The Magic of the DevCon: Picking the Topic

Don suggested that I change the topic of DevCon5 to XAML or some other topic. So far, the DevCons have run the course of topics from ATL to Web Services and then to Applied XML/Web Services.

My primary concern when throwing a DevCon is that there is a sufficient user base of the technology that it’s more than a vendor show. Even the original ATL DevCon only had a few MS employees and one MS talk. The rest of it were practitioners and experts from outside the big house and that makes for a better conference, imo.

So, as much as I love Longhorn and Avalon specifically and see them at topics for future DevCons, the technology’s not ready yet. Most of the real Avalon experts are MS employees and while there are some notable exceptions, we’re just not at a critical mass of folks yet for a XAML DevCon.