MIX2REMIX - Budapest, Amsterdam, Zurich, Johannesburg & Singapore. . . B-): REMIX

Amsterdam DevDays

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:30:41 GMT

Feels like yesterday that was in Budapest, oh right I was, well Amsterdam has blazed by. I got in to town, checked in to the hotel, and next thing I know I'm at another REMIX. This one was a bit different though, it was a combined event, DevDays 2007 this year in Amsterdam included a REMIX track with more of a Designer focus. I started the morning off getting over to the venue, which was the RAI Conference Center, it's a hug complex for hosting meetings and events, and has some great dedicated event space. I found my way to the main theatre where the keynote would be, after some cajoling to get in, as I didn't seem to be on the list for a badge, but my name did make it in to the schedule and program, go figure. Anyhow I found myself on stage, in front of a huge auditorium with a great hi-def projection system, and pulled out my laptop to do the morning setup, and get things configured. At that point I realized I made a typical rookie mistake, as I rushed out of the hotel, I left the power cord for the laptop on the desk. I had enough power to probably make it thru the keynote, but not the whole day for my other sessions, and I didn't want to make an even bigger mistake by having my computer shut down in the middle of a presentation, which is a fantastic way to look like an idiot. So I ran out to the street to flag down a taxi, which didn't take too long surprisingly, and that was followed by a beautifully executed 180 degree U-Turn right thru the center of a giant intersection to get heading the right direction. So after grabbing up my power cord, and a quick brush of the hair, which I also forgot, I was back off and soon back at the venue. Now of course after all of that there wasn't an a single empty power slot to plug in to, so we worked up a revised plan of swapping plugs mid-way thru the demonstrations.

The event and keynote started up, with some warm up presentations, which weren't in English, but I heard a few cheers and chuckles which made it sound like the crowd was getting nicely warmed up. Scott Guthrie did an overview of what's new and some cool demonstrations, along with Wayne Smith. I followed after a brief introduction from Scott, and went in to my preso. I was a bit nervous for this one, after the last minute morning rush, and figuring what the heck I was going to say, along with speaking to a giant room that was packed along with overflow simulcast totaling well over 2,000 people. I managed to make it thru without system crashes or hickups, and hit all the points that I wanted to, and put together a run thru of the Top Banana application, as well as how we tied in to the tools. I got a nice round of applause finishing off, and was thru the first round.

After a bit of a lunch break, I had two presentations and did a talk on Designing with Silverlight, where I walked thru using Expression Design, Blend and Encoder, as well as how they work with Visual Studio. I focused on how to move thru the process from one tool to another, as well as the differences relating to the production process in working with Silverlight 1.0 and 1.1. I had a handful of dedicated designers and about an even split among the rest of Web Designer/Developers and Software Developers. Taking a poll at the end of the session I got nearly a full room of raised hands to the question "Are you going to try building a Silverlight application yourself now?".

So I after the keynote and two sessions, I'm done with my event responsibilities for Amsterdam, and looking forward to having a couple of days to check out the city and gear up for the next stop in Zurich. I'll also be posting some details on the samples and demo's I've been building and using in my presentation in some topic specific posts.

One REMIX complete, on to the next

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 15:30:41 GMT

So literally, I’m already on to the next event, sitting on the plane with a bit of a gate delay, something about traffic over Germany. Budapest REMIX is all wrapped up after a Keynote demo, Design Session, and Video Workflow presentation. I didn’t get to see the entire city, but I did have a really nice time, and had a chance to see a few interesting sites. The highlight of which was the boat cruise last night on the Danube. I was absolutely exhausted after presenting in the heat, and working on a few hours sleep, but was eager to see more of the city. We took a bus from the venue to meet up with the boat docked just across from the city. It was just about sunset as we were getting there, and the city was starting to light up in the background. There were views all the way around from huge buildings along the hills, to the various bridges, but all were topped by the massive waterfront parliament building. After a short bit we headed out up the river, passing by Margaret Island, and going under several of the bridges. Once under way there was a funky show put on by some snazzily dresses mixologists accompanied by some dancers. At first I was trying to count how many times they dropped something, as the show consisted of throwing liquor bottles, glasses and various other things about, in a coordinated fashion, the coordination was a bit lacking. But the dancers stepped it up a bit, and dragged a couple of attendees out, some of which were overly reluctant. The capper though was one of the guys stepping up, and nearly dancing circles around the ladies, putting on quite an unexpected show. The cocktail tossers were also getting it together, and had started lighting things on fire, which made for some great night photos and a good finish to the entertainment. Scott Guthrie, myself and some others gathered up to talk with a group of bloggers and active community members. They were initially easy to spot, as there was a group of faces in the dark softly illuminated by the power of some MacBook laptops. I was dead tired from earlier, and it was getting on towards minute, but we had some really interesting conversion about the technology and were things were going. It was very cool to be this far away, and have the same kind of questions, interests, and concerns which would be found at nearly any gathering in the typical tech corridors.

Budapest Keynote

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 08:59:44 GMT

Just finished the Keynote, will post with details of what was talked about, here's a few snaps.

Budapest Setup

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:30:22 GMT

Just setting up for the Keynote, decided I would be joining for a Top Banana demo at about 10:00pm last night, a few last minute setups and projector configs and we should be good to go. Anybody know the Hungarian translation for "Top Banana"?

The venue here is beautiful, surrounded by fine art old masters oil paintings on the wall, and marble sculptures in the middle of the room, very classy. If only there was AIR CONDITIONING!

...30 minutes to show time

REMIX Budapest Map

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 20:34:57 GMT

Click here to see my map of Budapest

Budapest Airport (BUD)
The main airport to fly in and get to the city. It's about a 30 minute drive from downtown.

Andrassy Hotel
Main hotel for the event.

Museum of Fine Arts
Venue for REMIX'07 Budapest.

City Park
The big park, with a Castle, Circus, Zoo and Amusement Park.

Heroes' Square

Around the World!

Sat, 09 Jun 2007 20:32:33 GMT

The journey begins anew, June 8^th 2007, Wednesday 1:55pm PST. Of course there is a pre-amble to all of this, which started about a month ago. I knew Microsoft was starting to put together some International events following MIX. These would be a “mix” of sessions from the Las Vegas event, spread out across the globe, and put on by regional offices. So this seemed to be a good opp to get out and about, especially after my last trip to Asia, and the mention of something in Australia. After all the planning and date juggling, of all the places I’m going, it won’t be Australia. The line-up spreads out over about three weeks, starting in San Francisco. I’ll go to Frankfurt, making a connection to Budapest, on to Amsterdam a few days later for a few days, followed by a couple of days in Zurich and Copenhagen, then back to Zurich for a connection going to Johannesburg for a few days, rounding the horn and landing in Singapore, and after a switch in Hong Kong, back in SF. After a few sleepless nights of throwing some things together in the office, followed by throwing some more things in a suite-case I’m on the road.

I slept in the office for the first time in a long time just a couple of days ago, working to finish off a concept. That set me up to be sleep deprived up until take-off, which would make it a bit easier to snooze on the flight. However the day before lift-off was as hectic as the previous and I made a dash to the mall just before 9p when they close. I ended up buying some new luggage in the dark as they had just “closed” when I got there, but were more than happy to figure out a way to take my money, of course they didn’t account for me leaving, which took a while longer as they had already locked the place down pretty tight. Then a few calls in to the late ‘eve getting things order, and downloading all the relevant bits to sustain my hours of disconnected Internet deprived air travel, and I was able to doze for a bit. I had just gotten a sleep aid and figured I should try it before getting on a flight and sleeping thru a connection. I’m not sure what exactly it was, but I quite quickly got restful and had what seemed like a “life flashing before your eyes” moment. Not in a scary sort of way, it was just that I could hear and see things, as if in the present, as if I were walking thru my dreams like they were reality. There was also this rewinding sensation, like all of these events were being unspooled in to a vast repository a quick clip. Oh did I mention packing? I got up after an interesting slumber, polished off a mountain of paperwork, and dumped an assortment of clothing in to my bags.

I’m so used to traveling with an E-Ticket, that I had some extra logistics to figure out. In this case all of my flights are pre-booked, and I needed to get the whole lot of actual tickets at the airport. I had my confirmation number and directions on where to go. Of course I go there, and they tell me to go to another counter, who tells me to go back to the counter I started at, etc, etc. So once that’s sorted, I get my “book”, literally, of tickets, a one-way trip around the world, right back to where I’m standing in a few weeks time. Now I head over, and check my bag, and I’m all set. I was so focused on getting to the airport and checked in on time, that I had a final sense of relief. Everything was set in motion, and the gears were turning, I just need to hang on for the ride. Of course two minutes later, reality kicks back in, while I’m thinking of lolly-gagging around and figuring out what I need to buy at the travel store that I hadn’t yet remembered I had forgotten, it dawns on me that not only had I timed to the last reasonable minute my check-in time, but that I’d have to get my butt on the plane immediately thereafter. So of course my flight departs from the gate that’s all the way at the end of the terminal, but a few moving sidewalks later, aka: horizontal elevators, I’m there, and winding my way on to the plane.

Well, United may have provided my tickets, but hooray for Lufthansa, who would be providing the service. Going around the world in First Class would be one thing, but in the case doing in Business ain’t too shabby either. Outfitted with a seat that’s got more servo’s and buttons on it then you know what do with, it could go head to head with a Lazy Boy, all-on-one remote control, and a Swiss Army knife at the same time. Unlike up-tight domestic flights, International crews know how to go at their own pace, meaning you’re not hurried to get settled, and you can fiddle around with all your electronics, luggage and seat, up until your about on the runway. This was good, as I just had enough time to pull my new camera out of the box before running out of the house. Oh, and ya, I didn’t even have time to go get one, but thanks to Carla, a last minute pit stop would take care of that. I was planning on bringing a Leica, but last time I went to the store it was out of stock, so I went with what I knew would rock, a new Canon Elph. This should keep things colorful as I’ll be able to take great snaps, and vids, plus it slips in my jean’s coin pocket for easy access. One problem, the things too damn simple, it took me about twenty-minutes to figure out how to change a setting as it wants to do everything for you, which in general it does a really good job off. The first picture would be of the 747 taking me to Frankfurt, which took all of, pressing the power button, holding the camera relatively straight, and pushing the snap button, whilst walking off the escalator and getting to the gate.

Now that I’ve pimped my seat, in to a state somewhere between a jacked up low-rider, and a pool-chair recliner, I’m set to take in the flight. Going over my itinerary, which was lushishly padded with all sorts of useful details penned in by Kellee as a last minute detail, I could see all the details of my travel, lay-over times, in-flight amenities, and tips on what to do everywhere. So after watching some “Wild Hogs” on the in-flight VOD and munching on the three-course dining, I was set for a little nappy. I wouldn’t exactly call it sleep, but it was six or seven hours of nice and quiet. The seat laid out, not quite in to a flat bed, but anything you can roll all the way around on, is close a darn-nuff. So with a bit of a morning snack, and game planning, which included in-flight language lessons on German (Ich Bein Beau?) I was ready to land in Frankfurt.