Fluid in the Microsoft PDC Keynote
by Mark BelangerThursday, September 15th, 2005
We’ve been doing some proof of concept work for Avalon (now Windows Presentation Foundation aka WPF) showcasing our client The North Face’s great expedition video content, imagery and products. Microsoft loved it and asked us to demo it during Jim Allchin’s keynote. We were pretty blown away to find out we were the only non-Microsoft people presenting in it. I’ve presented before in front of big crowds at Flashforward and MAX, but the 7,000 for this event was the topper. I learned I’m not very good at speaking and mousing simultaneously…
That night, Andrew, Darren and I were invited to dinner as a thank you. Imagine our surprise when we discovered it was for about 15 people including Jim. For a man who is probably one of the wealthiest people on the planet, he’s totally unassuming and just a nice human being. Apparently, he still codes too. On that earlier note, almost all the people we met were as nice as could be. Very open and thoughtful even about criticism about Microsoft.
We saw some pretty amazing stuff going on. We’ll be posting more about their platform in the coming days. Right now, after three straight 15 hour days, I just want to crack a beer and veg on the couch.