Entries Tagged 'MIX08' ↓

Just wanted to remind folk to register for MIX08! Registrations are coming in thick and fast, and last year we sold out unexpectedly quickly, leaving a whole bunch of folk battering down the doors to try and figure out ways to get an exception granted. The fire marshals impose strict limits on attendance (the importance of which was brought home by the recent Monte Carlo Hotel fire).

Scott Guthrie has just trailed some of the announcements from MIX08 in the second part of a Channel 9 interview, but there's a huge quantity and depth of content that we're holding back for the conference. Of course, you'll be able to download all the software we release after the event even if you're not physically there, but you'll miss all the ancillary activities and depth content that makes an event like this worthwhile.

Hope to see some of you there!

How about this, you redesign the visitmix.com site with some CSS goodness and if our judges think you have the best talent / flair for the job, we'll give you free admission to MIX08 (Las Vegas) and accommodation at the Venetian hotel as well as - $1000 towards travel expenses.

Designs will be accepted until midnight (Pacific Time), February 7, 2008. We will announce the winning entries on or about February 14, 2008.

More Info can be found here: http://visitmix.com/2008/restyle/

Why go to MIX08? It's probably the best Microsoft web conferences on earth (I had a blast last year) and the parties at night are legendary. The below flickr photos are some of my highlights from last year:

A View from my Hotel Room (Bellagio - aka Oceans 11 Hotel)

Ray Ozzie on stage

Some folks from our ANZ region with me outside the Venetian.

Some more folks from our ANZ region with me inside a Stretch Limo (it's cheaper than a taxi so relax expense report people hehe)

The party upstairs at Pure Night Club - Ceasar Palace.

Brian Goldfarb (Group Product Manager) and Aaron Brethorst (ex Program Manager Popfly) enjoying the night out.

Microsoftee's enjoying a limo to an exclusive party, Ryan Stewart taking a snooze (he was blinking)

Shane Morris (UXE) talking to John Udell about how Web 2.0 is evolving

To be continued this year...( I want your photo here please )

Have you seen Flotzam? It's a fun mash-up that Karsten and Tim put together that aggregates a bunch of different data sources: Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, Digg, YouTube and indeed any general RSS feed. You can install it either as an application or a screen saver, and it's a nice way to see what's going on out there on the "tubes". Karsten has coined the term panopticon to describe it (from the Greek, meaning all seeing); to me, this feels like it has the potential to form the first step of a project to build the ultimate, pluggable, modular social networking client.

Being a WPF application, Flotzam can be easily restyled. From the enter/exit transitions for new items to the overall visual look and feel of the Flotzam interface, you can do almost anything you want just by tweaking the XAML mark-up. And with MIX08 selling out quickly (hope you've registered), the team thought it would be fun to put together a little contest that gives you the chance to experiment with WPF by creating your own custom themes. We'll use the best entries at MIX, both on the keynote screens and on all the PCs around the show; Karsten hopes that walking around the show will be like visiting some kind of art installation with all these different skins appearing.

Entering the contest is easy: everything you need to know can be found on the visitmix site. We've even got screencasts available to show you exactly how to use Blend to do the customization. Let your inner artist out - show us what you're capable of!