Build 2014

As some of you may know, I am fortunate enough to be heading to Microsoft's Build 2014 conference in San Francisco with many thanks to DVLUP for sending me a ticket!  I've also been fortunate enough to be involved in developing and on occasion promoting the Microsoft Mobile development platforms.  Because of this, I'm especially looking forward to what is next on the platforms I enjoy the most.

The fact that Microsoft is now pushing a pace brings to mind the old quote from Space Balls... Ludicrous Speed.  It used to be if I didn't like something about Windows (and everybody else agreed) we still waited 3 years for our next chance to go wow.  Now it seems every year or less.  For example the //Build/ conference was first held in September or October.  Last year it was June I believe.  This year the beginning of April.  What's even more important is that developers are being kept in the loop.  Many years ago Microsoft used to hold "Professional Developers Conferences' where they announced new platforms like... um WinFS and WCF and WPF but that was only every second or third year.  I'm really liking what I'm seeing.

Attending the conference this time feels different.  Before when I went to TechEd or PDC it was about having fun.  Learning a bit and collecting swag.  I still learned a lot but it was more of a company perk than anything.  Now that I have my own company I find I'm attending more to learn and meet up with people.  The network aspect takes on a much bigger role.  This will be a big conference of people that like the same stuff I do.  Of course, I'll still take the swag (happily) but it doesn't have the same focus it once did.  Call it a rearranging of priorities I guess.  This conference should be most interesting before I even know one thing about the content.

For me, I'm looking forward to conversations with AdDuplex, Xamarin, Telerik, DVLUP, Nokia and Microsoft.  I'm sure there will be others that quickly become evident.  This is not even mentioning all the other attendees.