It goes without saying that most of us are doing a bit less traveling today. Those of us that get to go to conferences probably have to do a lot more dancing with the corporate bean counters than ever before and, truly, the value proposition of conferences are changing.
I’ve had to make some hard choices myself this year. Such as not going to Interactions 09—but please stop by the Cafe and say hi to Manifest Digital as I’ll be living vicariously through them (If you say something nice about me they might even give you a treat).
But there are two conferences that are pretty important to me personally this year. One is SxSW. I’m a relative virgin to SxSW and this will only be my third year attending, but this is the conference that energized me and restores my spirit. I’m excited that Microsoft has been able to play a part in it for the past few years and I’m excited that the PhizzPop finale will occur here.
SxSW is a great place to have a beer, reconnect with old friends and be stimulated by the diversity of discourse and get some of that special energy and mojo that I only seem to get when I’m in Austin.
But MIX is different. It’s certainly a more serious event—and there’s far more depth to the content that is delivered there. Like SxSW, it’s also a conference with serious, sometimes exhausting, fun.
But what makes MIX special is that it’s about things that are new and things that MIicrosoft has never talked about publically before. This year, if your passions fall to design, or you’re on the fence, or even past the tipping point, on stuff like Expression Studio and Silverlight, you’re going to want to be there. Not just for the content (which, let’s be honest, you can see online later) but because you get a chance to meet, talk, argue and a give feedback to the people that invent and build this stuff at Microsoft.
You also get the opportunity for outstanding networking with your peers, and let’s face it, your competitors—sort of like when James Bond has to partner up with the Russians to foil Spectre, stuff you just can’t do when watching a keynote from a Web Browser or even when you’re at the local pub eyeing your competitors suspiciously. In this economy it’s probably safe to assume that we’ve all got lots to talk about—and what better place to that than Las Vegas.
But in truth, the most important reason to GO to MIX is that your going to learn important exciting things about Silverlight and Expression Studio that are going to impact greatly the way we all work and the expectations that folks have around the classic iron triangle and what’s possible and expected within the constraints of time, money and quality.
You’re also going to see folks that you probably won’t see speaking at other events in 2009. This includes a keynote by Microsoft’s very own Bill Buxton and design standbys like Molly, Luke W., Dan Roam, Lou Carbone and Bill Scott.
See a smattering of the speakers here.
If you’re still reading I’m gonna suspect your interesting so in the spirit of the Sham Wow guy I’m also going to offer up a special that we’re running at MIX. Register by February 13 and you can save over $400 bucks on registration.
Are you still here?
One more thing, if you can’t get to any PhizzPop events and you won’t be at SxSW you can still see videos of PhizzPop events at MIX and actually meet and interact with many of the PhizzPop teams in our PhizzPop booth. We’ll have teams and solutions from our 08 and 09 events.
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