MDC Boston - Whaddaya Waitin' For?

The MSDN Developer Conference in Boston is literally right around the corner - Thursday, January 22nd at the Sheraton Boston!

Have you registered yet?  If not, time's running out - you can sign up right here.  In addition to three tracks of four technical sessions each, there's a number of other events going on at the conference - take a look below.  Oh yeah, there's some cool giveaways too!

 

Lego SeriousPlay WomenBuild Workshop

Open to all, the workshop makes use of Lego blocks in a series of interactive exercises to foster discussions on gender diversity in the workplace and to brainstorm actionable solutions for enhancing diversity in the software industry.  Check out the clip below in which the ever-dynamic Asli Bilgin talks with Telerik's Stephen Forte about the program.

These workshops have proved quite popular at other MDC events, and there's two opportunities to participate, making it a bit easier to work into your schedule.

 

 Community Courtyard

Running in tandem with the presentations, Community Courtyard is an open discussion area where you choose the subjects and the participants. Whether you want to mingle with the presenters, talk about an MDC session, discuss a related subject, or just network, you have the opportunity - this area is yours.

 

Partner Area

Thanks to our platinum, gold, and silver partners for their support as well.  Be sure to stop by and visit their booths when you're at the event!

 

	Platinum Sponsors	PreEmptive Solutions
		SoftLayer Technology
	Gold Sponsors	InnerWorkings
		Sybase
		Novell
		O'Reilly
		Microsoft Visual Studio Team
		Microsoft Partner Team
	Silver Sponsors	Pluralsight
		Telerik

 

Gaming Area

All work and no play... not at the MDC.  We'll have an XBox gaming area set up with Halo, Gears of War, and other favorites.  Stop by for a few minutes (or longer) and show your stuff (don't worry, we won't tell your boss!).

 

MDC Session Agenda

8:30 - 10:00	Keynote - Amanda Silver
10:15-11:30	A Lap Around Windows Azure and the Azure Services Platform Michael Stiefel ASP.NET and JQuery Chris Bowen The Future of Managed Languages: C# and Visual Basic Richard Hale Shaw
12:30-1:45	Developing and Deploying Your First Azure Service Ben Day Developing Data-Centric Applications Using the WPF DataGrid and Ribbon Controls Allan Da Costa Pinto A Lap Around "Oslo" Michael Cummings
2:00-3:15	A Lap Around the Live Framework and Mesh Services Griffith Townsend Building Business-Focused Applications Using Silverlight 2 Jesse Liberty A Lap Around VSTS 2010 Todd Mancini
3:30-4:45	Developing Applications Using Microsoft SQL Data Services Jim O'Neil ASP.NET 4.0 Roadmap Fritz Onion An Introduction to Microsoft F# Talbott CrowellChris Bowen

 
Giveaways

Everyone, and I mean everyone, will get a Windows 7 Beta DVD mailed to them when the media is ready.  It's hot of the presses, so unfortunately we weren't able to  have the DVDs on hand.  You'll also get a SWAG bag, including the ubiquitous Microsoft gel pen, 2 free Microsoft Press e-books on CD, and a few other surprises.

A lucky thirteen of the attendees will walk away with one of:

• Four MSDN Subscriptions - Visual Studio System 2008 Team Suite with MSDN Premium (an $11,000 value!) - will be given out at the end of the day at each track.  And we'll get things started by giving one away after the morning keynote!
• Three Robotics Packs, including a Mindstorms NXT robot and a copy of Professional Microsoft Robotics Developer Studio will be given out at the end of each track as well.
• Three Microsoft Mobility Packs, including the LifeCam NX-6000 and Wireless Laser Mouse 6000 will also be raffled off at the end of day in each track.
• Three gamer packs - you guessed it - will be awarded at the end of each track too.  The packs include the Xbox 360 wireless headset, a three month subscription to Xbox Live, and three games (Gears of War 2, Project Gotham Racing 4, and Mass Effect).