This is awesome news! On Monday, November 26th, Trinity College in Dublin will host an XNA event for students and professionals. Speaking at the conference will be none other than Dave Mitchell from the XNA team in Redmond. Other speakers are still being lined up, but it looks like there will be some industry speakers as well as academic speakers, so it looks to be a really interesting day. The event will preview the upcoming XNA Games Studio Express 2.0 as well as cover various areas of game development,

We’re very excited in the Academic team, we’re just about to launch the “Inspiration Tour” and we can’t wait to go out and meet you all. Ed Dunhill Ed and Ben will be out on the road during the next six months, so why not take a look at our Inspiration Tour web page to find out more and beat the rush to reserve your tour date now! Ben Coley The aim of the inspiration tour is to bring technology to you and your students, everything from the . NET platform to some of the really cool stuff that’s around

It may be July and raining but hopefully the sun will soon appear and we can all head to the beach with a good book. Make sure you pack some sun-cream and at least one of the following. Happy holidays! Mobile Development Microsoft® Mobile Development Handbook by Andy Wigley; Daniel Moth; Peter Foot, Publisher: MS Press ISBN-10 0-7356-2358-9 ISBN-13 9780735623583 WPF Applications = Code + Markup by Charles Petzold, Publisher: MS Press ISBN-10 0-7356-1957-3 ISBN-13 9780735619579 Windows Presentation

Since the launch of XNA, the new programming framework for the Xbox 360 and the PC, there have been lots of opportunities to get involved. Many universities have taken advantage of our Techtalk programme and have invited Andy Sithers (Microsoft) and/or Nick Burton (Rare) to give guest lectures; Others joined our seeding programme and are currently working on contributions to the Creators' Club Global Community ; Programming students are entering the DreamBuildPlay competition and now programming