Interlude: Mix06 Recaps
We interrupt our usual Flash news to mention the just-concluded Mix06 event in Las Vegas. Many of the Flashforward team were in attendance to support Lynda Weinman and her session demonstrating the Expression web tool. Lynda also hosted a great party for web VIPs where we got to hang out with some of our favorite Flash folks. (And gaze in awe at the Chocolate Fountain!)
If you’re looking for recaps, videos and podcasts, start at the official Mix Blog. If you want to see always-entertaining pictures of geeks posing with Vegas cocktail waitresses, check out Flickr. And if you are wondering how the event came across to members of the Flash community, peruse the blogs of Aral Balkan, Pete Barr-Watson, Branden Hall, and especially John Dowdell, who must have been a stenographer in a former life. ;-)
Lynda was also one of a small group of people invited to eat a steak lunch with Bill Gates. Reports from others at the table can be found here, here and here. If Lynda decides to publish her impressions we’ll let you know.
Those of us who assist with the production of Flashforward found it most interesting to peek behind the scenes at how another conference is run, and especially what it’s like to attend an event in Las Vegas. The next MAX conference will be there in late October, and it’s a city we routinely consider as well of course. The biggest con seems to be the difficulty in owning the space — you can’t compete against the Vegas razzle-dazzle, no matter how many foam-core signs you put up. And there’s the danger that some of your presenters and attendees will lose their way back to the conference in the morning…
Thanks to everyone we met there for the great conversations! See you again in Austin if not before.

March 24th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
[…] As a followup to the previous post recapping Mix06, Lynda Weinman found some more interesting reviews from the community: […]
March 28th, 2006 at 11:19 am
[…] Mix06: New impressions from Guy Watson, Pete Barr-Watson, Aral Balkan and Grant Skinner. See also our previous linkful posts. After reading all these, one thing becomes clear: Microsoft already owns the hearts and minds of Flash developers… who play video games. Seriously, have you ever heard of such a Halo-happy bunch? […]