MIX08 – Great Conference

My ambition to blog everyday during the conference was met by the reality of not having as much time as I had imagined.

After 2.5 days of great sessions and conversations I have to say that the conference was one of the best I have attended. The sessions were really well done with the exception for the last one I attended. The MS presenters were all consistently good – the best 2 being Scott Hanselman (ASP.NET MVC) and Karen Korby (Silverlight 2.0 Controls.)

I feel that not only did I learn a lot but more importantly I have walked away re-energized and focused. I had a feeling that Silverlight 2.0was going to be awesome but after working with the beta bits I realized that it is a game changer. The ability to create RIAs (Rich Internet Applications) in a familiar and productive environment is just awesome.

I have started to re-design my company website (which is in dire need of an update – a case of  “the shoemakers children are often shoeless”) as a way to get my feet wet with the SDK. I have worked with WPF and WCF over the last year but now that it can be leveraged in the a cross-platform/cross-browser way it is a viable option for the work that I do.

I will post more detailed impressions of Silverlight 2.0 Beta once I get a working version of the new site up and running.