Last week, as part of .NET Conf 2022, .NET 7 was introduced; great new features, as well as lots of new language goodies, went from preview to production ready. The 3-day long online event streamed smoothly, the hosts did a fine job, and some good friends were presenting stuff they have been working on for quite some time.

Everything was just great.
But something beat it all.

For the first time after Corona and after my cancer diagnosis, I arranged an in-person event put together by my own company (Talking Ducks), CNUG (Copenhagen .NET Usergroup), and Kraftvaerk. It was an official “Watch Party” for the .NET Conf 2022 aka lots of nerds watcher other nerds on a screen together. 

It couldn’t fail! – and it didn’t :)

I did a short introduction and my two friends, Microsoft MVP Erik Ejlskov Jensen, who is also a speaker at .NET Conf 2022, and Head of architecture, Jannich Ibsen, warmed-up with a demo of some of the new features in .NET 7. 

The keynote was as good as a normal tech keynote is, but a few new features stuck and are currently in my RnD at home (more about that later).

Microsoft helped with promotion and a lot of swag, including an awesome keyboard cleaner you didn’t know you were missing, so the atmosphere was pretty good. People were hanging around after the keynote and talked, shared frustrations over some features, and … networked.

In-person networking – this beats it all; I can’t believe how much I missed talking to fellow nerds. A big thank you to all participants, it was really great seeing and talking to you :)