So soon after A Day in the Life #3 , you ask? Indeed! There are a few questions that I get over and over from people both internal and external to Microsoft, and I thought I’d address them in a blog post. Question #1: “I’m a third-party speaker (or ‘I know a third-party speaker…’) who has spoken at other events that would make a fantastic speaker at PDC. What can I do?” I get this one almost every day. Sometimes, they suggest a specific topic, and other times they say that they’re quick learners

Before I forget, be sure to check out the latest videos on Channel 9 in our weekly Countdown to PDC2008 series (or just look for anything tagged PDC08 ). The 10-minute-or-so shows are fun to make, and Jennifer and I would love your feedback, questions, and suggestions. Plus, we’ve been introducing a new Hard Hat Challenge on each episode, and winners receive a very limited edition PDC2008 t-shirt. Note that these are not the official event shirt (especially, since the event shirt hasn’t been selected

I've participated in several PDC's in the past, mostly as a speaker, but this year I'm helping to do some of the organization. Recently, I've been in a lot of meetings with Mike Swanson , a Technical Evangelist here at Microsoft. Mike is one of the key ring leaders in producing the PDC content. If you were ever interested in how the PDC gets pulled off and some of the thinking that goes into it, check out this video featuring Mike and colleague Jennifer Ritzinger.

Jennifer Ritzinger and I have started a new show called Countdown to PDC2008 , and we just published our first episode on Channel 9. We’ve been recording an internal video series (of the same name) for about ten episodes now, and some fellow employees suggested that the format might also work for an external audience. So, we decided to try it, and we’d love your feedback! Specifically, if you have any questions about the conference, or if you’d like to hear about a particular topic on a future show,

[You can skip to the last two paragraphs if you’d like to offer suggestions] Here we are…one month later with the second post in a series about the PDC2008 Content Owner role. If you don’t know what a Content Owner does, I’d recommend reading PDC2008: A Day in the Life #1 for context. As mentioned in the prior post, one of my responsibilities is to coordinate and drive two meetings each week with many representatives from across Microsoft. The members of this team are critical thinkers who help define,

The wait is over! The public PDC2008 site just went live, and you can now register for the conference (and save $200 if you register early). We've published a preliminary set of topics that represents only a fraction of the over 160 sessions you'll see at the event. Topics include software + services, Windows 7 , a deep dive on Silverlight graphics pipelines, Windows Mobile, extensible BitmapEffects and Pixel Shaders in WPF, how we use Team Foundation Server for our huge Microsoft projects, a new

As the PDC2008 Content Owner and a member of the Core Team, my days are filled with PDC-related activities. I thought I'd blog about some of these activities in a series called A Day in the Life . My hope is that I'll be able to post more of these as we approach PDC2008 this October . So, if you're interested in behind-the-scenes insights, keep checking back. First off, let me explain the Content Owner role. My job is to drive the themes, tracks, sessions, and overall direction of the content at

As the Content Owner for PDC2008, I'm now a member of the Tier 1 Events Council at Microsoft. This is a group that meets a few times a year to share ideas and best practices around our largest events (like Tech·Ed , MIX, and PDC). We met all day today and covered a number of great topics. One of our sessions was titled Environmentally Sustainable Events Initiative , and it was presented by Gina Broel and Jessica Ludders. We discussed what it means to be a "green" event based on the

If you read my What Do I Do post, you'll know that I'm the Content Owner for this year's PDC 2008 in Los Angeles. MIX08 is behind us, and I've just recently transitioned away from my Web GO role. This means that I can now focus 100% of my time and attention on our October event. It's going to be fantastic! One of the many responsibilities I have as Content Owner is to create the master schedule for the event. This is the schedule that tells you which session is in which room and at what time. For

You’ve probably heard that next week’s MIX08 conference in Las Vegas is sold out. But do you know what that actually means? Does it mean that we decided months ago to cap registrations at an arbitrary number of attendees? Or perhaps we picked a mystical date? Or a financial target? Or the cynical among you might believe that “sold out” is just a way for us to create buzz around the conference. It might surprise you to learn that it’s none of these. When we organize a