then come and build an App Studio app with our help. Click the Eventbrite button above to get your ticket.
Important: This is a very limited seating event and is intended for the Northeast United States, please do not register if you are 6000 miles away or do not intend on showing up, you’ll only be taking a seat away from another dev who needs it.
Here is the preliminary schedule (subject to tweaking):
12 PM DevCenter Submission Walkthrough (30 minutes): See just how easy it is to submit and publish an app worldwide
12:30 PM Build an app in 30 minutes with App Studio (30 minutes): See how to build an app from an idea to publishable in 30 minutes, literally.
1 PM – 1:30 PM Lunch: I’ll be providing food and snacks. This is when you think about what you need help with or when you should think of your app idea for App Studio.
1:30-6 PM Hands-on time: The experts will be available to help during this time. They will be walking around helping and/or attending to requests for help.
By the end of the day I fully expect everyone’s apps will be ready and submitted to DevCenter and on it’s way to the global app marketplace.
What will you need to bring?
If you need help on an existing app, bring your laptop dev environment with your app on it.
If you want to build an app without any code, bring a laptop that has a modern browser (IE10-11, Chrome). You’ll only need your browser to build and submit the app to the store. If you do not have a Windows Phone, the experts will be able to help you test the app on their phone
Giveaways
Everyone who attends and publishes their app will be entered to win a “hero” Nokia Lumia (1020, 928, 925, 920, etc) of their choice. I’ll be saving some swag/prize surprises for the day of the event. Also, Microsoft will be bringing some prizes of their own! I will update this post with more details as we get closer to Feb 1st.
Note: If you accept a prize from me, you agree to these terms.
UPDATE Registration is closed, the hard deadline for stragglers was 12:00 PM 11-16-2013. Thank you for making this one of the highest registered events I’ve ever held at 90% of max building capacity!
IMPORTANT: Make sure you are present at the welcome presentation at 10 AM on the 4th floor. You will learn the answer to a secret question that proves you attended.
Event Description
Learn to make amazing Windows Phone apps at Boston Nokia DVLUP Day and win big prizes just for participating. Nokia Ambassadors, Lance McCarthy and Nick Landry, will provide hands-on Windows Phone development training. Whether you’re a seasoned dev or don’t know a line of code, you will walk away with the ability to write an app.
With full example source code and step by step instructions, you will learn how to make an app from scratch. There are three individual tracks for you depending on what you want to build and your programming skill level, there is something for everyone; games or apps.
As an attendee you get the following:
A Windows Phone 8. Every attendee who updates or publishes an app within 2 weeks of the event will get a new Nokia Lumia 620 Windows Phone 8 device
A heavy-duty swag backpack. The swag bag is chock full of goodies, even the backpack itself is worth $89 (it’s a Wenger, Swiss Gear TSA friendly laptop bag).
A Nokia Developer Offers token. This contains the following:
Microsoft Windows Phone DevCenter account (this is your portal to publish apps to the Windows Phone Store and also unlocks physical devices for building apps)
BugSense Performance Monitoring solution for Windows Phone (3 months)
$50 AdDuplex credit (approx. 20k ad impressions). When your app is live, you’ll be entered to win:
1st place- 1,000,000 ad impressions
2nd place- 500,000 ad impressions
3rd place- 250,000 ad impressions
PreApps.com app placement credit. PreApps.com is giving every attendee credit towards app placement on the PreApps website!
Mac Clinic-If you are a developer who uses a mac and doesn’t have access to a Windows 8 machine, be sure to read the end of this post. you’ll need to reach out to me to reserve a mac dev kit.
There will be 2 random drawings for all attendees to win a Nokia Lumia “Hero” device of their choice (Lumia 1020, 928, 925, 920). The first drawing will be held at 5 PM after the day of training for all attendees. The second drawing will be held at the end of the mini-hackathon for the attendees who stayed to code and get hands-on help.
There will also be random giveaways throughout the day for swag, Telerik licenses, gadgets and more.
Breakfast, snacks, lunch and dinner will be provided.
Schedule:
8 AM MacBook clinic
9 AM Registration, breakfast and networking
10 AM Introductions then sessions start (tracks 1, 2 and 3)
12 PM Lunch
12:30 Sessions resume
2:00 PM Track 1, 2 and 3 end
2:15 Combined track begins
4:30 Combined track ends, giveaways
5:00 PM Sessions end, dinner is served, mini-hackathon begins
8:30 PM Mini-Hackathon ends, final prizes awarded
9:00 PM End of event, 2 week hackathon begins!
Track One: Native development (10AM – 2PM): Learn how to write Windows Phone apps with XAML/C# and explore the amazing APIs available to you. From the built-in task classes to advanced Bluetooth/NFC/Camera approaches, Lance McCarthy, Nokia Ambassador for the Northeast US, will show you how easy it is to write great apps with ease. This track comes with full source code and slides.
Track Two: App Studio development (10AM-2PM): Learn how to generate a store-ready Windows Phone app in under an hour using Microsoft’s App Studio. Nick Landry, Nokia Ambassador for the Mid-Atlantic US, will show you how to get started with App Studio and also take you through how to download the source code for the finished app to customize it even further.
Track Three: Game Development (10 AM-2PM): Learn how to make fun games for Windows Phone and Windows 8 using Unity3D and Construct2. Michael Cummings, Microsoft DPE, will show you how to code casual 2D games for Windows 8 and Windows Phone using a variety of technologies such as Unity, GameMaker, Construct 2, HTML5 and/or MonoGame. (If you had originally signed up on Microsoft’s event page, that event listing has been cancelled. Simply go to the Eventbrite link at the top of this page and register there instead)
Combined track(2:15-5PM): A combination of app demos from the event hosts that highlight their favorite approaches to Windows Phone development (for example, Lance will demonstrate some Windows Phone Bluetooth and Netduino fun). Each presenter will spend 30 minutes to show you the app and dissect it for you to see how to do it yourself. This session is to spark your imagination.
Developer Environment (MacBook WPDev Kit)
To write native Windows Phone 8 apps, you will need to be using Windows 8 Pro. If you do not have windows 8 Pro, you can do track 2 and make a Windows Phone App Studio app.
Developers with a Macbook: If you are a developer with a MAC, you can show up early (8:00 AM) for the MAC Clinic and you’ll be provided with a MAC DEV KIT. This contains a copy of Parallels and a copy of Windows 8 Pro. They will help you setup your mac so that you can develop Windows Phone apps. Email Lance McCarthy as soon as possible to set up your MAC DEV KIT, otherwise it will be first-come, first serve (email: BostonDvlupDay@outlook.com ).
3. The Windows Phone SDK is available here, I will also have it available on a USB drive that you can install there.
Summary
This is going to be an awesome day, I look forward to seeing you all there. Just for showing up and learning, you get hooked up. Just for updating or publishing an app, you get hooked up. Mark off that Saturday and come join us.
Cambridge Center is accessible via the MBTA Red Line at the Kendall Square/MIT stop (between the Charles Street and Central Square stops). The Red Line links up with other lines providing access to virtually the entire Greater Boston region, including Logan Airport. Please follow the Microsoft signs to our main entrance in the front of our building.
Grab your scuba gear because we’re diving into new WP8 features
Windows Phone 8 ushered in a bunch of new APIs to hook into. I am providing my Dvlup’rs with a one-on-one training experience via email (and soon, via Skype). Take a look at the topics below. I will do a mini-code camp with you on a topic of your choice, then we can apply what you’ve learned to your app idea.
Choose a topic that you would like to learn how to use (each one has several examples apps w/source)
Introducing WP8 Development
Designing WP8 Applications
Building WP8 Applications & Async (2 sessions)
Files and Storage
WP8 Application Lifecycle
WP8 Background Agents
Local Database
Tiles and Lockscreen Notifications
Push Notifications
Using Phone resources
App to App Communication
Network Communication
Proximity Sensors and Bluetooth
Using Speech
Maps and Location
Wallet and In-app Purchase (2 sessions)
Windows Phone Store
Enterprise Publishing and Distribution
Developing for Windows 8 and WP8
Send me an email with “Deep Dive” in the subject line to ext-lance.mccarthy@nokia.com, let me know which topic(s) you would like to dig into. I will follow up and help you in any way I can.
Here is a quick map that Matthias Shapiro uses, it’s a great reference:
NOTE: If you are not in my region, I will connect you to your local Nokia Ambassador to follow up with you.
