Microsoft is responding to the challenges and competition of this decade with shorter release cycles. This is actually a good thing and the improved distribution channels by using NuGet will also add much benefit for the developers.
Nevertheless it is important to inform people what's new and what's ahead. This is the job of the Visual Studio Evolution conference, which will take place in a month in Düsseldorf.
I will also give a talk about the current release of the patch level version 4.5.1 of the .NET-Framework. Even though the list of changes is not that big, it is still interesting to know why this release is actually beneficial and why one should not hesitate to use it.
As far as I know tickets for the conference are still available. Since the list of speakers is quite good I can only recommend having a look.