Here. If you haven't made your hotel reservation for the Applied XML Developer’s Conference, Oct. 20-21 at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington (40 minutes from Portland Int'l airport), you'll want to do that today as the rooms we've been holding are about to be released to the general public. Also, if you haven't registered for the conference, you'll want to register now, as we've only got a few seats left.

Here.

After only 5 weeks of registrations, the Applied XML Developer’s Conference has sold out. With 4 weeks of registrations left to go, we’ve gone back to the venue for extra space. It’s not much extra space, though, so if you want a seat, you should register expeditiously.

Here. Neetu Rajpal, a PM on the SQL Server team, has agreed to give us an overview of what's new in XML for .NET 2.0 and in design-time support for Visual Studio 2005 at the Applied XML Developer’s Conference, October 20-21 at the Skamania Lodge in Stevenson, Washington. While I was away enjoying America’s version of a nude beach, we've surged to 80% full, so register soon.

Here. This is the 5th DevCon that I've thrown and I've never seen it fill up this quickly. We're already half-way full after only a week of registrations. If you want a seat, you should get one quickly.

Here. Whoa. I guess there was some pent up demand for the Applied XML Dev.Conf., because after a weekend of registrations, we're already 1/3rd full. Don’t wait to register.

Here.

Every year it gets harder to pick speakers for the DevCon. This year, I had 4x the number of submissions for which I had available slots. So, while it’s hard for me to pick, it makes for a fabulous line up for attendees:

For speakers, we’ve got keynotes from Tim Bray (co-inventor of XML) and Tim Ewald. We’ve also got Don Box, Sam Ruby, Jeff Barr (of Amazon.com), Keith Brown, Scott Hanselman, Chris Anderson, Doug Purdy, Ted Neward, Rich Salz and more.

For subjects, we’ll hear about the present and future of the blogging community, how MSDN plans to expose it’s huge store of content via web services, Schematron, XSLT2, web services versioning, how 3rd parties are making use of Amazon.com’s services for profit and how the Navy is using XML to test their missile systems.

For venue, we’ve got the site of my first technical talk ever, Skamania Lodge, a beautiful resort just 40 minutes from the Portland Int’l Airport. And since the conference is Wed-Thu (10/20-21), bring the family and extend your stay over the weekend!

All of the previous 4 DevCons have sold out, so you should register quickly (and don’t forget to make your hotel reservations, too)!

For all the conference and hotel details, click here.

If you haven’t yet submitted your abstract to the Applied XML Developer’s Conferences, don’t wait much longer; I’m only accepting submissions ’til the end of June, 2004.

I’ve already gotten a ton of abstracts, including submissions from folks like Sam Rub, Tim Bray, Tim Ewald and Don Box, but that doesn’t mean that your talk won’t bubble up to the top; as much as I like to have the polished speakers, I like even more to have the folks from the trenches.

According to current thinking, the conference is likely to be 9/30 - 10/1 within an hour of the Portland Airport, although details are still being finalized.

Submit your abstract today!

Here.

I was recently asked to characterize the attendees of a typical DevCon and this is what I said:

The attendees of a DevCon are the top of the pyramid developers that not only try new things all the time, but also make design and architecture decisions for their employers and customers. Also, all of the speakers, i.e. experts in their fields, practitioners, vendor architects, etc, are also attendees, and it’s wonderful to see them heckling each other.

The environment of a DevCon is one big room with everyone in it, so it’s a shared experience front-to-back. As soon as any talk is over (I keep them at 45 minutes to get the maximum number of new ideas into people’s heads), the buzz between people starts and only stops when I introduce the next speaker (loudly : ).

A DevCon is a wonderful mix of movers and shakers, vendors, enthusiasts, architects, practitioners and and a conference with an atmosphere and a set of attendees unlike any other that I’ve attended.