I’ve been a programming fan since I was 16. I started with Pascal, then C, C++ and then Java. Suddenly I saw, some strange pro
gram called "Visual Studio" – I decided to check what it is.
I was amazed how fast and easy you can create something. Of course, as you know, first code in new technology has nothing to do with real "professional" code :). I decided to learn more about .NET and C#. This is how it started – it was in 2005. Now I’m working for Allegro Group (QXL Poland, part of Naspers) as a .NET developer (ASP.NET applications and services). After work I’m trying to share my passion with other people as a UG leader. For some time I’ve been sharing my knowledge and news on my blog.
One day I was talking with my friend about groups, and we decided to start one in Toruń and we called it TGD.NET (http://ms-groups.pl/tgd.net). Our first meeting was with Chris Koenig! In June we will have our second birthday! During this time we had 18 monthly meetings, Study Group (MCTS-70-536), 3 speakers from the USA and we participated in C2C 2009-2010.
In December 2009 at the leaders meeting in Warsaw we decided to organize VS2010CL to promote groups and VS2010 in our country.
At the beginning there were only 6 cities: Wrocław, Olsztyn, Białystok, Łódź, Toruń and Poznań. We created list of TODOs, and tried to cooperate as one global group. In the next few weeks two more groups joined us. I think that in the history of MS Users Groups there was never such a big and successful cooperation between groups. Some of us were responsible for the website, others for communication with sponsors, additionally I prepared Ship Battle Challenge, and we had a specialist in design (posters, leaflets etc). We even prepared special awards certificates including Typemock.
I think that if each group had to prepare everything on its own it wouldn’t be such a great event. We had little experience after organizing USA speakers’ tour in Poland (Chris Koenig, Raymond Lewallen, Glenn Block) and we know each other from leaders meetings, so it was easier to cooperate.
A great part of our success is because of sponsors – like Typemock. Good communication with you Britt was an energizer – I wanted to make as much as I can, because I wanted you to think – "Yes, they are good and I am glad that we are cooperating with them"… For me it was the first contact with a foreign sponsor. I didn’t know what and how do it 🙂 Emailing with Britt was very helpful – thanks!
I must say, that before I didn’t know Typemock, but now I want to expand my knowledge about testing and ASAP I will test Isolator – especially WCF testing. After that I want to show it on group meeting.
