There are big changes happening amidst a very busy time in my career.  Firstly, I have accepted an opportunity to join Daugherty Business Solutions as a consultant.  This is a big change for me as I am leaving the public sector where I’ve been for the last 10 years.  I’m really looking forward to getting experience working with different technology stacks like Java and Business Intelligence and working with some great people.  I’ll be joining one of my musically talented former co-workers as well and am looking forward to that (and hopefully she gets her album on the Zune Music store soon!).

The last several weeks have been a combination of interviews, pre-employment paperwork, and the deployment of one of the largest efforts I have been a part of in my career.  Not all of it has been roses and there have been some really long days in there, and I’m learning a lot, and all of it will slowly get distilled down to some lessons that I will share as time goes on.

I have about 2 weeks at my current job and then I will be looking forward to about 10 days of being technically “unemployed”.  Hopefully during that time I can finish some of the thoughts that have been swimming my head for the last several months.  So, I realize this note isn’t entirely technical but this is what’s on my mind and will be for the next few weeks.

Until next time, here’s where you’ll see me around the community:

STL .NET User Group – Monday Sept 28 @ Microsoft STL.  Wear your STLDODN 2009 Polo and have a chance to win prizes (first come first serve)!  Our top-rated speaker from STLDODN 2009, Muljadi Budiman will be showing you what’s coming in VSTS 2010.

NIEM National Training Event – Join us in Baltimore, MD Sept 30-Oct 2 where you can catch me for back-to-back presentations on NIEM and .NET, and SOA and NIEM (aka Service-Oriented, Event-Driven).

Coders 4 Charities – Based on the very successful C4C in Kansas City, join us for a community event hosted at CAIT in Clayton, MO on Oct 16-18 where we will spend a weekend developing solutions for local charitable organizations that need IT help.  Sign up to volunteer and put your skills to work for the community!