Tech Days is the annual Microsoft Conference for software development, software architecture and IT solutions in the Netherlands. The Tech Days conference covers the full spectrum of Microsoft development technologies with sessions about Modern Application Development, Cloud, Web, Phone, Visual Studio, User Experience, Management, Deployment, Security and much more presented by the world’s best speakers and experts.

This year boasts a number of great speakers including a developer keynote by Erich Gamma and IT professional keynote by Jeff Woolsey. But since this is the Visual C++ blog, we want to call out three sessions by our own James McNellis:

• C++ Scenarios for C# Developers. This session explores top scenarios where managed application might benefit from the speed and native power of C++. It will introduce C++ fundamentals through practical examples, take a look at modern C++ best practices, and review a few common mistakes that ensnare programmers new to C++.
• Favorite Things for C++ Developers in Visual Studio 2013. This is a fast-paced session taking you through a tour of the new features available to C++ developers in Visual Studio 2013. This talk will cover the breadth of the Visual C++ tools including targeting Windows 8.1, C++11 language conformance, new REST libraries, compiler optimizations that make your code run faster, as well as the improved productivity features in the IDE for editing, debugging and diagnosing applications.
• Modernizing Legacy C++ Code. In this session, James will share his experience using elements of modern C++ to improve a large legacy code base. Learn how to apply principles of modern C++ to gradually improve the quality of legacy code and improve maintainability and debuggability.

Look back here for pointers to videos and other online materials made available after the conference.