Tonight the Edmonton .NET User Group celebrated its one year anniversary with a presentation by Chistians Izquierdo at the Maverick Brewery. Looking back at a year ago I never would have dreamed that I would have changed this much professionally as a developer due to the efforts of this community and due to guidance of the quality speakers we have been fortunate enough to have.

There are probably 2 turning points in my professional career that made me strive to be better at my profession. The first, was a manager telling me "you don't know what you're doing" (I admit I didn't know what I was doing at the time).  After that managers words, I wanted to prove him wrong so I found the .NET Wizards and met other developers that could help me get better.

The second turning point was a car ride to the first meeting of the newly formed Edmonton .NET User Group where Jean-Paul Boodhoo stated to me "we are the next generation of software developers." Those words said to me that I could either choose to be more pragmatic about how I approached my career or I could be left in the dust, it was my choice.

If I can pass on anything that I learned from a year of the Edmonton .NET User Group, it is to strive to be the next generation of software developer. Don't let yourself be left in the dust and always look for ways to improve your skills. Never forget that if you look to the person on your left you may see someone who is better than you at software development, but if you look to your right there is someone striving to be you. Strive to be better than the person on your left and mentor the person on our right!

Cheers to another year of being the next generation of software developers and thanks to the community who has helped make the Edmonton .NET User Group a success.