I recently began the process of reviewing the sessions for the PDC 2005 and setting up my schedule (which I never seem to follow). The way I normally do this is to scan the speaker list, searching for my friends and those that I have mentally tagged as must see speakers, and checking out what/when they are presenting. Once I have the “must see” sessions in my schedule, I can then search for sessions to fill out the schedule. Amongst the familiar names I ran across one that I’ve seldom seen mentioned on the internet, one that is of particular interest to me, Peter Faraday. His session is:
TLN213 - Future Directions for Building Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon") Interfaces
September 15, 11:30 AM - 12:45 PM
502 AB
Peter Faraday
Introducing a new tool which utilizes Windows Presentation Foundation (formerly codename "Avalon") to allow the creation of rich user interfaces. Come see how you can produce visually stunning UI using 2D vectors, animation, 3D, layout containers, control templating, databinding and code. Get a tour of the tool, and then walk over how features are used to build a UI.
That looks like a pretty unassuming session, and with speakers like Don Box, Michael Rys, Yasser Shoshoud, Anders Hejlsberg or session titles like “Choosing the Right Presentation Technology: Windows Presentation Foundation ("Avalon"), Windows Forms, ASP.NET, IE, and More” or “Windows Communications Foundation ("Indigo"): Web Services for XML Programmers”, it will probably not jump out and grab your attention, but it should, especially if you are interested in building Windows based applications.
You may be asking yourself why this session has peaked my interest. Well, back in early 2003 (prior to the public announcement of XAML and Avalon), I had an informal phone conversation with Peter regarding an open program manager position he had on his team. Now, I’ve had many discussions with various Microsoft employees regarding open positions, but most of them really didn’t offer me the opportunity to accomplish goals that I couldn’t attain as an independent contractor and/or a MVP. But, this job was different then the rest, and I think it was directly related to PDC Session TLN213. During the talk with Peter we both could see that we differed on some fundamental issues (i.e., I have a more pro-SVG viewpoint when it comes to dynamic vector graphics, over things like Flash), so although the job was very interesting, I knew that I didn’t fit the role he was looking to fill. The whole process gave me great insight into the way Microsoft works internally, and I’ve used that knowledge since. So, on Sept. 15th I’ll be able to see how things turned out (which I think it may also relate to my recent rant on Acrylic).
PDC05