The Richard Hale Shaw Group provides training and/or mentoring services to professional software developers, and specializes in Microsoft .NET (in C# and VB), ASP.NET (in C# and VB), XML, Web Services.

• Our trainers and mentors are experts in cutting-edge software technologies, and are actively engaged in development projects when not in the classroom.
• We provide hands-on, instructor-led, public and onsite training courses using our own materials, which we can customize to the meet the needs of our clients.
• Unlike other training vendors, we'll teach you to write and implement components and applications.
• Our trainers teach you the depth of theory necessary to master the technology without losing sight of its applicability, while focusing on best practices and the most efficient but effective way to create and implement a design.

And most important: we eat our own "dog food" -- this entire site is written using C# and the .NET Framework 2.0.

Richard Hale Shaw is an out-spoken questioner of patterns and practices, and consultant, architect and lecturer largely specializing in Managed Code development of distributed systems using Microsoft's .NET technology and the C# programming language.

Richard is a Microsoft MVP for Visual C#, and since 2002, has been a member of the C# Customer Council: a group of hand-picked experts who consult to the C# Team at Microsoft regarding new features and new directions in the C# Programming Language.

Richard became involved with personal computers in 1982, learned C in 1983, and has been hooked on computing ever since. He got his first job as a software developer in 1983, and helped to launch new versions of HyperAccess for Hilgraeve, Inc. in 1988-89. He was a contributing Editor to PC Magazine and Microsoft Systems Journal (now MSDN Magazine) from 1988-1996, and still occasionally writes for SD Magazine and other software developer journals. It's a popular industry myth that Richard has written a book, although some of the lab books he's written for courseware may seem like books (the 450-page COM BootCamp labs/slides, the 450-page COM+ BootCamp labs/slides, or the 600-page .NET BootCamp labs).

Richard began speaking at conferences in 1990, and over the years he co-created the MSJ and DevWeek Conferences in the UK, and the Visual C++ Conference (now a part of VSLive) where he was conference chair. He was a founding speaker at DevConnections, and from 1990-2004 has been, respectively, OS/2, Windows, COM and .NET track chair for the Software Development Conference. He's presently the Chair of C# Live!, the advanced .NET programming track at at the VSLive! conference, and gives a .NET tutorial at VSLive 1-2 times a year. He's notorious for ditching slides in favor of building code samples in front of a live audience, and was the first to give HANDS-ON tutorials at conferences, starting in 1994 at SD.

Richard is a member of the INETA Speaker's Bureau, and has given numerous talks to .NET user groups around the US, Canada and in Europe.

Richard began providing consulting and training for clients in 1990, giving corporate training seminars and workshops since 1993. Today, as CEO of the Richard Hale Shaw Group, he provides on-site training services, teaches and produces public seminars and workshops on .NET (which he personally teaches), XML, and UML, ASP.NET, the .NET Compact Framework and other topics (which he supervises and produces). He created the "Developer BootCamp" notion of intensive, hands-on training where lectures follow hands-on exercises that eschew an academic approach used by others. He’s consulted to 1000s of developers on C++, MFC, COM, ATL, .NET and C#, and authored the .NET BootCamp (a 5-day hands-on course), the .NET Patterns & Practices BootCamp, and the Advanced .NET BootCamp.

Richard's consulting specialties include Architectural and Debug consulting, as well as a variety of problem-solving services to clients of nearly every sort.

In the Boston area, he’s also known as a budding jazz bassist with a deep love of the work of Miles Davis and John Coltrane.

Benjamin Day is an independent consultant specializing in the design and development of web and Windows applications using Microsoft .NET technologies. Ben also provides consulting and training on Visual Studio Team System and Team Foundation Server via the Richard Hale Shaw Group. He is a Microsoft MVP for C#, speaker at VSLive! and other conferences, and the leader of the Beantown.NET INETA User Group in Boston.

When not developing software, Ben plays piano with a Boston-based jazz trio and is an enthusiastic restaurant, food, beer and wine buff.

Ben runs Benjamin Day Consulting services.

• Cara Eldridge
• Rachel Werner