I had trouble interpreting your original post, but if it relates to the subject of getting a column notification when one is created, why not use extension methods? If you're able to switch the project over to the 3.5 .NET framework in the project properties then the snippet below could be useful. It's not a notification, but you can take control of the Add/Insert method.

    public static class UltraGridExtension
    {
        public static UltraGridColumn Add(this ColumnsCollection columns, string key, string caption, string unused)
        {
            UltraGridColumn gridColumn = columns.Add(key, caption);
            //Do processing on the created column
            return gridColumn;
        }
        public static UltraGridColumn Insert(this ColumnsCollection columns, int index, string key, string unused)
        {
            UltraGridColumn gridColumn = columns.Add(index, key);
            //Do processing on the created column
            return gridColumn;
        }
    }

If I was way off from what you were asking, just ignore this reply. Also, if you use these extension methods, remember to use the correct override of the Add/Insert methods that we created.

P.S. If you don't want to be as fancy with extension methods, the regular Add/Insert methods return the new UltraGridColumn that you can read/write properties from.