InnerWorkings Blogs

This will be our third year attending VSLive in San Francisco, a noteworthy event in the development community calander. On my way to the conference yesterday, I thought about the past three years and how quickly they have come and gone! It doesn’t seem all that long ago since we setup our very first booth and started telling anyone who’d listen about the great things that InnerWorkings was going to do for software developers. Three years later and I can talk in the present tense - we are releasing new products, we’re supporting VS 2005, and we’re running coding contests for developers. So now there’s much more to talk about and there’s a lot more people listening!

My first impressions of VSLive 2006 are somewhat mixed - attendance is down from last year and there’s certainly far fewer exhibitors at the conference. I have to say that I didn’t get the same buzz at this event as previous years - too many empty hallways and vacant escalators for my liking. Maybe things will pickup today with the breakout sessions and midnight madness event. A little energy and excitement certainly wouldn’t go amiss. It’s difficult because Microsoft hasn’t really got any major product announcement for this show, just more of the same but better, faster, stronger. Last year the buzz was ripe around VS 2005 and VSTS and your head would spin just looking at all the breakout themes.

I’m still a big fan of VSLive, however - where else can you get all flavors of VB and C# developers looking at your latest product release, asking probing questions, and arguing over the merits of your coding contest prizes? The feedback doesn’t get any more real or immediate, that’s for sure. Now if I could just find a free coffee station, Mr. Fawcette…

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