Windows Phone and HTML5 at Chicago Ideas Week

Chicago Ideas Week Lamp PostToday, Chicago Ideas Week kicks off and goes until Sunday, October 16. Chicago Ideas Week is a week of the world’s top speakers in Chicago, with the city’s best thinkers, creating an ecosystem of innovation, exploration and intellectual recreation.

The City of Chicago has been anxiously waiting for this week, for some time now. Downtown is painted with CIW banners, the lamp posts are proudly displaying Chicago Ideas Week and twitter is full of excitement.

I want to specifically call out the following two, Start Something! events that I’m quite excited for. They are both taking place tomorrow, Tuesday, October 11, at Tribeca Flashpoint Academy at The Merchandise Mart.

Gartner and IDC are both predicting that over the next few years, the Windows Phone will steal huge market share, pass Apple’s iPhone and have almost 3% more of the overall market than Apple’s iOS. This presents a rare and massive opportunity for app developers and consumer brands. http://techcrunch.com/2011/09/02/gartner-idc-windows-phone-to-steal-second-place-from-ios-by-2015/

Opportunities like this come around very few times. If you don’t want to be left out, check out:

Start Something! Bring Your Apps to Life on Windows Phone
Do you have the next million dollar idea that you just can’t find the time to finish?  Do you already have an app for Android and iPhone that you want to expand into new markets?  Windows Phone is here – and with it comes a new world of opportunity for passionate, creative developers.   Windows Phone gives you the power to build complex, robust applications using consistent hardware specs, a comprehensive development toolkit, and the all-new, full-service Marketplace for selling your apps.
http://www.chicagoideas.com/2011/09/ciw-partner-program-start-something-bring-your-apps-to-life-on-windows-phone/

If you have been hearing the HTML5 buzz and want to get a clearer picture, check out:

Start Something! Unleash Your Web App with HTML5
HTML5 is the biggest and most powerful HTML specification to ever come out of the W3C. Its roots come from a proposal to extend HTML4 to make it easier for web developers to create web applications. With more and more browsers supporting HTML5, ECMAScript 5 and other web standards, developers now have a strong web platform they can use to create a new class of application that is more powerful and interactive than ever before. What’s in HTML5 that lets us take our applications to the next level?
http://www.chicagoideas.com/2011/09/ciw-partner-program-start-something-unleash-your-web-app-with-html5/

BUILD Windows Conference in Chicago

Any day now, my second son Xander will arrive. As a result, I’ve been staying close to home, which means I’m not traveling to Anaheim, CA this week to attend the //build/ windows conference. Microsoft PDC has always been my favorite technology conference and if the Windows team continues this with the new //build/ windows conference, it will be an awesome event. I’m anticipating some huge announcements for all things Windows, from Windows 8, to Windows Phone, to Windows Azure, and I’m quite anxious to hear the exciting news.

If you are like me, in Chicago, and unable to attend //build/ windows in-person, come to ITA/TechNexus on Tuesday and Wednesday, between 11:00AM and 1:30PM. You will join other Chicago developers to watch the //build/ keynotes live.

Space is limited and you need to register at http://buildchicago.eventbrite.com.

FREE AT&T Mobile App Hackathon in Chicago

AT&T is hosting a Mobile App Hackathon this Saturday, August 27, 2011, in Chicago. It will be a great event for developers to get together, network, learn about mobile technologies and build mobile apps. You will get fed and get to compete for some great prizes. This event is not targeted at a specific platform, so regardless of whether you are interested in Windows Phone, iPhone, iPad, Android or even the dead webOS platform, come out, learn and build apps.

Starting at 2pm, Will Welbes and I will be hosting a Mobile + Cloud Jumpstart. The majority of mobile apps today require a cloud backend. The Mobile + Cloud Jumpstart will get you started developing apps with Cloud platforms like Windows Azure, Amazon Web Services and Apple iCloud. If you are planning to attend Mobile + Cloud Jumpstart, you must register independently of the AT&T Mobile App Hackathon since space is very limited. You can register at http://mobilecloudjumpstart.eventbrite.com/.

You can register for the AT&T Mobile App Hackathon at http://mobileappchi.eventbrite.com/. This free event includes some great lightning talks, lunch, and a chance to win prizes.

Windows Phone Unleashed Rocked!

Thank You
First things first. Thank you to everyone who came out last night for Windows Phone Unleashed @ TechWeek! We had just the right number of attendees and 21 innovative App Pitches. Just a few more attendees and we might have seen sunrise at the AON Center. To those that couldn’t make it out, but spread the word and extended the invite to others, thank you!

Thank you to everyone who helped organize the event including Dave Bost, Matt Hidinger, Mary Perisic, Deanna Robison, Connie Bernard and others. Without everyone’s help this would not have come together so nicely and quickly. A huge thank you to Microsoft for sponsoring the event, providing everyone a great meal, and giving away all of the great prizes, cash and swag. And lastly, thanks to Centare for providing the beverages and energy drinks. I don’t think I would have made it home without being hopped up on Monster and AMP.

Build
Last night, we saw some amazing pitches and now it’s time to take the great ideas and make them real in the Windows Phone Marketplace. The following are some great resources to help you get started developing for the Windows Phone. Regardless of your preferred learning style, one of these resources will be perfect for you. There are instructional videos, hands-on labs, sample code, books, technical documentation and blogs.

Windows Phone Tools
http://create.msdn.com

Windows Phone 7 Training Course
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/wp7trainingcourse.aspx

Windows Phone 7 Developer Guide (Patterns & Practices)
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg490765.aspx

Windows Phone MSDN Documentation
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ff402535%28v=VS.92%29.aspx

Windows Phone Team Blog
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/

Make $$$
As I mentioned last night, there is a huge opportunity to make serious money with the Windows Phone. The following are some resources to get you started making money with Windows Phone.

Microsoft pubCenter – Monetizing with Ads
http://pubcenter.microsoft.com

My Presentation on SkyDrive
Making $$$ With Windows Phone

WIN BIG!!!
We gave away some awesome prizes last night, one person left with an Unlocked Samsung Focus, and three others left with cash ranging from $75 to $225. The goods news is there are more opportunities to win and get Marketplace accounts. If you attended last night and would like to be notified of the ways to win more great prizes, including the exclusive special offer that was announced for attendees who get apps in the Marketplace, email me and let me know that you want “More Prizes” and I’ll add you to that list. It is very likely that we will be have more events like this one in the near future, if you would like to be notified of upcoming events like this one, even if you didn’t attend last night, email me and let me know that you want “More Events” and I’ll add you to that list.

Community
A final note, whenever you begin any new journey, it’s often helpful to find people with similar interests that can offer collaboration, support and help you make progress on your journey. The Chicago Windows Phone Developer Group is a great community you should consider joining and getting integrated into.

Chicago Windows Phone Developer Group
http://www.meetup.com/Chicago-Windows-Phone-Developers

Once more, thank you everyone!