TechDays Vancouver: More Scenes from the “Platform” Track

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Two out of three of this afternoon’s sessions in my track at the TechDays conference – Developing for the Microsoft-Based Platform -- were presented by Anthony Vranic, an independent consultant who used to be a Microsoft developer evangelist. His sessions:

  • Building Modular Applications Using Silverlight and WPF
  • Optimizing Your Apps for the Windows 7 User Experience

Anthony Vranic presenting at TechDays Vancouver 2009

Next up were Anthony Bartolo and Mark Arteaga, who were there to present the session Taking Your Application on the Road with Windows Mobile Software, in which they showed us things that people think Windows Mobile can’t do.

arteaga_bartolo_1

Yup, that’s The Beatles: Rock Band beside Anthony – this was a session where you could leave with a prize! They gave away XBox games to people who answered skill- and mobile market knowledge-testing questions correctly.

arteaga_bartolo_2

They gave The Beatles: Rock Band to the person working on the most interesting Windows Mobile app, as judged by audience applause. It went to the gentleman in the photo below on the right, who wrote a currency exchange application that watches exchange markets for the ideal time and buys foreign currencies then. He uses it to send money home to New Zealand within taking a bath on the exchange rate.

winner

As I write this, it’s 5:45 p.m. Pacific, which means that the next event, Demo Ignite Camp, is just over an hour away.