The No Agenda Conference: Will They Come?
The Professional Developers Conference has been an interesting exercise in how many logo’d polo shirts can convene and speak Dot-Net until the room snores. Then you get beer. In a fit of getting out of your deep ugly groove, Microsoft has renamed their dev con, to something more befitting of other dev cons—something unique. That unique is BUILD, taking place in less than a couple of months in the Anaheim Convention Center—September 13-16.
So cool, in fact, that there is no agenda on the website as I write this. There are sessions. No one knows what they are. There will be no planning. Just show up, is the message. There are no links to a long if lugubrious list of various Microsoft products, servers, clouds, mobiles, databases, Office, development platforms, partner links, SQL Server, Exchanges, and so forth. As Andy Patrizio says, it’s all under radio silence. But you’ll like Anaheim in September. Andy lives there. I did, too, thirty-two years ago. Don’t bring a jacket.
One wonders: Microsoft is about to do perhaps one of the most important developer conferences in two decades. Developers are plenty nervous as they’ve heard all kinds of contrasting information about what Windows 8 is, what its new uptake will be for old applications, and if that wasn’t enough—what about the server and mobile versions? What about ARM? Is there going to be actual money in Microsoft Windows Mobile?
Will people go? Creating great rumors and controversies is an Apple WWDC move. But this one might backfire. Developers, always hungry, have been trying to get into the slipstream of smartphone and tablet apps. Lots of revenue is on the table, and developing for Windows has long been a cashcow for many organizations.
Big honking enterprise application projects now seem slowed, although I’m sure someone will shove data under my nose saying that things are just rosy for Microsoft enterprise developers. I think that part of my attitude comes from the snails pace release of Windows Azure components, and the inability to capture developer fancy on Microsoft cloud initiatives.
But then Andy’s found predictions of Windows 9! If there are indeed leaks about the architectural model of Windows 9 out there, there is no hope of Microsoft being able to contain focus in whatever momentum they’re being propelled by. Focus. But there’s no agenda. Focus, but there are no session descriptions. Focus, but the website looks like an IIS Hello World screen.
I think I have to be there if only to see if it’s a train wreck, or if they pull rabbits from their hats. Either one will be entertaining. And there’s that great Knott’s Berry Farm nearby if it’s a wreck. It’s also not far from John Wayne Airport, which is the only airport in my three million miles to have permanently lost one of my bags. Inside the sports coat in that bag was a Polaroid picture of my daughter wearing her favorite spaghetti sauce on her first birthday. Now: it’s all carry-on.
