Summary: Guest blogger and PowerShell MVP Don Jones talks about the Windows PowerShell summit. Microsoft Scripting Guy, Ed Wilson, is here. The Scripting Wife has signed up and sent her money in for the Windows PowerShell Summit coming up in April 2013. She is helping out behind the scenes, as is usual for her; she is not much for being in the limelight. While talking with Windows PowerShell MVP Don Jones about his blog yesterday on PowerShell.org, I also asked him about helping out and writing up a post about the upcoming summit. I am one of the speakers (in fact, I am making three presentations), but I’m not one of the organizer, therefore, I went to the source. Here’s Don:

The PowerShell Summit: Because IRL Matters

By the PowerShell.org Team PowerShell.org has become a great, reliable resource for Windows PowerShell answers—enjoying more than 8,500 unique visitors a month. It’s great to see the same user names popping up over and over with answers to their colleagues’ Windows PowerShell questions. But, at the same time, it’s even better to meet some of these guys and gals in real life (IRL). Face-to-face is where you really cement relationships for the long-haul. That’s where the PowerShell Summit comes in. In 2013, we’ll host the first-ever Windows PowerShell Summit North America. It will be held at the  Microsoft campus in Redmond, Washington, April 22‒24. We’ve got more than a dozen speakers lined up, plus a half-dozen Windows PowerShell team members who’ll be presenting. Session selections were made by community vote, reflecting the “community owned-and-operated” nature of the event. The agenda (viewable at http://powershell.org/summit/calendar.php) is an eclectic mix of awesomeness—everything from intermediate-level topics on Windows PowerShell workflow to some pretty hardcore stuff, like metaprogramming and creating ISE add-ons. There’s even going to be a concluding half-day workshop, led by the Windows PowerShell team, where you can offer feedback about the product, which will help drive future design decisions. This being our inaugural event, we’re taking things pretty slow. A lot of folks have asked, for example, about session recordings and streaming, which we’re sadly not going to be able to offer. There’s an expense, and the rooms we’re using just aren’t equipped for it in any way. We’re considering this year to be our “bootstrap” event, and we’re already looking forward to a somewhat bigger show in 2014. We’ll have more room (as of this writing, there are fewer than 30 seats remaining for the 2013 event) and the possibility of recording at least some sessions, evening events, and a hopefully more central location that’s still convenient to the product team (because we obviously want them to come talk to us!). So if you haven’t considered the Summit, think about joining us. Full details and registration are at http://powershell.org/summit. We’ve worked really hard to keep the costs as low as possible: You can register, get a hotel room, and probably even rent a car for under $2,000. Seattle is a reasonably easy-to-reach airport with pretty reasonable fares from most U.S. cities. Wait… U.S. cities? What about the rest of the world? Well, we’re getting a few overseas folks in 2013, but we know travel is tough. But we’ve been very careful to officially name this event the Windows PowerShell Summit North America, because we know Windows PowerShell has a big following outside the U.S. and Canada! As we get started on this event-running thing, we don’t have the resources to handle an overseas event. But that’s not to say one won’t happen. We’ve already had interest from folks in Germany, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, and we’re hopeful to get regional Summits running in the future. Baby steps! In the meantime, we hope to see you in Redmond for the Windows PowerShell Summit North America 2013! I invite you to follow me on Twitter and Facebook. If you have any questions, send email to me at scripter@microsoft.com, or post your questions on the Official Scripting Guys Forum. See you tomorrow. Until then, peace.

Ed Wilson, Microsoft Scripting Guy