The Inaugural New Zealand Girl Geek Dinner

Learn how to deliver richer online experiences for your users by adding video, multimedia and vector graphics to traditional web pages.  See demos of what has been created here and abroad using this exciting new technology. This session will also touch on the current design process… and demonstrate the workflow which new tools Expression Blend and Visual Studio 2008 offers designers and developers when building Silverlight solutions.

Nas Khan is a User Experience Consultant working for Intergen in Wellington. She is passionate about not only designing the user experience, but developing it too. Working closely with Business Analysts, .Net Developers and Project Managers, her role is to work across the entire UCD process, from gathering user requirements, all the way through to usability and accessibility testing.

Nas is particularly excited about WPF and Silverlight and the capabilities they provide to designers wanting to move into the designer space. Nas is especially keen to build a community in NZ. Recently she started ZamDes, a WPF and Silverlight User Group for designers based in Wellington, and blogs regularly about the technologies and a range of related design tools at www.naskhan.com.

Nigel Parker is a Web Development Advisor for Microsoft New Zealand in Auckland. Nigel has an entrepreneurial background and has numerous successful "start-ups" under his belt. Nigel leverages his experience to spend time working with developers, web agencies and on high profile web sites in New Zealand aiding them with the early adoption of Microsoft Technologies.

Before joining Microsoft Nigel worked for Intergen (a Microsoft Gold Partner) as a senior software developer. At Intergen Nigel grew the internal development team and delivered software solutions for enterprise customers specialising in systems integration and business to business projects. Nigel is a graduate of the University of Auckland where he received an Honours Degree in Information Systems. 

If you want to have a play with Silverlight before the talk so that you get more benefit from the presentation, you can download a trial version here www.microsoft.com/silverlight

Venue
The Komodo in Parnell. It's on the corner of Parnell Rise & Garfield Street, so very easy for buses & parking.  They have a car park round the back + there is lots of free on street parking at the bottom of Parnell.

They have two rooms available. The Bamboo room holds 50-90 people  (30 seated).  The Copper Room holds 120-150 people.  Depending on how many people book a ticket for the event depends on which room we use.  Both are available at the moment.  So please book/reserve a space sooner rather than later so that we know numbers and which room to finalise with the booking.

Costs
$30 per ticket.

Food
So that this event is a reasonable price for everyone, the evening will be catered using food platters.  Each platter contains 80 items so will provide more than enough food as there will be 1 platter per 4 people.  The first drink from the bar will have a $3 discount, after that it's normal price at the bar.

Platter contents will be suitable for carnivores & vegetarians to make sure everyone is covered.  If you have other requests, let me know and I'll have a word with the venue to see what can be sorted.

Hot Platters
Hashbrowns, Chicken Nuggets, Won Tons, Dim-Sims, Spring Rolls, Flamegrilled meatballs, Mini Hotdogs, Vegetable Croquets, Vegetable Samosas, Vegetable Spring Rolls, Vegetable Bites, Onion Rings, plus two dipping sauces.  The meat & vegetarian platters will be kept separate so that it is easy to identify which are which.

Cold Platters
Marinated Mushrooms, Stuffed Vine Leaves, A Selection of Olives, Marinated Feta, Raw Vegetable Selection, Stuffed Pepperellos, Cannellini Bean Dip, Crispy Chickpeas, Grainy Wholemeal Loaf

All platter items are subject to availability