MIX: Will This Be The Next PDC?

Getting a new conference off the ground is hard. In contrast, marketing the PDC took comparatively little effort - as Steve Cellini, the event owner, joked the other day, "you could have just put one guy at the side of the road with a placard and the word would have spread from there". We sold out for PDC05 quickly - too quickly for some tastes. Right now we've just opened registrations for mix06, a new incubation event for web designers, developers and decision makers that revolves around web-based technologies from Microsoft. Our goal for this year is to use this event to drive an intimate, two-way "conversation", as well as provide a glimpse into some of the things we're doing in this space.

This is a pivotal area of innovation right now, with monikers like Web 2.0 and AJAX taking center stage. As a company we're focusing on enabling next-generation Internet-based applications with renewed vigor - Microsoft-watchers will know that every now and again BillG sends out a memo that defines the shape and theme of the next few years' innovation, and clearly the {Windows | Office | Xbox} Live services show where we're putting a lot of investment. Technologies such as ASP.NET "Atlas" and Windows Presentation Foundation are going to provide the platform for many Web 2.0 applications, but there's also other non-UI application services that are going to be powerful elements of the evolution of the Internet such as InfoCard, RSS Enclosures, and PeerChannel.

In short, if you want to keep abreast of some of the most strategic technologies Microsoft and others are working on, you want to see keynotes from Bill Gates and Tim O'Reilly, and you want to be ahead of the next big wave, then this conference is a good place to start. Hope you can make it!