It's been a busy week (getting ready for the 2008 Launch event in Boston next week), but I have a moment to share details from my trip to MIX '08 last week.

It was my first MIX, and incredibly, my first visit to Las Vegas!  Not a lot of free time to absorb the city, but it was great.

Didn't get to go (or went but somehow couldn't be everywhere at once)?  All content was recorded and is freely available at:

• http://sessions.visitmix.com/

First, the featured products and tools:

• Silverlight 2 Beta 1 is now available, with a non-commercial Go-Live license
• Deep Zoom Composer CTP (used to create applications like Hard Rock's Memorabilia site)
• Expression Studio 2 Beta - Requires and supports .NET 3.5
• Expression Blend 2.5 March 2008 Preview - supports Silverlight 1.0, 2, and WPF
• Expression Professional Subscription
  • For pro designers, it complements the existing MSDN developer subscription
• Silverlight 1.0 for Mobile
• Silverlight Tools Beta 1 for Visual Studio 2008 with support for Silverlight 2 Beta 1
• IIS 7 Media Pack  - enhancements for optimizing media and data streaming
• Internet Explorer 8 Beta is now available
  • Cool new features include WebSlices and Activities
  • IE 8 Virtual Machines are available to help with SxS testing
• MVC Preview 2 is now available
• Updated ASP.NET Extensions Preview

And the Demos:

• This video of the keynote captures all of the demos
• This post captures the play-by-play essence of the keynote
• Companies:
• Aston Martin
• Cirque du Soleil
• Hard Rock Memorabilia - An amazing demo of the Memorabilia site that uses Silverlight 2's native Deep Zoom feature
• NBC Olympics
• Weatherbug Mobile Weather using Silverlight (example for Boston)
• DoubleClick
• Nokia
• AOL Silverlight-based Mail Client

And finally, to describe the pictures on the right:

1. The top one is a picture of a Surface machine to which a picture of our group was sent from a wireless camera and enlarged right on the table.  (Left to right - Me, Brian Hitney, Glen Gordon, Joe Stagner, Zain Naboulsi, Rob Bagby.)   Very cool.
2. My colleague in the southeast, Doug Turnure, gazes longingly at the Surface machine being demoed.  Surface, you had us at hello. 
3. Really, I have no idea who these guys playing Rock Band are, but they were having a great time.  There was a pretty impressive setup - wonder if I can replicate it in my basement?
4. Finally, though I did eat here and had a nice meal, I'm only including this picture of the David Burke restaurant at the Venetian in honor of the incomparable Vermont-based Dave Burke.  Who knew you had a restaurant, Dave?

Hoping I get to go next year!

-Chris