It has been a long time since I spoke in a usergroup meeting. This time, I will replicate what I did in Microsoft TechED Asia 2007 in KL in the Dec 2007 SgDotNet Usergroup meeting.

Languages, Frameworks and Architectures
New language solution frameworks are emerging to make solution development less cumbersome. For example, AJAX for building rich, interactive, internet applications, SCA for composing components into services, Ruby-on-Rails for building web applications, and Blinq for generating ASP.NET websites based on a database schema. This session will look at how these languages are evolving to include architectural constructs and where that evolution will go.

If you are free, do come drop by with an open mind, dont take any notes and get ready to interact.

It was a good session I had in our Singapore Government Public Sector day 2 weeks back, where I talked about "Aligning Business and IT for Greater Corporate Agility".

Here are the slides (xps and pdf) for download. If you should want to hear about about this again, together with Nick's talk on our Web 2.0, Software + Services strategy, which can form a good end-to-end soution pitch on the Microsoft application platform, please do not hesitate to let me know.

This is targetted at our Singapore Government Public Sector customers and obviously this blog post is targetted at those customers who are reading this post. .

I will be speaking at the above event, which will be held at our office premises. As to the topic I am speaking about, this area is something which I have been focusing of late and it really is all about architecture and the alignment of it through businesss and information technology.

Aligning Business and IT for Greater Corporate Agility
For long, IT and Business has communicated. While they may be speaking in the same language but are they speaking in the same "dialect”?  In this session, William Tay will share his field experience as well as explore Microsoft's vision for service-oriented architecture:

• What are the best implementation approaches so that instead of being led by the business, IT strategies are driven by business needs
• How Microsoft supports this vision by way of an integrated platform, etc.

If you are coming for my session at the Enterprise Architecture Summit 2007 (18th Oct 2007), which coincidentally, is also targetted at the Public Sector customers (regionally, of course), the above event on the 22nd Oct 2007 will be a good sequel to my Enterprise Architecture Summit pitch where I will be discussing in greater details on the value of the Microsoft platform to implement those business capabilities.

To keep up with the little legacy I have with the Annual Enterprise Architecture Summit in Singapore, I am speaking in this year's event as well. This year, I am honoured to be sharing the same event with John Zachman, whom most of us know, is the originator of the “Framework for Enterprise Architecture” which has received broad acceptance around the world as an integrative framework, or "periodic table" of descriptive representations for Enterprises.

I will be speaking on Enterprise Business Architecture in this event. Interestingly, from the looks of the agenda and the speakers, it looks like I am the only ONE representation coming from a technolgy principal while the rest are representatives from the industry practice. It will be interesting to see how this pans out and of course, the pressure mounts. Do come by and say "Hi" if you are interested.

For the 4th year in a row, I will, again, be speaking in Microsoft TechED 2007 Asia in KL, Malaysia. I have spoken on a good breadth of topics for the past few years. This time around, I will be focusing on 2 architectural tracks. Here are my session topics and agenda:

• Languages, Frameworks and Architectures
  New language solution frameworks are emerging to make solution development less cumbersome. For example, AJAX for building rich, interactive, internet applications, SCA for composing components into services, Ruby-on-Rails for building web applications, and Blinq for generating ASP.NET websites based on a database schema. This session will look at how these languages are evolving to include architectural constructs and where that evolution will go.

• Real World SOA with Microsoft Technologies
  In this session I will show a very interesting look, from different perspectives, on what SOA in the real-world really is. Hear about whether one of the biggest IT buzzwords  in recent years has delivered what it promised and why. We will also hear the different implementation approaches to institutionalize a good SOA practice inside your organization and let the audience decide on what approach best suits their environment.  After that, he will share what the Microsoft platform can offer, in terms of value, to help the customer achieve their end-goals.

The latter topics will be very interesting as I relooked at how "SOA" has performed in organizations and if it has really lived-up to its promises. If not, I will offer some different perspectives on how Microsoft can help in that. I had, orginally, intend to talk about Event-Driven Architecture but decided against putting my audience to sleep, literally and figuratively . As usual, I will see what I can dig up to give away during the event. Do swing by and say "Hi" and attend the sessions for an interesting look from another perspective.

I am very honoured to be invited to present in a prestigious event organized and supported by our Singapore Government (Ministry of Home Affairs - MHA) as well as the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA). It is really an honour to be amongst an elite speaker line-up with some really great security tracks and programs in store.

GovernmentWare 2006 has always been a great event and has been (and still is) evolving towards an improved and better positioning and I am sure this year's event will be significantly different from the previous iterations.

After all those years of speaking on Microsoft technologies from an external vendor's perspective, this will be the first time I am speaking "from the other side". I guess I will know by then how different it will be.

My topic ? No surprise ... It will be in the Electronic Identification (e-ID) track

Title: Federated Identities and the Metasystem
Synopsis:
What are the basis forces driving the concepts of the Identity Metasystem that has the world watching and waiting? How do we plug the missing gaps of the Transactional Internet today? Can we imagine the WWW without passwords one day? How can this be possible and even be more secure and assuring? One of the things people don't know about is how this entire secured infrastructure setup can be extended beyond authentication purposes to include other value-added business functionality.

Hope to see some of you there !

I will be speaking in The Enterprise Architecture Conference 2006 to be held in Singapore on 25-28 September 2006.

And no - for once, I wont be speaking on Web Services or anything Service-Oriented. Instead, I will tackle head-on a topic that not many people would not like to go near: Enterprise Architecture Security

I will be speaking on the second day (27 Sept 2006: 1430-1530) and quite a few of my governmental clients will be there as well in the audience.

The title is: Security Planning and Strategies In An Enterprise Architecture. The agenda is as follows:

• Outline of the key Enterprise-based security issues and counter-measures, that is technology-agnostic
• An examination of general security threats and how to plan and implement security policies and controls for often-performed computer security activities
• Key best practices in terms of security that can be applied to practical real-life scenarios and implemented solutions such as IP and Data security
• Auditing and monitoring of systems within an Enterprise

If you are in need to spend SGD2,000 , I hope to see you there.

What a great turnout and what a great rousing response I got for my 2nd Microsoft TechED South East Asia 2006 session titled: Developing Web Services: Tips and Tricks.

I love the Malaysian crowd. It has shown so much technical maturity and passion over the years I have spoken there and I appreciate all of you very very very much.

Thank you for all the mail you have sent me over the past few years

• on your generous compliments for my presentations
• on your Thank Yous for the topics I have taught and the issues I have raised that all of you could identify with
• on your appreciation for my work I put in my topics and sessions because I work on the field - just like you and not just another Microsoftie
• last but not least - on the numerous questions (via hands and emails) that were asked over the years - which I hope I have helped and answered.

I have received numerous requests for my code demos for this second session and here is the download for that.

I hope this is NOT the last I hear and see from the Malaysian Tech.ED crowd. Thank you all again.

For the 4th year in a row, I will be speaking in Microsoft TechED 2006 Asia. This time, the event will return to its original roots back in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Unlike the previous rounds, I wont touch base on any Level 400 topics and going nitty-gritty into details of <angleBrackets/> messaging or gnarly-XSD'isms. From previous experiences, it doesnt sit too well with the asian crowd. Instead, I am going with a couple of very interesting topics. One focuses on a specific implementation of identity and service-orientation, the other is for the audience to have a better idea on what Web Services are all about first before embarking on that journey.

• ARC323 Federated Identities and the Metasystem \ Architecture & Team Development Track

This session, I will explain the basis forces driving the concepts of the Identity Metasystem that has the world watching and waiting. How do we plug the missing gaps of the Transactional Internet? Imagine the WWW without passwords. Not only that, I will explain how this infrastructure setup can be used for business transactions other than for authentication. See demos that are not  seen anywhere yet in this region. [Level 300]

• DEV243 Developing Web Services: Tips & Tricks \ Developer Technology Track

What exactly are Web Services and When and Why do we use them? William explains the basis of SOAP in clear concise terms and coins up some tips to help you in your Web Services Development today and tomorrow. [Level 200]

Of course, there are a whole hosts of reasons for you to attend this mega-event with tons of great speakers talking on some great topics gracing this event. KL has always been a very dynamic city and it should be a good time for all.

And even if browsing through the event site doesnt attract you enough yet, how about this?

I will be giving away 2 FREE MSDN Premium Subscription with Visual Studio Team Suite that is worth US Dollars 30,000 each to 2 lucky souls who will be attending my sessions. I may also give away other goodies like cannot-find and hard-to-get Microsoft Product Platform T-Shirts and NEW books.

So - c'mon - what are you waiting for ? Sign up today and "Change your Destiny" ...

It has been quite a while since I hit the speaker circuit for our Singapore .Net Usergroup (which I had helped co-founded).

However, I will be there on the 6th July 2006 speaking on the Federated Identity Metasystem. Do register yourself and I hope to see you there.