10 tips and tricks for GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps, with David Gardiner

Join us for a review of what's new in .NET 10. Ryan and David will show you a few of our favourite new features across the SDK, Runtime and C# enhancements. Mark will focus on challenges and tips for upgrading from .NET 8 to 10. About the speakers Ryan Rowston - Senior Developer, with a focus on .NET applications and APIs. LinkedIn Mark Foreman - Multi-stack Developer at SA Power Networks, working in .NET and SAP on systems that support SA's renewable energy future. LinkedIn David Gardiner - Senior Developer, SixPivot. Microsoft MVP (Developer Technologies). LinkedIn, Blog

AI assisted development is becoming a regular part of modern software teams. Tools like GitHub Copilot can help speed up delivery, reduce repetitive tasks, and free developers to focus on solving real problems. When used without the right practices though, they can introduce security risks, licensing concerns, and messy code that is hard to maintain. As organisations start exploring Vibe Coding, there is a growing need for enterprise controls that guide the safe and responsible use of these tools. Before teams dive in, companies should think about compliance checks, best practice guidelines, and clear development standards. This helps ensure consistency, reduces risk, and supports quality as AI becomes part of everyday workflows. You will leave with practical tips, real examples, and a simple checklist that will help you get the best out of AI assisted development in a safe, secure, and productive way. Speaker links: LinkedIn

For years those who wished to define their database structure in a SQL project have suffered through arcane configurations and platform specific libraries. Many despaired of ever getting a modern alternative; some even turning to Entity Framework for their database deployments. However, there were always those of us who held onto hope for a more modern answer. This year, that hope was finally realised as SDK-style SQL projects were released. In this talk I’ll be demoing the new SDK-Style SQL project. This will showcase how to set up, build, and deploy the project. I’ll also show off a few extra tricks that you might find helpful. Ryan's LinkedIn profile

AI is no longer just for machine learning experts—it’s ready to plug into your everyday .NET workflows. In this session, you’ll learn how to build a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) chatbot using .NET, and how to implement the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to structure interactions with large language models. We’ll walk through how open-source tools like Ollama make it easy to run models locally, keep your data private, and stay in control. By the end, you’ll understand how to integrate AI into .NET apps using proven techniques and open tools—without reinventing the wheel. Speaker links: LinkedIn

.NET Aspire is an opinionated stack for building apps and wrangling their dependencies. In this session you'll learn what .NET Aspire is, why Microsoft created it, and how you can get started using it yourself. If you are already using .NET Aspire this is a great time to ask any questions you have and get an answer from one of the members of the .NET Aspire core team. Links: Mitch Denny Aspire website

Never used .NET and wondering what all the fuss is about? Or are you a seasoned .NET professional curious about the parts you haven't yet explored? This session is for everyone—from newcomers to experts. We introduce .NET, explain how it works, and showcase its capabilities across front end, back end, desktop, mobile, cloud, IoT, AI, and more. Links: .NET David's Blog

SpecFlow is a framework for .NET used to create automated tests using the Gherkin Given-When-Then syntax. In, this talk, you'll learn about how SpecFlow can be used to create BDD style tests, and also how it can be extended to be used for different testing scenarios. Stephen and Rich will talk about their experience of using SpecFlow at HAMBS, some of the challenges they came across in the process, and how they extended the tool to meet the testing needs of HAMBS. Specifically, they will discuss some of the practical problems that needed to be solved: Customising test steps so that a tester can write tests without needing to touch the code Database setup and assertions Ensuring each test starts in a consistent state Links: SpecFlow HAMBS

In this talk I'll share some of the lessons learned in creating and maintaining numerous build and deployment pipelines in both Azure DevOps and GitHub. You will learn about the common traps to avoid, and simple improvements that can make your continuous integration and deployment processes more reliable and maintainable. The principles and techniques will also apply to other CI/CD toolsets. Links: David's blog

Developers often say to "design your code like LEGO". Typically, they're suggesting you separate your code into small modules with single responsibilities. However, a frequently overlooked detail is that LEGO bricks have little studs that allow you to join them together without everything falling apart. This seems like an important detail not to overlook, because I really like when my code doesn't fall apart.

In this presentation, Daniel Brown, User Group Lead of the Adelaide Microsoft Copilot User Group, will delve into developing, integrating, and extending the capabilities of Microsoft Copilot within .NET. He will explore how developers can create custom functionalities, seamlessly integrate Copilot into their existing workflows, and extend its features to suit specific project needs. Daniel will showcase practical examples, share best practices, limitations and provide insights on how to leverage Copilot's advanced tools to enhance application performance and boost productivity. We'll also touch on the different Copilots and AI platforms offered by Microsoft.