Viva Las Vegas: Heiko Lewandowski attends the MIX10 conference
Las Vegas is regarded as the "Entertainment Capital of the World". Microsoft entertained visitors of the "MIX10" conference which took place there from March 15- 17, 2010. From Silverlight 4 to the Windows Phone 7 Series: Software developers and designers from all over the world exchanged information on the brand new topics of the season. Heiko Lewandowski, Head of Software Engineering at UID, takes us to Las Vegas in his travel diary.
Saturday, March 13
The approach flight to Las Vegas was everything but smooth because of a storm. The pilot laconically said: "Please have a seat, we gonna have a bumpy way down!" And he was right. After being given a good shaking for 30 minutes, I felt miserable. We landed finally! I have never experienced such an evil ride. According to the cliché, Las Vegas welcomed me with brightly flashing slot machines when I left the gangway. I went straight to the hotel and to bed.
Sunday, March 14
I felt whacked and was extremely hungry. As you have to pay for everything here, breakfast is not included. Las Vegas is really an expensive place. To reward myself for yesterday, I enjoyed a brunch with a view to an artificial sand beach with artificial waves before I lined up for "For registration to MIX10 this way"…
Monday, March 15
Walking to the conference center – passing beeping and flashing slot machines - took 15 minutes, which again showed how big this hotel was: 3,700 rooms, 40 shops, 20 restaurants – incredible! A few persistent gamblers, with cigars and dark shadows under their eyes can be seen every morning. Before the opening of the MIX conference, breakfast was offered there. The keynote was brilliantly delivered. I am looking forward to all the new technologies: Silverlight, Windows 7 phones and much more. Then, I looked for information on Silverlight 4.0, met Clemens Lutsch of Microsoft. We talked for a while before the next session started. "Overview over Windows 7 Series Application Platform". Sounded great what the colleagues said. I also want a Windows 7 Phone… Afterwards, I went to "Silverlight out of the Browser".
Tuesday, March 16
At 9 a.m., I went to the keynotes. Today, it was time for IE9, ASP.Net and Visual
Studio 2010. Very interesting again, what Microsoft produces. Then, I went to a
number of informative sessions. I realize that we should make more use of Expression
Blend. The new version is a lot more mature. I felt like starting programming
immediately. I took lots of interesting ideas with me and thought about how to
integrate them in our Jour Fixe at UID.
In the evening, the Microsoft Party took place at the Luxor hotel, with wonderful food.
A Canadian who has been living in the US for 20 years, and who I made friends with
after a beer, summarized it as follows: "Las Vegas is the strangest place I've ever
seen, man!"
Wednesday, March 17
Had a meeting at 8 a.m. with Clemens Lutsch and other Germans. Thanks to my jet lag, I woke up at 5. I used the time to take a look at Visual Studio 2010. The bottom line was: slow and storage-hungry – but the new UX is cool (is programmed in WPF, UX generally is a magic word at Microsoft). Today there were sessions all day. At the Casino, everything was decorated in green, as the Americans celebrated St. Patrick's Day...Now it was time to gather some impressions beyond the Microsoft world.
Links for further information
Las Vegas - an adventurous place hosting the MIX10.
enlarge image
Heiko Lewandowski, Head of Software Engineering at UID, did not only expand his technical horizon at Las Vegas.
enlarge image