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Meetup 70: Building a Backend for Your Mobile Apps with Visual Studio App Center

Building a Backend for Your Mobile Apps with Visual Studio App Center
February 20th, 2020
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our February event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

February Topic – Building a Backend for Your Mobile Apps with Visual Studio App Center

At the Microsoft Build conference last year, the Visual Studio App Center team announced two new services that make up the beginning of their new Mobile Backend as a Service (MBaas) offering, empowering developers to build apps faster without the need for managing backend infrastructure.
We’ll take a tour of VS App Center, dive deep into these new Data & Authentication services, and roll up our sleeves by learning how to get your own backend up and running and securely communicating with a sample cloud-connected Xamarin.Forms app for iOS and Android. Come see how VS App Center lives up to their motto, “make app development 10x easier”.

Presented by Tom Soderling
Tom Soderling is a long time .NET developer who discovered Xamarin and jumped at the chance to write apps for his iPhone using C#.
He is a Xamarin Certified Mobile Developer, a Xamarin.Forms enthusiast, and creator of several apps, like “Pickster”, and “How Deep Is It?”
He’s currently a Sr. Mobile Apps Developer at Polaris Industries, where he works to improve the on & off-road riding experience through innovative software like the Ride Command (https://ridecommand.polaris.com/en-us/landing-pages/AppLandingPage) family of apps.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, February 20th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.

Meetup 69: Going Indy? What are you afraid of?

Going Indy? What are you afraid of?
January 16th, 2020
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our January event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

January Topic – Going Indy? What are you afraid of?

Computer Programmers interested in transitioning to Independent Consultants / Freelancers. Tonight’s topic is to provide insight into transitioning from employee to independent consultant.

Topics and goals will include:
• Reducing fears

• Ideas on finding gigs

• Finding mentors

• Learn from each others experiences

Presented by Mike Emo
Mike Emo, founder of Tonka Source, has been a developer for ever 20 years. Most recently he’s been developing in React and .NET Core for Trimble Transportation. Mike founded iEmosoft seven years ago as an independent consultant. He parlayed the success of that company into a partnership with one of his former ‘bosses’ and founded Tonka Source. Today he not only develops apps for his clients, but also places consultants at firms throughout the United States.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, January 16th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.

Meetup 68: Tips and Tricks to Boost Performance in Your Xamarin Apps

Tips and Tricks to Boost Performance in Your Xamarin Apps
November 21, 2019
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our November event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

November Topic – Tips and Tricks to Boost Performance in Your Xamarin Apps

It’s one thing for software to work correctly, and quite another for it to work quickly. Ideally we want both, right? Xamarin, Xamarin.Forms, and Mono are all marketed as tools that can bring native performance with a shared codebase. As with any language, library, or framework though, we have to be careful — just because something is native doesn’t mean that everything you write with it is automatically fast!

In this talk, we’ll dig in to some of the internals of .NET and Xamarin.Forms that you’re probably using with every project and considering “good enough”, not knowing that a few minor tweaks here and there could be giving your app the little speed kick your users crave. Additionally, we’ll discuss why each of the tricks we talks about could give you better results. You’ll walk away with a handful of common patterns you can apply to score some easy wins, and some of them will even work for non-mobile projects!

Presented by Alan Grgic
Alan Grgic has written C# applications in some form or fashion for the past decade and Xamarin apps for about half that time. A Xamarin.Forms contributor and Pythonista, Alan has also dabbled extensively in all of your favorite front-end JS buzzwords of the month, including excaliburjs, a game engine he collaborates on with other MN local devs. When not writing code, he enjoys partaking in his monolithic board game collection and a good scotch.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, November 21st
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.

Meetup 67: Automated Mobile Application Testing with Appium

Automated Mobile Application Testing with Appium
October 17th, 2019
Host & Sponsor: FrankoSystems Inc.

Join us for our October event sponsored and hosted by FrankoSystems Inc. in Eagan. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

October Topic – Automated Mobile Application Testing with Appium

Developing and supporting a mobile application is a very complex world: two completely different platforms, constantly shifting operating systems, new devices being introduced on a weekly basis, and changes that we as developers make ourselves. These complexities make it a world that requires constant testing, but unfortunately it is not practical to have your team constantly testing every corner of your mobile app. Or is it?
Appium is a mobile testing ecosystem that makes possible the development of automated tests that interact with your mobile app in the same way that a real user would. And it’s free as in beer. Come learn about what Appium is, its capabilities and limitations, and leave with some hard-won practical tips and tricks that will save you time and effort.

Presented by Frank Markovich
Frank Markovich is the founder and CEO of FrankoSystems Inc, a company focusing on bringing automated mobile app testing to development teams.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, October 17th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
Bald Man Brewing
2020 Silver Bell Road #25
Eagan, MN 55122

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by FrankoSystems Inc.

Meetup 66: A Rethink On MVVM Patterns and Data Binding

A Rethink On MVVM Patterns and Data Binding
September 19, 2019
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our September event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

September Topic – A Rethink On MVVM Patterns and Data Binding

Do you find that the MVVM pattern all by itself leaves you with questions about where certain elements of your application should live? Do you find that data binding “all the things” is creating unwanted complexity? Come here Joe and Scott talk about some lessons learned and patterns to consider that have bubbled out of a large Xamarin code base they have been involved in.

Presented by Scott Colestock
Scott Colestock is an independent consultant in the Twin Cities focusing on cloud and mobile architecture.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/scolestock/

Presented by Joe Bowser
Joe Bowser is an independent contractor focused on building mobile applications primarily using Xamarin and related technologies.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/joe-bowser-82b58366

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, September 19th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.

Meetup 65: Enhance Your (App) Performance

Enhance Your (App) Performance
August 15, 2019
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our August event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

August Topic – Enhance Your (App) Performance

Does your client support devices with 1GB of RAM, running Android Kit Kat? Does your tabbed layout experience feel bloated and unresponsive? Should you use StackLayouts? Grids?
Enjoy a presentation and pun-filled discussion on memory management and Xamarin Forms.

Presented by Victor Johnson
Victor Johnson has 10 years of mobile development experience, including 5 years of native iOS development and 5 years of Xamarin development.

Victor co-founded Playtend, an iOS shop that launched ~70 apps in the App Store, was featured on the App Store homepage (x5), was put on numerous Apple lists (Staff Favorites, App Store Essentials, Apps For Kids, etc.) and is currently featured in the Kids category.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, August 15th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.

Meetup 64: Push Notifications with Xamarin.Forms Using Azure Notification Hubs

** New Location for June Meeting – See Below **

Push Notifications with Xamarin.Forms Using Azure Notification Hubs
June 20, 2019
Host & Sponsor: Mobile Composer

Join us for our June event sponsored and hosted by Mobile Composer in NE Minneapolis. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

June Topic – Push Notifications with Xamarin.Forms Using Azure Notification Hubs

Come learn how to implement push notifications in Xamarin Forms in iOS, Android. We will be looking at the process for setting up Xamarin to respond to push notifications, how to setup Notification Hubs and how to create and send messages. We will also be looking at more advanced scenarios for handling background push messages and updating app data based on push messages.

Presented by Loren Horsager (CEO, Mobile Composer)
After years of developing custom software, Loren Horsager, Mobile Composer’s CEO, believed there was a better way to create scalable, high quality and secure software products that gave business owners more control to maintain and update without having to redevelop. In 2013, Mobile Composer created its proprietary platform that embeds best practices for development and began helping clients develop software products–including apps for mobile, web, IoT and AI.

Presented by Adam Zucchi
Adam Zucchi is a co-founder/organizer of the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile user group and is also a Xamarin Certified Mobile Developer working as a freelance developer in the Twin Cities. He has been working in Xamarin for 6+ years and in mobile since the introduction of the iOS SDK. Adam is also part owner of the Green Bay Packers.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, June 20th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
Mobile Composer
1310 Quincy Street NE
Minneapolis, MN 55413

Parking
Ample street parking is available on Quincy as well as on 14th and 15th Avenues. There is also a paid parking lot owned by Indeed on 14th Avenue between the train tracks and Quincy if you are unable to find free street parking.
** DO NOT PARK IN SPACES MAKRED UPPERCUT! **

Hosted and sponsored by Mobile Composer.

Meetup 63: Getting Started with FreshMvvm

Getting Started with FreshMvvm
May 16, 2019
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our May event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

May Topic – Getting Started with FreshMvvm

Are you starting a new Xamarin.Forms app and you’ve heard a lot of buzz around picking the ‘right’ MVVM framework for your application? There are many great choices for Xamarin.Forms developers, one of which is FreshMvvm. FreshMvvm is a super lightweight Mvvm framework designed specifically for Xamarin.Forms that is easy to learn and use. We’ll cover PageModel to PageModel navigation with page events and methods, the built in IOC container with constructor injection, and more!

Presented by Adam Zucchi
Adam Zucchi is a co-founder/organizer of the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile user group and is also a Xamarin Certified Mobile Developer working as a freelance developer in the Twin Cities. He has been working in Xamarin for 6+ years and in mobile since the introduction of the iOS SDK. Adam is also part owner of the Green Bay Packers.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, May 16th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.

Meetup 62: RestBuilder: How to Tame HttpClient….Fluently

RestBuilder: How to Tame HttpClient….Fluently
April 18, 2019
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our April event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

April Topic – RestBuilder: How to Tame HttpClient….Fluently

Do you have dozens of HttpClient calls in your mobile app?
Are they all implemented similarly, but different enough to cause you headaches?
Are they as simple as you’d like?
Do you know how fast they each run?
Do they inconsistently handle Success, Failure and Exception outcomes, or skip them entirely?

Would you like to have a framework around HttpClient calls that simplifies all of the above?

RestBuilder is a wrapper around HttpClient that was created to simplify RESTful calls while simultaneously making them more powerful and consistent in their usage. RestBuilder uses a fluent-style syntax (inspired by Polly) to reduce a complex code patterns around HttpClient calls into a simple call that is both simple and quick to implement and also flexible and extendable.

Presented by John Hunter
John Hunter is the mobile tech lead for the Commercial Digital Solutions division of Ecolab where he develops cross-platform mobile applications in Xamarin to help improve food safety around the world.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, April 18th
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.

Meetup 61: Get Ready for Xamarin.Forms 4.0!

Get Ready for Xamarin.Forms 4.0!
March 21st, 2019
Host & Sponsor: ILM Professional Services

Join us for our March event sponsored and hosted by ILM Professional Services in Edina. This is a FREE event and a great opportunity for networking and the latest insights in mobile development.

RSVP Here: Minnesota Enterprise Mobile

March Topic – Get Ready for Xamarin.Forms 4.0!

Xamarin.Forms 4.0 provides some major new features to jumpstart your mobile application development. Come learn about the new Shell which provides a rich application host with menus, routing/navigation, and endless templating. Then see how the new CollectionView provides the richness that developers have been asking for in the ListView; new layout options, better native rendering, and a new refresh view. Finally, we’ll preview the new Visual support that provides consistent look and feel across platforms. Get ready for all these new features so you can use them in your next application.

Presented by Matt Milner
Matt is an independent consultant with expertise in web application design and development and systems integration. As a writer, Matt has contributed to several journals and magazines such as MSDN Magazine. Matt regularly shares his love of technology by speaking at local, regional, and international conferences such as DevWeek, Prairie Dev Con, That Conference, and VS Live. As a Pluralsight Author, Matt has created more than 30 courses on the topics of web, mobile, and cloud development.

About the Group
Led by local developers, the Minnesota Enterprise Mobile User Group is a place to come together to share knowledge, experiences, and lessons learned with the development community regarding enterprise mobile development, with a focus on mobile cross-platform application development and the Xamarin toolset. Our goal is to cover all areas of the Enterprise Mobile landscape.

Thursday, March 21st
5:30 – 6:00pm: Social time featuring good food and beverages
6:00 – ~7:30pm: Presentation and discussion

Location
ILM Professional Services
5221 Viking Drive
Edina, MN 55435

** Free on-site parking is available **

Hosted and sponsored by ILM Professional Services.