Women's Social

**🔥 Modernizing ASP.NET Framework to Core in 2026** Inside Microsoft’s AI‑Driven App Modernization Work 📅 Wednesday, 11 March 2026 🕠 5:30pm – 7:00pm NZDT 📍 Microsoft Auckland (Hybrid) 🎤 Presenter: Taylor Southwick **🌏 Why this session is special** This is a rare opportunity for the Auckland / New Zealand .NET community. Taylor Southwick is based in Redmond, working directly inside Microsoft engineering on application modernization tooling and strategy. He’s only in Auckland for a short visit — and this session gives local developers a chance to hear first‑hand how Microsoft is approaching AI‑assisted App Modernization for large, real‑world .NET applications. This isn’t a conference replay or a polished marketing talk — it’s direct insight from the team building the tools. **🧠 Session overview** Modernising large, long‑lived ASP.NET Framework applications is no longer a “someday” problem — it’s a right‑now reality for many teams across NZ and beyond. In this session, Taylor Southwick will share how Microsoft is thinking about modernising ASP.NET Framework applications to ASP.NET Core in 2026, drawing directly from real customer and ISV engagements involving very large, very real codebases. **Rather than a theoretical migration guide, this talk focuses on:** ✅ What actually works in practice ✅ What breaks (and why) ✅ How teams are using AI‑assisted and incremental approaches to modernisation ✅ Where the latest App Modernization (AppMod) tooling is heading Much of this thinking is shaped by recent work with enterprise customers — including Vista‑backed organisations — navigating complex, multi‑year modernisation programs under real business constraints. **🧩 What Taylor will cover** Taylor will start with \~30 minutes of prepared content, followed by an open, interactive discussion. Topics include: * The current state of ASP.NET Framework → Core migrations in 2026 * How Microsoft and customers are breaking down large monoliths without “stopping the world” * Common anti‑patterns and traps teams fall into during modernisation * Where incremental modernisation makes sense — and where it doesn’t * How AI‑driven tooling is starting to influence AppMod decisions * How teams are thinking about risk, ROI, and sequencing for long‑running migrations * This content comes straight from frontline engineering and customer work, not greenfield demos. 🧪 Format ✅ \~30 minutes of prepared walkthrough and insights ✅ Followed by open Q&A and discussion ✅ No heavy slide deck — this is about shared learning and lived experience Whether you’re: * Sitting on a 10+ year old ASP.NET Framework app * Mid‑migration and feeling the pain * Or trying to work out how to even start …this session should give you practical clarity and confidence — straight from the source. 🍕 Logistics * Food & drinks provided (thanks Arinco!) * In‑person and remote attendees welcome * Please RSVP so we can plan catering

**Setbacks happen…but so do restarts!** Come hang out **IN PERSON** at Shift & Sip for a casual hour of mindset shifts, life systems exploration, and good conversation with like-minded people. Bring a notebook and your awesome energy...we’ll supply the cuppa and snacks! **The Mayfair, Kaikōura** 12 March \| 7–8pm Koha appreciated

**🔥 Modernizing ASP.NET Framework to Core in 2026** Inside Microsoft’s AI‑Driven App Modernization Work 📅 Wednesday, 11 March 2026 🕠 5:30pm – 7:00pm NZDT 📍 Microsoft Auckland (Hybrid) 🎤 Presenter: Taylor Southwick **🌏 Why this session is special** This is a rare opportunity for the Auckland / New Zealand .NET community. Taylor Southwick is based in Redmond, working directly inside Microsoft engineering on application modernization tooling and strategy. He’s only in Auckland for a short visit — and this session gives local developers a chance to hear first‑hand how Microsoft is approaching AI‑assisted App Modernization for large, real‑world .NET applications. This isn’t a conference replay or a polished marketing talk — it’s direct insight from the team building the tools. **🧠 Session overview** Modernising large, long‑lived ASP.NET Framework applications is no longer a “someday” problem — it’s a right‑now reality for many teams across NZ and beyond. In this session, Taylor Southwick will share how Microsoft is thinking about modernising ASP.NET Framework applications to ASP.NET Core in 2026, drawing directly from real customer and ISV engagements involving very large, very real codebases. **Rather than a theoretical migration guide, this talk focuses on:** ✅ What actually works in practice ✅ What breaks (and why) ✅ How teams are using AI‑assisted and incremental approaches to modernisation ✅ Where the latest App Modernization (AppMod) tooling is heading Much of this thinking is shaped by recent work with enterprise customers — including Vista‑backed organisations — navigating complex, multi‑year modernisation programs under real business constraints. **🧩 What Taylor will cover** Taylor will start with \~30 minutes of prepared content, followed by an open, interactive discussion. Topics include: * The current state of ASP.NET Framework → Core migrations in 2026 * How Microsoft and customers are breaking down large monoliths without “stopping the world” * Common anti‑patterns and traps teams fall into during modernisation * Where incremental modernisation makes sense — and where it doesn’t * How AI‑driven tooling is starting to influence AppMod decisions * How teams are thinking about risk, ROI, and sequencing for long‑running migrations * This content comes straight from frontline engineering and customer work, not greenfield demos. 🧪 Format ✅ \~30 minutes of prepared walkthrough and insights ✅ Followed by open Q&A and discussion ✅ No heavy slide deck — this is about shared learning and lived experience Whether you’re: * Sitting on a 10+ year old ASP.NET Framework app * Mid‑migration and feeling the pain * Or trying to work out how to even start …this session should give you practical clarity and confidence — straight from the source. 🍕 Logistics * Food & drinks provided (thanks Arinco!) * In‑person and remote attendees welcome * Please RSVP so we can plan catering

**Our March pick is *God of the Woods* by Liz Moore.** **This month’s novel is an award-winning literary mystery that blends family drama with psychological suspense. It explores women’s voices and relationships while delivering an exciting, eerie, and deeply suspenseful story. The book is 576 pages in print or 14 hours and 35 minutes on audiobook.** Early morning, August 1975: a camp counselor discovers an empty bunk. Its occupant, Barbara Van Laar, has gone missing. Barbara isn’t just any thirteen-year-old: she’s the daughter of the family that owns the summer camp and employs most of the region’s residents. And this isn’t the first time a Van Laar child has disappeared. Barbara’s older brother similarly vanished fourteen years ago, never to be found. As a panicked search begins, a thrilling drama unfolds. Chasing down the layered secrets of the Van Laar family and the blue-collar community working in its shadow, Moore’s multi-threaded story invites readers into a rich and gripping dynasty of secrets and second chances. It is Liz Moore’s most ambitious and wide-reaching novel yet.

**Our April novel is: *The Hong Kong Widow* by Kristen Loesch** **This month’s novel blends gothic atmosphere with historical fiction and chilling horror, set against the haunting backdrop of China. The book is 368 pages in print and 10 hours and 42 minutes on audiobook.** In 1950s Hong Kong, Mei is a young refugee of the Chinese Communist revolution struggling to put her past in Shanghai behind her. When she receives a shocking invitation—to take part in a competition in one of the city's most notorious haunted houses, pitting six spirit mediums against one another in a series of six séances over six nights, until a single winner emerges—she has every reason to refuse. Except that the hostess, a former Shanghainese silent film star, is none other than the wife of the man who once destroyed Mei’s entire life. It is promised the winner will receive a fortune, but there is only one prize Mei wants: revenge. Decades later, the final night of that competition has become an infamous urban legend: The police were called to the scene of a brutal massacre but found no evidence, dismissing it as a collective hallucination. Mei knows what she saw, but now someone else is convinced they know what she did. She must uncover the truth about the last night she ever spent in that house—even if the ghosts of her past are waiting for her there. . . .

Hi ladies. We will meet in front of the Nature Center and head to the two Observation decks. We will then hike Hickory Ridge, Ripple Rock, Overlook and Sugarbush trails to get approximately four miles total distance. We will walk approximately a 18 minute mile pace. Please wear appropriate hiking shoes.

Meet in the Maple Grove Picnic area. If trail conditions are poor, we will use the Multipurpose Path.

Hike approx 4.0 miles at approx. 18 minute mile pace. Meet in front of the Nature Center.

Come join us for coffee at Matari Coffee to discuss our March book, "The Enchanted Greenhouse"! Book description: Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly-deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing, and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes—at least until she’s ready to sail home. But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to—the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing—causing the death of everything within them—Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again. This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island—and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.