MIX09 – Day 0

After a great couple of days spent chilling out in and around Boulder City, NV - I headed to Vegas, dumping the rental car and ‘enjoying’ a high-speed taxi ride to the Venetian.  I think the driver may have had too much coffee, as he also drove off as soon as i had paid and got out of the back… before i had time to retrieve my bags.  Cue much shouting and hollering from the Venetian doormen.

Over the last couple of days there’s been quite a buzz emerging around some big announcements to be made this week.  It’s known what most of them are, just the details are a little vague still.  There has also clearly been many long hours worked by those putting the event and sessions together.  It’s all really rather exciting – the buzz from both those attending, and from those in the know – when combined with the crazy environment of Vegas – all adds up to that feeling you get as a child on Christmas eve.  You kind of know what’s coming, and hope you get what you want… lets just say there’s quite an air of anticipation, and the potential for some tantrums if people don’t get what they want :)

As part of the registration, attendees received a rather cool goodie bag including, among other items; Bill Buxton’s book ‘Sketching User Interfaces’, an IE8 coffee mug and SharePoint Services water bottle, plus a great MIX09 branded notebook which will act as a great reference when filled with notes and scribblings from the next few days.

Michael McClary of Microsoft UK has done a grand job of corralling many of the UK delegates, and I found a number of them in the Rockhouse bar, revelling in the madness that is St Patrick’s day in Las Vegas.  Good to meet a couple of the people who’s updates I’ve been following on Twitter, and make new friends of a number of guys doing some cool stuff in the UK.  We had another chance to catch up in the Venetian’s V Bar later that evening, where I found the enthusiasm of the Colaab guys quite infectious.  They’re an Edinburgh based outfit who have been doing some of the coolest stuff I’ve seen with Silverlight (outside of our own project at Synetrix, of course  :), I recommend checking it out; http://www.colaab.com .

Also had the first of many (I hope) conversations on Model View Patterns with Gavin Osborn of Dot Net Solutions.  Sounds like they’ve got it pretty well nailed, and I’m hoping we can learn from some of their, and other’s experience – though slightly daunted by the notion of effectively retrofitting it into our solution; not the sort of thing you can do in a piecemeal fashion.

Today, it all kicks off in earnest – we have the likely epic keynote from Scott Guthrie and Bill Buxton; both hugely respected figures and engaging speakers.  Expect #MIX09 to be the largest trend on Twitter over the next couple of days, with a mass of information coming from the hundreds of smartphones and netbooks sure to be on display in each session.

Don’t forget you can follow live online at http://live.visitmix.com/