Still find XAML initimidating? Well, throw in MVVM and certain design practices and it can get worse. But the truth is that it isn't as complicated as it appears to be. In this short session, I'll give you the basics of how XAML works. I'll cover its syntax, control usage, the visual tree, and the scariest animal of all, binding. I'll give you your moment of clarity, I promise.

Miguel Castro is a principal consultant and trainer with SteelBlue Solutions and specializes in building and teaching how to build, .NET solutions. He is a Microsoft MVP, INETA Speaker, Conference Speaker, contributor to CoDe Magazine and DevSource.com, as well as an active blogger, and has been a software developer for over 20 years. With a Microsoft background that goes all the way back to VB 1.0 (and QuickBasic in fact). Miguel has spoken at numerous user groups, code camps, and conferences around the country. He has also been featured on the Internet Radio Talk Show, .NET Rocks, .NET Rocks-TV, Microsoft’s ARCast (Architecture Podcast), and The Polymorphic Podcast on numerous occasions. His blog and other things of potential interest can be found at http://www.steelbluesolutions.com, where you can obtain his new CodeBreeze code-generator. He currently resides in Lincoln Park, NJ with his wife Elena and his daughter Victoria.

This quick session will demonstrate how to push Toast, Tile and Raw notifications from your application server to subscribed Windows Phone 7 application users.

Chris Love is currently developing all new web sites in ASP.NET 2.0/4.0, but still have a few in ASP.NET 1.1. I am also heavily involved with the online marketing invovled in promoting successful web sites, this includes PPC management and SEO strategies. I have been developing ASP.NET applications since ASP.NET was in Beta 1. So I have a wealth of experience with close to 300 custom built sites in that time frame. My first experience developing web pages was way back in college (NC State) in the early 90's. I quickly saw the great potential in the medium and started to preach the benefits to anyone who would listen that could give me a job after I finsihed my master's degree! First first job was less than interesting as it was developing Power Builder applications for a factory floor. My next job was a whole lot of fun the first couple of years, developing process utilization software for manaufacturing that integrated directly with Schneider Automation's (that's Square D to those of us in the US) PLC lines. I was able to build some web prototypes for our software suite, that now would be considered mobile applications (this was back in 1999). Finally I saw the future was looking pretty limited and looked around for web work, but just found office space jobs and contracts that were just not exciting to me. Finally, with my wife's blessing, I tore out on my own. The rest is current history, but a rugged one to say the least.