Just like last year, the MIX11 event team has published an open call for sessions. The great part about this open call is that its all voted on by you! There are so many great sessions to choose form and on a variety of topics which makes it easy to find many you want to vote on.
Key points here:
- You only get a say if you vote! So go vote!
- Voting ends on Feb 4th, so go vote!
- You get 10 votes, so go vote!
What did I choose? Well, I like to vote for some sessions about topics that I might not see all that often … or from folks I’d love to see present a session. In short, I like something that interests me (hey it’s my vote!) and usually that means something unique.
Of course, vote for whatever sessions you most want to see. Even if you are not going to MIX11 (and why the heck aren’t you?!) you get to see the sessions on line afterwards.
So without further delay, here are the 10 sessions I voted for in no particular order:
Vote #1: Using Metro Motion Design To Improve App Performance – Matthias Shapiro
I’ve never heard Mathias present before, but this session intrigues me. Motion Design is a great concept for folks to learn about and help with solid UX with Silverlight and Windows Phone. Plus, you won’t see this topic all that often … so he certainly hit the unique topic category. He peaked my interest … my vote’s in the ballet box on this one.
Vote #2: Deep Dive MVVM – Laurent Bugnion
I love architecture, I love data, and I live UX. So put all 3 together and you know I love MVVM. There are a ton of MVVM sessions in the open call, but this is the one I want to see. Laurent understands MVVM and he also knows what is NOT needed too (which is just as important). In his abstract, Laurent (who is a solid presenter) promises this is a deep dive beyond the basics. My vote is cast.
Vote #3: All Thumbs: Redesigning an existing UI to suit Windows Phone 7 – Ward Bell
My favorite quote form the abstract: “the phone is not a tiny desktop”. This session makes a great point about the journey of many Silverlight developers moving to Windows Phone 7. While the skillset is very similar there are some differences that are really important to grasp. I love that this session claims to address those issues. Plus, the speaker has a history of wearing loud outfits at MIX … such as his white fur “Elvis-ish”jacket last year. Ward had my vote at “All Thumbs”.
Vote #4: Advanced WCF RIA Services – Gill Cleeren
Silverlight is a strong player in business applications and RIA Services is very important in this space. But what attracted me to this session is that Gill states that he’ll cover the “how” of many important aspects of RIA Services including validation and patterns, all while staying at a 300 level. I’m intrigued Mr Cleeren … you got my vote.
Vote #5: Designing for WP7: Metro and Beyond – Guido Rosso
I love good design sessions and the folks at Archetype do some amazing design work. Good design skills are increasingly important in today’s technology. This abstract promises to get into designing solid WP7 apps using the Metro guidelines. I’m very interested in seeing what advice Guido lays on the audience in this session. No second thoughts on this vote.
Vote #6: Microsoft Surface v2 – designing for the new form factor – Josh Santangelo
Surface v2 is awesome and this session was the one that stood out most to me. I want one in my house … voted.
Vote #7: Jumpstart HTML 5 – Mathew David
There is a lot of confusion on what HTML 5 is and is not. This session sounds like its aim is to clarify what HTML 5, CSS3, WVG, jQuery and other aspects are and how they play a role in HTML 5. It seems to be beginner level, but I think it’s a great idea to get folks up to speed so we can have good conversations about it. The man with 2 first names has my vote.
Vote #8: Facebook Development in .NET – Jim Zimmerman
If you have not heard, this thing called Facebook is pretty huge. Jim has done a ton of work integrating with Facebook from .NET and this looks like a great knowledge sharing session. Is there intelligent life here Jim? My vote says yes.
Note: I almost picked the session by Jay Kimble (Facebook and Wp7) on a similar topic. Jay and Jim are both top shelf. Honestly, I could have gone either way, but Jim’s nudged my vote.
Vote #9: Expression Blend and the Visual State Manager: A Deep Dive – Joel Cochran
The VSM gets very little love and it’s a real shame. Lots to learn on this topic and I love having an entire session on it, templating, effects, transitions, and the like. I don’t know Joel but he grabbed my vote.
Super long title, I’m tired after reading that! I was hoping there would be a great OData and jQuery session in the open call and this one hits the mark from what I can tell by the abstract. These are important topics to know … my votes are locked and loaded.
There are several other sessions that interest me … give me 50 votes and I could certainly fill them out. Give me 10, and this was much harder than I thought.
Like my votes? Cool. Don’t like them? That’s cool too. Go vote …. you’ve got until Feb 4th.
I hope to see you there at MIX 11 … and don’t forget to register for my Silverlight Bootcamp!
