Tomorrow I'm heading for Las Vegas for Mix07, together with my colleague Jo. We were invited by Microsoft in Belgium (but we pay part ourselves) and of course we're very excited. I just tried to make sense of the programme but I lost my login somewhere along the way,so the sophisticated conference planner is not an option. Still, here's a list of keynotes and speeches I'l looking forward to:
Keynotes:
Ray Ozzie, Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation
Robert Bach, President, Entertainment and Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation
Scott Guthrie, General Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Michael Arrington, TechCrunch (YES, I'm a fan of Mike!)
Breakout sessions (way too many):
"ZAP!, WHAM!, KAPOW!": Windows Presentation Foundation and the Next Generation of Online Comic Book Reading
Speaker(s): Nathan Dunlap - IdentityMine, Robby Ingebretsen - IdentityMine
Booyah! Designing and Developing Line-of-Business Applications That SIZZLE
Speaker(s): Nathan Dunlap - IdentityMine, Darren Laybourn - Microsoft, Josh Wagoner - IdentityMine
Broaden Your Market with Windows Live
Speaker(s): Paul Elliott - Microsoft, Keiji Kanazawa - Microsoft, Kitty Leung - Microsoft, Dave Nicholson - Zopa
Building a Real, Money-Making Business Application Using Microsoft Virtual Earth
Speaker(s): Matt Goyer - Redfin, John Pope - TripHub, Aric Weiker - Microsoft
Building Rich, Interactive E-commerce Applications Using ASP.NET and Silverlight
Speaker(s): Ori Gershony - Microsoft, Mark Townsend - Microsoft
Creating a Domain Communication Experience on Windows Live
Speaker(s): Arnold Blinn - Microsoft, Brian Goldstein - Microsoft, Duane J. Schau - Indiana University, Alan Walsh - Indiana University
Experience: A Star to Sail Your Ship By
Speaker(s): Jesse James Garrett - Adaptive Path
Fumbling towards AGENCY 2.0
Speaker(s): Clement Mok
Interactive Advertising on the Windows Media Center Platform
Speaker(s): Dan Poling - Microsoft, Matthew Rechs - Schematic
Making Money with RSS
Speaker(s): Walter VonKoch - Microsoft
Next Design 3.0, Making Sense of Design Now
Speaker(s): GK VanPatter - NextDesign Leadership Institute, Elizabeth Pastor - NextDesign Leadership Institute
The Art, Science, and Business of Killer Content Experiences
Speaker(s): Roger Black - Danilo Black, Kevin Gjerstad - Microsoft, Robert Larson - New York Times, Wayne Reuvers - LiveTech
The Emotion of Customer Experience
Speaker(s): Lou Carbone - Experience Engineering
Using Windows Live Services in Your Own Web Applications
Speaker(s): Brian Arbogast - Microsoft, Eddie Dombrower - Match.com, Mike Presz - Match.com
Windows Live Messenger: Show Me the Money
Speaker(s): Glenn Allison - Microsoft, Todd Biggs - Microsoft, Morrie Eisenberg - imtLabs, Imran Qureshi - imtLabs
I feel like preparing for a geek orgy. And yes it's all Microsoft, but I'm really interrested to hear from insiders in Microsoft what these guys are thinking of for the future.
But will I dear to enter Microsoft territory with a MacBook? Of course, but as a positive gesture to my hosts I'm switching to Windows Vista (on my MacBook via VMWare) for a week. As I'm doing a lot of my stuff online (see post about office tools), and as you can simply drag-and-drop files from one window to another, I don't see much trouble switching. And who knows, I may just switch forever ;)
Proof of my switch is in the image above, notice also the designer laptop-stand I made for my home office. The stylish white box contains all connections, adapters, cables, etc. Keeps my desk clean and my laptop ergonomically placed in front of me.
Last promise (need to go prepare my suitcase): I'll blog frequently about my MIX07 so you can all enjoy with me.
