I’m a sailor. I don’t sail much right now, because I don’t have time, but I still identify as a sailor.

One of the best things about sailing is the marina community. Folks on the docks are amazingly helpful and friendly. You rarely come in to dock without other boaters offering to grab a line and help you land.

There’s good community in software development too. Sure, there are some bad eggs, but overall, the development community is strong. When I meet new developers trying to learn or new graduates trying to land a job, I always recommend they find a few local meetups to visit. Then pick one or two and attend every month.

Before long, they’re rubbing shoulders with other developers, learning things, figuring out what the web front-end flavor of the week is, and even finding new job roles.

Boise, Idaho has a strong developer community in the Boise .NET Developers User Group (NETDUG).

I fly out to Boise now and then to teach and learn from these fine folks who are fortunate enough to live and work in a beautiful area of the country while still working software development jobs.

Last night I talked to the group about the Microsoft Bot Framework in a session I called Bring on the Bots.

As I told the group, I was none too excited about bots when they were first mentioned at Build 2016, but I’ve since seen the future and realized that digitizing conversation is going to be a big part.

So, here’s to all the software developers in Boise and specifically those in NETDUG. And here’s to NETDUG leaders like @TheScottNichols and @brianlagunas.

If you’re anywhere near Boise, Idaho in March, do know that the Boise Code Camp is a real blast and pretty much a requisite for coders of all breed.

There’s also a Visual Studio 2017 Launch Party the morning of March 9 at the Microsoft office that you’re all welcome too. Hurry because space is limited.

Is there anything better than joining a bunch of other people that like writing software to talk about writing software? Yes. There’s beer and sandwiches for one, and for two there’s conjoining on the subject of Windows 8 which is an exciting new software development opportunity.

Alex Golesh (@DevCorner) is a Microsoft MVP and did a smash bang job of presenting on even some of the less beginner and more intermediate parts of Windows 8 development (which is new to us all by the way). Alex’s experience includes a ton of XAML and C# development and he was able to bring all of that into Windows 8.

Next month at vNext (April 10). My colleague, MJ (@mjconnection), and I are going to continue the discussion with more of a HTML5/CSS3/JavaScript view of Windows 8 development. If you’re in the area, you should totally stop by.