It’s that time of year, again.  Time for the annual Central Ohio Azure / Microsoft user group holiday party!!!

Once again, the Central Ohio Azure user group is joining with three other Microsoft technology focused user groups in Central Ohio to host an annual holiday party.  The party is a joint effort of the Central Ohio .NET User Group, the Columbus App Dev User Group, the Buckeye SharePoint User Group, and the Central Ohio Azure user group. The event will be on Monday, December 10th from 6pm – 8pm at the Improving Enterprises office.  A $5 ticket is required for attendance.

The annual holiday party is a great way for you to network with other geeks in the Central Ohio technology community.  Plus, there will be plenty of board games, ping pong, and food!  We’ll also be raffling off a few fantastic prizes (more details on those to be announced soon).

As in year’s past, we’ll also be supporting a few local charities.  Your $5 ticket will go to support TechCorps.  Additionally, you can bring a toy (or two, or three) to support OSU’s Toy Adaption Program.  You can also bring food to donate to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank.  That’s a lot of giving!!!  Each item you donate earns you another ticket to the prize raffle.  For example, if you have a $5 + one toy + one food item, that will earn you three tickets.  The more toys and food you bring, the more tickets you earn!

Please purchase a ticket now by clicking on the “Get a Ticket” link below.  You’ll be redirected to Eventbrite.com where you can purchase your ticket, and also learn more about suggested food donations and toys for the Toy Adaption Program.  You must purchase a ticket to be eligible for the raffle, and you must be present to win.

Get a Ticket

Columbus OH has 4 major User Groups focused on Microsoft technologies:

• Central Ohio .NET User Group
• The Windows Developer User Group
• Central Ohio Azure User Group
• Buckeye SharePoint User Group

Again this year, all 4 User Groups come together for an EPIC Christmas Party!

What’s in store – Networking | Board Games | Ping Pong | Holiday Spirit. Oh, and great Food & Drinks! And what’s a Holiday Party without some great Prizes? Thanks to our sponsors, we’ll be raffling off the following:

• Amazon Echo Plus
• Amazon Echo Spot
• Raspberry Pi 3
• Phillips Hue Starter Kit

And more to come!!

Sponsors:
– Cardinal Solutions Group
– Improving

YOU MUST PURCHASE A TICKET HERE TO BE ELIGIBLE FOR THE RAFFLE!

Support Local Charities and Win a Prize!
Your $5 registration fee  earns you 1 ticket toward the prize raffle. To increase your chances of winning you can “purchase” additional tickets ($5 each) by helping us support local charities. Proceeds from the registration fees, as well as cash contributions, go to TechCorps. We would also encourage you to donate toys to OSU’s Toy Adaptation Program and food to the Mid-Ohio Food Bank. Bring your receipts for toy and food donations to exchange for raffle tickets ($5 per ticket). See the list of approved/adaptable toys below, and visit the list of suggested food donations. Let’s spread the love this Holiday Season!

You simply need to be here!

Instead of a “normal” meetup for December, we’re joining forces with three other Columbus user groups which focus on Microsoft technologies to hold one major holiday party! This year, all four groups come together for an EPIC Christmas party!

• Central Ohio .NET User Group
• The Windows Developer User Group
• Central Ohio Azure User Group
• Buckeye SharePoint User Group

What’s in store – Networking | Board Games | Ping Pong | Holiday Spirit. Oh, and great food & drinks!

And what’s a holiday party without some great prizes? Thanks to our amazing friends at Cardinal Solutions, we’ll be raffling away an XBox One S and an Amazon Echo! There will likely be a few other surprise prizes as well. 🙂

All ticket sales go to charity.

Also highly encouraged are toy donations to The Ohio State University College of Engineering Toy Adaptation Program and Food item donations to Mid-Ohio Foodbank. Let’s spread the love this Holiday Season.

IMPORTANT: If you’re bringing a toy donation, it must be from the list provided on the holiday party registration page. Those are the only toys that can be used by the Toy Adaptation Program. Please adhere to the list!

A HUGE “Thank You” to Improving Enterprises in Columbus for providing the food and venue for event. Improving has a been a great partner in the community for years. Thank you!!!

When

Monday, December 19th, 2016
6:00 pm – 9:00 pm

Registration – $5.00, just go right here . . now

Location

Improving Enterprises
One Easton Oval
Suite 175
Columbus, OH 43219

For June’s meetup we are excited to welcome Brian Jackett (Senior Premier Field Engineer, Microsoft) as the featured speaker. Brian will be sharing his guidance on running an dev/test Azure IaaS (Infrastructure-as-a-Service) environment, especially as related to SharePoint.

Following Brian’s session, we will once again hold an open architecture Q&A session. his is a time set aside for the attendees to discuss ideas or questions about Azure – a time to ask the “Can or How do I do X with Azure?” question.

Title: Running Your Dev / Test VMs in Azure for Cheap

Abstract: With an MSDN subscription you can run your dev / test SharePoint environment in Azure IaaS for less than the cost of a cup of coffee each day. In this session we will overview the basics of Azure IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), the pieces you will use to be successful deploying SharePoint in Azure (including the new Azure Resource Manager templates), and how to use resources as efficiently as possible to reduce your costs and boost your farm performance. This session is targeted to SharePoint developers and administrators. Prior knowledge of Azure is helpful but not a requirement.

Speaker Bio: Brian T. Jackett is a Senior Premier Field Engineer at Microsoft specializing in SharePoint development / administration and PowerShell for over 8 years. Brian enjoys giving back to the community through giving presentations, planning and volunteering at conferences, maintaining a SharePoint/.Net centric blog, and contributing to the SharePoint Twitterverse. He also holds several Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) for SharePoint related technologies.