Keith Smith's Blog : Events

Silverlight Meets .NET at MIX

keiths — Mon, 30 Apr 2007 22:36:45 GMT

Today, during the MIX07 Keynote, Ray Ozzie and Scott Guthrie unveiled the .NET capabilities of Silverlight and previews of the latest Expression Studio and Visual Studio tools for building Silverlight applications.

This announcements comes on the heels of the rich media functionality announced 2 weeks ago at the National Association of Broadcasters conference. Everyone who has worked on this project is elated, excited, ecstatic, energized, and euphoric with all the buzz and clear designer and developer interest around what we are delivering. [Check out: technorati, flickr, twitter, facebook)

With Silverlight we are changing the conversations people have ]bout building RIAs and delivering rich media experiences in a broad, quick and easy way. No longer is it an either/or proposition where you have to make tradeoffs between:

High-quality animation or performance
Developer/designer productivity or skills reuse
Broad audio/video reach or low cost of delivery

With a cross-platform implementation of .NE T at its core and Windows Media as its foundation, Silverlight turns each of the ORs above to ANDs.

You want high-quality, performant vector animation? Check.
Your developers and designers want an efficient workflow that allows them to reuse their existing skills and maintain creative control? Check.
You need to deliver your existing media assets at a low cost? Check.

Exciting times.

Go check out the latest Silverlight news at http://www.microsoft.com/silverlight.

Also, we have launched the Silverlight Community Site at http://www.silverlight.net where you can see demos, download samples and participate in the discussion on the Forums.

Microsoft Silverlight to Light Up the Web

keiths — Mon, 16 Apr 2007 18:38:00 GMT

Today, at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) conference in Las Vegas, Microsoft unveiled Microsoft Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web.

Helpful links:

Get ready to Light up the Web...

Register Today for Microsoft MIX07

keiths — Mon, 08 Jan 2007 08:47:51 GMT

Registration for the Microsoft MIX 07 event opened last week.

MIX is targeted at Web developers, designers, online advertising professionals and a broad set of partners and customers. This year's event will continue to explore how to build more interactive and responsive experiences that take full advantage of the capabilities of the Web.

MIX07 will also be an opportunity to dive deeper into Microsoft’s Web technology offerings — including ASP.NET, ASP.NET AJAX, Internet Information Services (IIS), Microsoft Expression, "WPF/E" and Internet Explorer.

Come discover ways to create more dynamic customer connections that take user experience to the next level. Similar to MIX06, MIX07 will be held in Las Vegas from April 30^th to May 2^nd, at the Venetian Hotel. More information can be found at the official MIX site at visitmix.com.

The price of MIX is $1195 USD, but if you register before March 15^th you will get a special discounted price of $995. Register today and save over 15%!

See you in Vegas at MIX!

Tech-Ed Takeaways

keiths — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 21:35:00 GMT

My Tech-Ed 2006 has come to an end and now I'm eagerly awaiting my return flight home to Seattle.

Boston is always fun although the weather can be a little too warm/humid for me. The city has changed a lot since I lived here from June 1993 to June 1998. There's now a Silver Line on the "T" that goes directly to Logan International Airport. Back when I lived here, one had to take the Blue Line which included dead-lifting all you baggage at some point since there were no escalators when making the switch from the Orange or Green. Then there was that dreaded shuttle ride from the train station to the airport terminal that made being late for one's flight hazardous to the rest of one's travel itinerary. Ah, Boston. The city will always hold a special place in my heart but I like Seattle and the Pacific Northwest much, much more. As controversial as it may be, there's really no comparison in my book World Series and all.

Things I will take with me from Tech-Ed 2006:

Tech-Ed is huge. Having attended both this year, the logistics for Tech-Ed rival The Super Bowl even with a fraction of the attendance.
Everyone who sees it in action really, really likes "Atlas" and they all want more information to help get started...and an earlier release date. Rest assured, we are working aggressively on both.
WAP (Web Application Projects) is where it's at for users migrating their Web applications from Visual Studio 2002/2003 to Visual Studio 2005. Those familiar with it love it. Those seeing it for the first time are immediately smitten. The Web Development Tools team took a major hit to bring this add-on into existence (in a very short period of time) and the feedback consistently indicates it was a worthwhile endeavor.
As someone responsible for track content, low session evaluations is no way to start the event. It really sucks spending the rest of the week climbing out of a hole. Luckily, we had several veteran and a few newbie speakers that really came through at the middle and end of the week. With the benefit of hindsight, there are many ways to justify, dissect and explain away our lowest session scores but what's more constructive is understanding what we need to change going forward. Before moving on, however, I would like to apologize to everyone who sat in a session that experienced technical difficulties. Those things are just irresponsible and easily avoided in all but the most severe cases.
Computer nerds (or "geeks" if you prefer) like to party or at least they do a good job faking it.
Microsoft has the best developer community bar none. Our MVPs and regional directors are worth their weights in platinum-reinforced titanium. The community of people who attend these training events are a dedicated, passionate and talented lot all doing some really neat and interesting things. Over lunch one day, I spoke with a woman from Honda Research who cut the time necessary to build CAD/CAM models on UNIX-based systems from 3 days to 4 hours using 64-bit Windows and some of Microsoft's early High-Performance Computing work. Not only does the Microsoft solution save her team immense amounts of time, it also cost less money to implement. Brilliant!
Microsoft has a lot of products. I always sort of knew this having visited The Microsoft Museum several times with visiting friends and relatives. It's one thing to see names of products inscribed in Lucite. It's another to see a convention center floor full of demo stations, signage and trinkets and that is just for developers and IT professionals.

If you were at Tech-Ed this year, send me a note to let me know what you like least and most about our Web presence (ASP.NET, "Atlas", Visual Web Developer, etc.) What would you like to see more/less of? How does this year's event compare to previous years? This information will be extremely valuable and put to good use.

So, as the fiscal year comes to an end, so does my travel frequency (at least for a couple months). My summer will be spent enjoying the Pacific Northwest while it is in its prime and preparing for what is sure to be a busy late-Q1 and Q2.

Live from Tech-Ed 2006!

keiths — Wed, 14 Jun 2006 21:28:00 GMT

Tech-Ed 2006 has been in full swing since Sunday, 6/11, with pre-conference workshops during the day and the keynote main event that started at 7PM and ending at 9:20PM. The keynote included broad strategy and positioning by Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia and Chris Capossela.

The conference itself is at the Boston Convention & Exhibition Center. I am staying at The Fairmont Copley and most other people are at The Westing Copley or The Marriott.

I did the 4th demo for Bob's segment showing Microsoft's new tools for role-based team development: Visual Studio Team Edition for Database Professionals (aka Team Data) and Expression Interactive Designer.

It has been an amazing experience and there is so much to blog about but so little time. My days have started bright and early as I work the first shift at the ASP.NET & "Atlas" demo station in the Technical Learning Center. I then typically have 2-3 meetings in the afternoon to engage with members of the field (e.g., MVPs, regional directors, developer evangelists) and to meet with authors, trainers, partners, etc. to start filling in my FY07 marketing plan with specifics.

My evenings have, so far, been replete with hobnobbing with the field at events sponspored by different groups within Microsoft or hosted by 3rd parties. Yesterday, I had dinner at The Hampshire House (Cheer's) with the Central Region Developer & Platform Evangelists. Following dinner I went directly to Boston Billiard Club to party with a pool hall full of Tech-Ed attendees at the TechNet 2006 Late-Nighter. That was really a lot of fun. I am terrible at pool, btw.

My days have ended at 3AM then it's rest, wash, rinse and repeat.

ASP.NET Connections Europe (Nice) - Slides and Demos

keiths — Tue, 02 May 2006 05:04:00 GMT

The slides and demos for the sessions I presented at ASP.NET Connections Europe last week in Nice, France can be downloaded using the links below.

AMS310 - A Lap Around the New Enhancements for Web Developers in Visual Studio 2005 [371 KB]

See my earlier post for sessions AMS309 and AMS310.

ASP.NET Connections (Orlando) - Slides and Demos

keiths — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 19:03:00 GMT

The slides and demos for the sessions I presented at ASP.NET Connections this week in Orlando can be downloaded using the links below.

AMS309 - Using Visual Studio Team System to Build Enterprise ASP.NET Applications [5.8 MB]
AMS310 - Web Application UI: Integrating Master Pages, Site Navigation and Themes [7.2 MB]

ASP.NET Connections - Orlando

keiths — Sat, 01 Apr 2006 21:07:00 GMT

I'm headed to ASP.NET Connections in Orlando to present a couple sessions and interact with members of the developer community. On Monday, April 3, I will be presenting the following sessions:

AMS310: Web Application UI Integrating Master Pages, Site Navigation, and Themes (10:45AM-11:45AM)
AMS309: Using Visual Studio Team System to Build Enterprise ASP.NET Web Applications (1:30PM-2:30PM)

Please stop by if you are interested in either of these topics.

In addition to Scott's keynote to kickoff the conference at 8AM on Monday, other members of the Microsoft Web Platform & Tools team will also be presenting a total of 8 other breakout sessions covering various ASP.NET 2.0 and Visual Studio 2005 topics. Tuesday and Wednesday are when members of the community and 3rd-party software developers are presenting sessions on ASP.NET and Visual Studio 2005.

This conference should intereesting as it is in Orlando during many Spring Break periods.

If you are interested in the latest DevConnections developments and activities, check out the DevConnections Blog.

See you in Orlando...

MIX 06 in Final Descent

keiths — Fri, 17 Mar 2006 21:21:00 GMT

It has been a busy month as we have quickly moved from the preparation phase to the "Live from Las Vegas" stage for MIX.

Decks and demos are being finalized, labs are ready and people in Redmond are starting to head down. It has been a lot of work in a very short period of time but the experience will be memorable for all in attendance.

Over half the sessions are being presented by representatives from Microsoft partners and other industry leaders including eBay, Yahoo and Amazon. Additionally, there is going to be a good mix of designers, developers and business decision makers in attendance. This variety of perspectives, approaches and backgrounds will make MIX unlike any other Web conference to date.

I'm heading down on Saturday to get machines setup for Monday's "Next Generation Browsing Experience" keynote. If you are attending, don't forget about The MIX Party at TAO (sorry, no guests allowed).

MIX 06 Has Reached Full Capacity

keiths — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 08:05:00 GMT

I mentioned before how popular MIX would be and you have to look no farther than registration reaching full capacity 2 weeks before the event. I hope you registered in time as March 20-22 at The Venetian in Las Vegas is going to be educational, exciting and electrifying (there are lots of lights in Vegas after all).

If you forgot to register (shame on you) don't despair just yet. The waitlist is still open so add yourself now. Otherwise, continue visiting http://mix06.com/, http://atlas.asp.net/ and my blog to keep abreast of pre- and post-MIX developments.

MIX Article on InfoWorld

keiths — Mon, 23 Jan 2006 21:21:00 GMT

There is a great write-up about MIX 06 on InfoWorld posted on Friday overviewing the technologies and topics to be covered as well as, more importantly, how MIX 06 will differ from other Microsoft conferences. I am the content owner for all the "Atlas" and AJAX-related sessions which should all be a lot of fun with lively demos and dialogue.

I will be there and hope to see you there as well.

MIX: The Next Web Now

keiths — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 20:46:00 GMT

The MIX conference is a 72-hour conversation between web developers, designers and business leaders.

Bill Gates and other industry luminaries will be in attendance to keynote the event, present and facilitate discussions on topics such as how new technologies can help find, retain and up-sell customer; how to develop and debug AJAX applications quickly and efficiently; and, how to extend content and services into the living room. Attendees will learn the latest about IE7, Windows Media, Windows Live!, as well as “Atlas”, Microsoft’s new AJAX framework.

Logistics:
March 20-22, 2006
The Venetian Resort Hotel Casino
Las Vegas, NV
http://www.venetian.com

Full Conference Registration is US$995. Register today at http://www.mix06.com.

See you in Vegas!