"Silverlight 4 Fundamentals" course coming to the UK

It's always feast or famine on this blog - and it's been famine for quite a while, mainly because I've been working away from home for most of the last 4 months.

Anyway I hope to rectify all that over the coming weeks, with a series of Silverlight 4 book review blog posts, now that titles are finally starting to appear on the shelves. Expect the first review next Monday!

However, first off I wanted to highlight the fact that there's a new Silverlight 4 Fundamentals course coming to the UK next month. We've just had the Silverlight Masterclass (which I didn't attend but heard good things about) but this new course from the folks at Pluralsight is aimed more at those who are new to Silverlight. I'm often asked about the 'best' way to train up for Silverlight 4, and asked if there are any good courses or books that I'd recommend, and this looks like a great way to learn the technology.

I've been very impressed with the on-demand training I've sampled from Pluralsight (their LINQ course is the most comprehensive, and beautifully explained treatise I've seen on the subject) so I expect their new Silverlight 4 Fundamentals course being run in London on the 27th September will be a good one, especially since the instructor is Ian Griffiths. Ian always does a good job, and really knows his stuff when it comes to WPF and Silverlight. I had a quick look at the on demand online web training for Silverlight 3 that Ian produced for Pluralsight and it was good, comprehensive stuff so the portents for this new Silverlight 4 course are good.

There's a special reduced rate of £1700 (down from £2100) if you book early, so if you want professional training on 'Microsoft's premiere UI', as Ray Ozzie calls it, then now would be the time to book. More information about the course can be found on the Pluralsight web site here.

And if anyone knows of any good Expression Blend training, aside from the Channel 9 design.toolbox training (which is very good, but needs updating for Blend 4) please let me know. I'm always being asked about good Blend training, and the one book on the subject that's available is not one I would feel at all comfortable recommending.

UPDATE 10TH SEPTEMBER 2010 This course is now going to be hosted virtually (ie accessible from anywhere) and the price has therefore been reduced to £325.