Monday March 15th, 2010

11:30 AM – 12:30 PM Sessions (5)
Monday 11:30 AM
Syncing Audio, Video and Animations in Microsoft Silverlight Applications
Dan Wahlin in Lagoon F on Monday at 11:30 AM

Silverlight provides a robust framework for integrating audio, video and animations into applications but how do you keep them all in-sync? In this session Silverlight MVP Dan Wahlin discusses an animation project created for a Fortune 500 company and demonstrates tips and tricks that can be used to keep various assets synced so that audio and video clips can be started at specific times as a storyboard plays. Topics covered include working with timers, segregating large storyboards into user controls, defining sync points using XML, generating markers using Microsoft Expression Encoder, integrating closed captioning into an application, plus more.

Tags: Open Call, Silverlight

Designing Corporate Web Sites using SharePoint 2010
Paul Stubbs in Breakers J on Monday at 11:30 AM

SharePoint is more commonly being used in the enterprise to manage many different types of activities. Often the design and deployment of these sites require designers to work closely with developers. This session will discuss the integrated design and development experience, focusing on design techniques, integrated tools support through SharePoint Designer, Expression Blend and Visual Studio, and show how designers can build compelling enterprise sites for SharePoint 2010.

Tags: Expression, SharePoint, Visual Studio

A Case Study: Rapid WordPress Design and Prototyping with Expression Web 3
Morten Rand-Hendriksen in Lagoon B on Monday at 11:30 AM

Take a look behind the curtain of WordPress and its theme engine, and get a step-by-step road map of how to use Expression Web 3 with WordPress to take a boring standard blog theme and make into a functional CMS site design. See a demonstration of design and rapid prototyping using a live WordPress site including examples of code snippets (“template tags” in WP speak) that give designers and developers the ability to micromanage the CMS output and create multiple individual templates within a single site. Come learn how to use Expression Web 3 to make quick standards-based code changes to live WordPress sites and how to quickly transform a standard WordPress blog into a custom …

Tags: Expression

Microsoft Silverlight 4 Overview: What's in Store for Silverlight 4?
Keith Smith in Mandalay Ballroom D on Monday at 11:30 AM

Are you looking for ways to build seamless, rich web experiences and easy-to-deploy line-of-business applications? If so, come see an overview of the new features and updates included in the upcoming release of Silverlight 4. We explore enhancements to features like out-of-browser and elevated trust and tour advances in areas such as rich text, input and networking.

Tags: Silverlight

Changing our Game – an Introduction to Windows Phone 7 Series
Joe Belfiore in Mandalay Ballrom A on Monday at 11:30 AM

Major changes are coming to Windows Phone! This session goes in-depth on the design and features of Windows Phone and gives a comprehensive picture of what’s coming in this exciting new release.

Tags: Mobile, Windows Phone

2:00 PM – 3:00 PM Sessions (4)
Monday 2:00 PM
Overview of the Windows Phone 7 Series Application Platform
Charlie Kindel in Mandalay Ballrom A on Monday at 2:00 PM

The new Windows Phone is coming! Get a high-level overview of the new application platform and a complete picture of the developer story. Learn about the developer tools, the application frameworks, the support for Silverlight, and the support for XNA.

Tags: Mobile, Silverlight, Windows Phone, XNA

Authoring for Microsoft Silverlight 4 with Microsoft Expression Blend
Christian Schormann, Peter Blois in Mandalay Ballroom D on Monday at 2:00 PM

Explore how Expression Blend lets you design and build rich, vibrant Silverlight 4 applications. Take advantage of a host of new platform and tools capabilities to produce better user experiences, with less code.

Tags: Expression, Silverlight

The Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework
Michael Scherotter, Alfonso Corretti in Breakers D on Monday at 2:00 PM

Come hear about the Microsoft Silverlight Analytics Framework, which is a new extensible framework for integrating web analytics into Silverlight applications. See how it addresses the challenge of tracking out-of-browser and offline application and supporting multiple analytics services simultaneously. Learn how to use Expression Blend to visually instrument designs and do A/B testing. Also learn how to use components built by a number of analytics and control vendors in Web, video and rich client scenarios.

Tags: Silverlight

The Art, Technology and Science of Reading
Kevin Larson in Breakers J on Monday at 2:00 PM

Are serif fonts more readable than sans serif fonts? Does grey text on a grey background cause eye fatigue? Can you read jmubeld wodrs just as fast as regular words? Learn about the latest research for making readable on-screen text. Plus, see optical illusions in the ubiquitous font Georgia.

Tags: UX

3:30 PM – 4:30 PM Sessions (6)
Monday 3:30 PM
10 Ways to Attack a Design Problem and Come Out Winning
Robby Ingebretsen in Lagoon L on Monday at 3:30 PM

See the design process in action as we walk through the creation of two (or three) apps from beginning to end. We’ll start with design requirements and talk about finding inspiration. We’ll show you how we created and documented the design through comps and wireframes. Finally, we’ll even take a look at unique coding techniques that allowed us to realize the vision. If you’re interested in the design process and want to see it in action, don’t miss this talk!

Tags: UX

Lap around the Windows Azure Platform
Steve Marx in Breakers L on Monday at 3:30 PM

The Windows Azure platform provides a comprehensive set of services for building and running scalable applications targeted at the cloud. In this session we go on a coding tour of the Windows Azure platform. On this tour, see how web applications can use the scalable compute and storage services with Windows Azure, secure connectivity with Service Bus and Access Control Service, and a relational database with Microsoft SQL Azure.

Tags: Cloud, SQL Azure, Windows Azure, Windows Azure Platform

The Mono Project
Miguel de Icaza in Breakers D on Monday at 3:30 PM

Mono is a free and open source implementation of .NET that runs on Windows, Unix, and Macintosh. In more than 5 years since the first version of Mono was released, the Mono project has continued to add support for new functionality, such as C# 3.0, LINQ, and Silverlight; and has continued to see adoption. Come hear about the latest developments and future plans from the founder of the Mono project.

Tags: .NET, Open Standards, Silverlight

Stepping Outside the Browser with Microsoft Silverlight 4
Ashish Shetty in Breakers H on Monday at 3:30 PM

You can do a lot with a Silverlight 3 out-of-browser application - so what more do you need? Maybe file system access, the ability to host HTML content, the ability to customize the application chrome, greater control over the out-of-browser window, notifications, access to local components and the ability to playback rights protected media? If so, then this is the session for you to come find out about the new Silverlight 4 out-of -browser features and see some of the amazing things you can do with those features.

Tags: Silverlight

Building Rich and Interactive User Experiences in SharePoint
Andre Engberts in Breakers J on Monday at 3:30 PM

Come hear how SharePoint offers many ways to build rich and personalized interactions using its user interface framework. Learn how to create rich experiences by extending SharePoint using technologies like Microsoft Silverlight for the presentation layer and Microsoft Commerce Server for personalization and targeting. See actual site examples of development and application architecture using SharePoint including the process by which an interactive user interface was created on SharePoint starting with the initial design specification through developing the site. Also, see how the user experience and creative work is translated into a technology implementation that uses Master Pages, CSS, …

Tags: SharePoint, Silverlight, UX

Windows Phone UI and Design Language
Chad Roberts, Michael Smuga, Albert Shum in Mandalay Ballrom A on Monday at 3:30 PM

Windows Phone constitutes a dramatic new user experience paradigm. This session will provide prescriptive guidance, tips, and techniques on how designers & developers can build beautiful, compelling user experiences that are consistent with the built-in Windows Phone 7 Series experiences.

Tags: Mobile, Windows Phone

Tuesday March 16th, 2010

11:00 AM – 12:00 PM Sessions (1)
Tuesday 11:30 AM
Quickly Implementing New Cross-Browser Features with Ruby and Python
Hans Hugli in Lagoon B on Tuesday at 11:30 AM

Ruby and Python in the browser provide a powerful new way to quickly prototype and launch new features without requiring users to install multiple plugins or extensions. Learn how we used these dynamic languages to create a cross-browser implementation of HTML5 video and audio tags and 3D coverflow widget. See how to use JavaScript injection to circumvent browser cross-domain limitations and how we designed for declarative customization via XAML markup. With IronPython and IronRuby’s “gestalt” library, it is now possible to develop RIA client applications on the Mac or PC without the need for an Integrated Development Environment.

Tags: From the Labs, Languages

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Sessions (5)
Tuesday 1:30 PM
Building Facebook Apps with Microsoft .NET and Deploying to Windows Azure
Jim Zimmerman in Lagoon F on Tuesday at 1:30 PM

There are so many ways to develop Facebook apps now in .NET. Come and learn how to build Facebook applications with the Facebook Developer Toolkit. Walk through several real-world Facebook web apps in Microsoft ASP.NET and see how to best structure your app. Social media applications require dynamic scalability so a highly scalable computing infrastructure is mandatory to deliver a consistent user experience. Learn how to leverage all the components of Azure to meet the needs of successful viral applications.

Tags: .NET, Open Call, Windows Azure Platform

Designing Bing: Heart and Science
Paul Ray in Breakers D on Tuesday at 1:30 PM

Come hear how Bing is evolving search beyond a simple text box with "10 blue links" to a "decision engine". Learn how web designers and developers can benifit from the lessons learned creating the Bing search engine including using benchmarks for good design testing (metrics, eye-tracking, click-through rates) as well as how to bring in "emotional UX" to help drive innovation beyond what just data can provide.

Tags: Bing

Creating Great Experiences through Collaboration
Noah Gedrich, Eric Perez, Sean Scott in Breakers H on Tuesday at 1:30 PM

For too long, the interactive industry has relied a few key individuals who embody the best qualities and skills of both a designer and a developer. We can no longer base our business on the ability to find and retain these rare and talented people. Come hear how to create a process and culture around the seamless integration and collaboration between User Experience, Creative and Technology disciplines.

Tags: UX

In-Depth Look at Internet Explorer 9
Ted Johnson, John Hrvatin in Lagoon L on Tuesday at 1:30 PM

Learn what’s coming in the Internet Explorer platform for Web programming, interoperability, graphics and performance by bringing the power of the PC hardware and Windows to Web developers. This session will include demos showcasing the latest code, providing you with a first-hand look at the latest browser advancements to be released in Internet Explorer 9.

Tags: Internet Explorer

Building Windows Phone Applications with Silverlight, Part 1
Mike Harsh in Mandalay Ballrom A on Tuesday at 1:30 PM

Together with part 2, these sessions give an overview of the functionality for Silverlight applications that is unique to the Windows Phone application platform. Part 1 will cover new input paradigms including multi-touch, software keyboard, accelerometer and microphone, as well as the APIs to leverage phone applications like email, phone dialer, contact list and more.

Tags: Mobile, Silverlight, Windows Phone

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Sessions (5)
Tuesday 3:00 PM
Total Experience: A Design Methodology for Agencies
Conor Brady in Breakers J on Tuesday at 3:00 PM

Designers today have many exciting opportunities to envision new brand engagement strategies that help brands reach consumers in an increasingly diverse world. However, the design and creative process in a multi-platform, multi-audience world can be extremely complex. Total Experience enables deep collaboration and develops integrated multichannel strategies quickly and effectively. This session touches on live examples and the creative techniques used in social design, mobile and geo-location with major brands. Hear about key learnings based on brand solutions delivered through the application of the Total Experience methodology. In addition, hear about the core tenants of Total Experience …

Tags: UX

Building Windows Phone Applications with Silverlight, Part 2
Peter Torr in Mandalay Ballrom A on Tuesday at 3:00 PM

Together with part 1, these sessions give an overview of the functionality for Silverlight applications that is unique to the Windows Phone application platform. Part 2 will cover the new application model, updated control templates, themes, and services available to applications, including new Windows Phone web services.

Tags: Mobile, Silverlight, Windows Phone

Building PHP Applications using the Windows Azure Platform
Craig Kitterman, Sumit Chawla in Breakers L on Tuesday at 3:00 PM

The Windows Azure platform has been built from the ground up with interoperability in mind, supporting multiples languages and development tools to build applications which run on Windows Azure and/or integrate with other cloud platforms or on-premises components. Come learn how to run your PHP and MySQL applications on Windows Azure using open source tools & SDKs while taking advantage of new Windows Azure features. This session will cover developing for Windows Azure using PHP, deployment choices, patterns and practices in building & scaling PHP applications using cross platform open source SDKs using a choice of development tools, including command-line tools and Eclipse.

Tags: Windows Azure Platform

Smooth Streaming Live in HD: From Camera to Screen
Michael Hanley, Scott Stanfield in Lagoon L on Tuesday at 3:00 PM

The Olympics video team offers you a rare chance to witness an HD production set up, step-by-step, from scratch. Starting with an HD camera, we push the signal through an encoder with a tuned Smooth Streaming configuration, into Internet Information Services (IIS) 7.0, and then out through a Microsoft Silverlight 4 player using File | New and the Silverlight Media Framework. See the same techniques behind Sunday Night Football and the 2010 Winter Olympics, only on a smaller scale. This is a one-of-a-kind session including specialized hardware; not to be missed if you're curious about HD Internet broadcast.

Tags: IIS, Media, Silverlight

Building an Accessible Microsoft Silverlight Experience
Mark Rideout in Lagoon B on Tuesday at 3:00 PM

Wondering how to build an accessible Silverlight application? Curious about support for accessibility in Silverlight? Join us as we dig into Silverlight and steps you can take to provide an accessible experience for your users.

Tags: Silverlight

4:30 PM – 5:30 PM Sessions (7)
Tuesday 4:30 PM
Development and Debugging Tools for Building XNA Games for Windows Phone
Cullen Waters in Lagoon B on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

This session covers tools available to the developer for building XNA games including debugging, emulation, and performance. Special emphasis is placed on best practices for managed code performance and .NET profiling tools you can use to optimize your games for windows phone.

Tags: Mobile, Windows Phone, XNA

Smooth Streaming Live in HD: 2010 Olympic Winter Games
Bob Cowherd, Scott Stanfield in Lagoon L on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

If you’re designing a live video experience, you’re need to be concerned with the realities of scale and monetization. Big events like the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics were produced to reach a large audience, thereby maximizing their monetization potential. And to reach a large audience, a fair amount of IT sophistication is necessary to work with CDNs. The intersection of UX, IT and Business Experience of video, come together in the player experience. Come learn how to build an engaging, robust and ultimately, profitable player for your clients. We will demonstrate: pushing the “From Camera to Screen” session content to a CDN, adding instrumentation, logging and …

Tags: Media

An Hour With Bill Buxton
Bill Buxton in Mandalay Ballroom D on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

Come spend an intimate hour with Bill Buxton—one of the most influential designers in the world and the MIX10 keynote speaker—to discuss the role of human values, culture and technology in design.

Tags: UX

Silverlight Performance on Windows Phone
Seema Ramchandani in Mandalay Ballrom A on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

Learn how to optimize your Silverlight code for Windows Phone. This session will discuss common bottlenecks using the graphics and managed stacks, and will highlight how to optimize startup and reaction time.

Tags: Mobile, Silverlight, Windows Phone

Modern Web Form Design
Luke Wroblewski in Lagoon F on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

The web has been transformed by the recent proliferation of rich interactions and applications. But the workhorses of the online world, web forms, have been slow to evolve with these changes. As brokers of crucial online interactions like e-commerce checkout and registration, forms bridge the gap between people, their information, and your product or service. As a result, web form design matters. But web forms aren't keeping up. Come see a walk-through of the latest applications of rich web form interactions (made possible by dynamic technologies like AJAX) including: dynamic help systems, inline validation, selection dependent inputs, and more. Also get an outline of how gradual …

Tags: AJAX, UX

Using Ruby on Rails to Build Windows Azure Applications
Sriram Krishnan in Breakers L on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

The Windows Azure platform has been designed to be open and interoperable with services that can be used with a variety of languages. In this session, learn how your Ruby on Rails applications can take advantage of scalable compute and storage services in the cloud with Windows Azure.

Tags: Cloud, Windows Azure

How jQuery Makes Hard Things Simple
John Resig in Breakers H on Tuesday at 4:30 PM

jQuery does a lot to make some really complicated JavaScript and DOM scripting simple. In this talk, learn some advanced jQuery techniques for simplifying your code. Additionally, look at some of the recent changes in jQuery and see how to apply them to your application.

Tags: jQuery

Wednesday March 17th, 2010

9:00 AM – 10:00 AM Sessions (7)
Wednesday 9:00 AM
Design the Ordinary, Like the Fixie
DL Byron, Kevin Tamura in Breakers J on Wednesday at 9:00 AM

This presentation is a study in the simplest of objects, their usefulness, and how they become part of our culture. It relates to web design and our tendency to overcomplicate, to play drum solos when a tight and crisp backbeat will do. Learn how to find inspiration in the ordinary and pause before adding that flair to your next project.

Tags: UX

Developing Multiplayer Games with Microsoft Silverlight 4
Mike Downey, Grant Skinner in Mandalay Ballroom D on Wednesday at 9:00 AM

Come learn from world-renowned interactive developer Grant Skinner about the opportunities, challenges, and processes for developing successful games using Silverlight. Hear about key Silverlight animation topics from many angles including business, technical, tools, workflow and design integration.

Tags: Silverlight

The Type We Want
Jonathan Snook in Lagoon H on Wednesday at 9:00 AM

After a slow evolution, the landscape for custom type on the web has been changing quickly. This session will cover the history of embedding fonts, diving into the options available to us today and finally taking a look at the hurdles before us.

Tags: UX

Designing an Internet-Facing Web Site Using SharePoint 2010
Elisabeth Olson in Breakers D on Wednesday at 9:00 AM

Increasingly, companies are using SharePoint to build their Internet-facing properties. Examples of such sites are Ferrari.com and ConocoPhillips.com. In SharePoint 2010, there are many improvements that designers and developers can leverage to build exciting and compelling sites. This session provides an overview of some of the great new features in SharePoint 2010 for designing Internet-facing Web sites including Silverlight support, XLST Web parts, CSS, and themes. If you’re designing on SharePoint, you don’t want to miss this session.

Tags: Open Standards, SharePoint, Silverlight

Building Platforms and Applications for the Real-Time Web
Chris Saad, Brett Slatkin, Ari Steinberg, Ryan Sarver, Lili Cheng, Dare Obasanjo in Breakers H on Wednesday at 9:00 AM

From news feeds to search, the web has become all about real-time access to news and other information as it happens. This panel discusses what it takes to build the platforms and user experiences that power some of the most notable services on the real-time web. Come hear a lively discussion about the real-time web with moderator Dare Obasanjo (Microsoft) and panelists Ari Steinberg (Facebook), Brett Slatkin (Google), Chris Saad (JS-Kit), Lili Cheng (Microsoft) and Ryan Sarver (Twitter).

Tags: Cloud

Windows Phone Application Platform Architecture
Istvan Cseri in Mandalay Ballrom A on Wednesday at 9:00 AM

Windows Phone 7 Series represents a significant change from the past. The entire stack, starting with the operating system, user experience, and the application platform have been engineered to build a new class of phone that users will just love. This session will go under the covers and describe how to think about applications and games from the perspective of user experience, security, packaging, cloud services and performance. Details on the new application model, device capabilities, location, sensors, and other platform capabilities will be covered.

Tags: Mobile, Windows Phone

Wednesday 9:35 AM
Internet Explorer Developer Tools
Jon Seitel in Lagoon B on Wednesday at 9:35 AM

Come learn about the developer tools built into Internet Explorer 8 and how they can help streamline and optimize your coding and testing efforts. We’ll also demonstrate the new features and enhancements for the developer tool to be released in Internet Explorer 9.

Tags: Internet Explorer

10:30 AM – 11:30 AM Sessions (7)
Wednesday 10:30 AM
Flash Skills Applied to Microsoft Silverlight Design and Development
Adam Kinney in Lagoon B on Wednesday at 10:30 AM

If you know how to design and develop Flash applications, you are more than half the way there to creating Silverlight applications. Similar languages, graphic and animation features and skinnable controls, ease the training between the two technologies. Listen and learn how to add a new skill to your skillset and expand your opportunities.

Tags: Silverlight

Lifecycle of a Wireframe
Nick Finck in Lagoon H on Wednesday at 10:30 AM

Dive deep into the process used to create wireframes, a key deliverable for user experience designers. Hear about the principles that guide this process, how to create great wireframes (all the way down to the nitty-gritty page or screen level), and how to identify and deliver solutions that meet your clients' business goals and solve their problems. Walk away with a better understanding of what delivering awesome wireframes entails - from methodology, to process, to delivery - and how to do it yourself. If you're an information architect, interaction designer, visual designer, or regular old user experience-curious creature: this one's for you.

Tags: UX

Developing Natural User Interfaces with Microsoft Silverlight and WPF 4 Touch
Joshua Blake in Lagoon F on Wednesday at 10:30 AM

The Natural User Interface (NUI) is the next revolution of human-computer interaction. Microsoft Surface has shown the potential of multi-touch NUIs to uniquely engage users, and multi-touch tablets and displays are becoming more and more common. This session is focused on how you can create multi-touch NUIs for these devices. Learn the difference between manipulations and gestures, when to use each, and how to implement specific NUI design concepts with both Silverlight and the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) 4 Touch API. The differences between the Silverlight and WPF 4 Touch APIs are highlighted. If you are interested in rich, engaging multi-touch interfaces for the web or client, …

Tags: Multi-Touch, Open Call, Silverlight

Cross-Browser Best Practices
Tony Ross in Breakers D on Wednesday at 10:30 AM

Creating complex sites that work well across browsers is a constant challenge for developers. See how Internet Explorer 9 makes it easier to create Web sites using interoperable HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We'll show best practices you can use today to target a broad range of browsers.

Tags: Internet Explorer, Open Standards

Adding the "Where" to the "When" of Social Applications
Raffi Krikorian in Lagoon L on Wednesday at 10:30 AM

Numerous devices and infrastructure services have the ability to expose location, but comprehending how to best make use of these technologies can be complex. Additionally, after the infrastructure is put in place, the next hurdle to overcome is understanding how to create a useable location-based feature that users can comprehend and love while also feeling safe and secure. This session is targeted to those who want to learn about these location technologies, and to those who want to understand how to think about their users' needs, their security, and their privacy. We'll also review web and mobile services that have been designed with location at their core, or location as a …

Tags: Cloud

The Democratization of the Design Industry
Mike Samson, Ross Kimbarovsky in Mandalay Ballroom D on Wednesday at 10:30 AM

Come hear how the creative industry and its incumbents are under attack by a growing group of "underdogs" - nighttime freelancers, creative hobbyists, surprising talent from the developing world, and just plain (albeit shockingly good) amateurs. Learn how cloud computing, has catalyzed this revolution by making it easier, cheaper, and quicker to deploy user generated content and fueled its advance in the areas of video (YouTube), design (crowdSPRING), photography (iStockPhoto) and countless others. We also ask the question "what's next?" and discuss how unrelenting pressure is crumbling the old-world empire, as represented by Getty, Ogilvy, and Burnett, and giving way to …

Tags: Cloud, UX

Wednesday 11:05 AM
Dynamic Layout and Transitions for Microsoft Silverlight 4 with Microsoft Expression Blend
Kenny Young in Lagoon B on Wednesday at 11:05 AM

Learn to create applications that change layout and visual appearance using smooth, dynamic and visually rich transitions without writing code. Come see new features in Expression Blend that raise the bar, making it even easier to create amazing applications that will delight users.

Tags: Expression, Silverlight

12:00 PM – 1:00 PM Sessions (5)
Wednesday 12:00 PM
SVG: The Past, Present and Future of Vector Graphics for the Web
Patrick Dengler, Doug Schepers in Breakers D on Wednesday at 12:00 PM

Join Doug Schepers (W3C) and Patrick Dengler (Microsoft), as they take you through the past, present and future of SVG on the Web. These two members of the W3C SVG Working Group give a tour of SVG and its capabilities, including how the standard is evolving to target web developers who want to build an interoperable experience for users. They provide an introduction to how SVG works, as well as show SVG in action.

Tags: Open Standards

Search Engine Optimization for Microsoft Silverlight
Brad Abrams in Lagoon B on Wednesday at 12:00 PM

Search engines are the primary entry point into the web for millions of users on the internet and increasingly in corporate intranets as well. Come learn how to unlock the valuable content in your Silverlight applications by making it available to search engines to discover. This talk describes best practices and discusses real-world examples of SEO-enabled Silverlight applications with the help of RIA Services and Microsoft ASP.NET.

Tags: Silverlight

Opening Up Opportunity with Twitter
Ryan Sarver in Lagoon H on Wednesday at 12:00 PM

As a radically open company, Twitter's success is dependent on the success of the developers in its ecosystem and the business partners who extend the Twitter experience across the Internet. Come hear how developers and partners are creating new, innovative and compelling ways for people to use Twitter. As we open our firehose of public data to a diverse set of uses, there is much to discuss about how we collectively can create even more inspiration and great user experiences.

Tags: Cloud

Building Windows Phone Games
Michael Klucher in Mandalay Ballrom A on Wednesday at 12:00 PM

With the release of Windows Phone, game developers will be able to create amazing content rapidly through the power of Silverlight and the XNA framework. This talk will outline the basic application model of Windows Phone, enumerate Windows Phone core device characteristics, and walk through highlights of Silverlight and XNA Frameworks on the phone.

Tags: Mobile, Silverlight, Windows Phone, XNA

Prototyping Rich Microsoft Silverlight 4 Applications with Microsoft Expression SketchFlow
Chris Bernard, Christian Schormann in Breakers H on Wednesday at 12:00 PM

SketchFlow is the prototyping environment in Microsoft Expression Blend. See how to use SketchFlow to collaboratively design, evolve, explore and review user experiences and interactive content.

Tags: Expression, Silverlight

1:30 PM – 2:30 PM Sessions (7)
Wednesday 1:30 PM
Building Finance Applications with Microsoft Silverlight 4
Che Fuqiang in Lagoon B on Wednesday at 1:30 PM

Sina Finance is the leading finance channel in China with 80 million users. Sina Finance's SilverPulse is a Silverlight 4-based application with cutting edge features in finance information accessibility and analysis. In this session we share how we built the application from scratch and how to integrate Silverlight 4 into cutting edge products like SilverPulse.

Tags: Silverlight

Creating Effective Info Viz in Microsoft Silverlight
Matthias Shapiro in Lagoon F on Wednesday at 1:30 PM

So much information and so little time. Matthias Shapiro, contributing author for "Beautiful Visualization", talks about how to create information visualizations in Silverlight that bring both beauty and insight to the data. He covers different methods for portraying data, in which cases different methods should be used, and how Silverlight can inform the process and speed up a visualization project.

Tags: Open Call, Silverlight

Building a High Performance 3D Game for Windows Phone
Shawn Hargreaves, Tomas Vykruta in Mandalay Ballrom A on Wednesday at 1:30 PM

This session will detail how to use XNA to develop 3D games for Windows Phone, with a special eye towards the special characteristics of Windows Phone application platform. Special attention will be placed on optimizing high-performance managed code games for the platform, to help you squeeze out every last drop of performance.

Tags: Mobile, Windows Phone, XNA

Running with Wireframes: Taking Information Architecture (IA) into Design
Matt Brown in Breakers D on Wednesday at 1:30 PM

The UX/IA process often feels walled-off from the design phase of web projects. Many times, wireframing and designing follow a disjointed and awkward workflow with much getting lost in the translation. Learn how to better integrate UX and IA work into the design process. Explore ways to smooth the flow from wireframe to final design and improve communication between project phases.

Tags: UX

Peanut Butter and Jelly: Putting 'Content Management' Back into Context
Nick Katsivelos in Breakers J on Wednesday at 1:30 PM

Find out why digital agencies are content domain experts and how a surprisingly simple content approach can help leading brands break out of the clutter and avoid the short hop from standardization to commoditization. Find out how to avoid the pitfalls and embrace simplicity!

Tags: UX

Microsoft Surface Goes Social: Research Project at the University of Linz
Mario Meir-Huber in Breakers H on Wednesday at 1:30 PM

Want to see how Surface can be combined with location-based services and social software? Attend this session to see how a research project team at the University of Linz, Austria succeeded in developing a cool application for university students. The location-based service enables the students to improve communication and learning. It also supports planning of academic life at the university. As an extension to the application, which was developed in Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), there is also one developed for Surface. To see the challenges we faced and how we developed this great project, join this session!

Tags: Multi-Touch, Open Call, Surface, UX

Wednesday 2:05 PM
An Enterprise Perspective on Silverlight 4
Robert Ellis in Lagoon B on Wednesday at 2:05 PM

Join one of Bank of America’s leading technical evaluators as he discusses his exploration of Silverlight 4. Hear his analysis of Silverlight’s capabilities and his perspective on Silverlight’s enterprise-oriented features. See a demonstration of features that would appeal to an enterprise developer.

Tags: Silverlight

3:00 PM – 4:00 PM Sessions (1)
Wednesday 3:00 PM
Designing and Developing for the Rich Mobile Web
Joe Marini in Mandalay Ballrom A on Wednesday at 3:00 PM

The Mobile Web has been a long time in coming, and now that it’s here, it’s a force that you and your business can’t afford to ignore. What has made all of this possible is the combination of ever-more-powerful devices, fast network connections, and highly capable mobile browsers. In this session, you will learn how to build sites that work well and look great on Windows Phone and across mobile devices. We’ll cover the core mobile Web scenarios, preparing content for mobile, and tips and techniques for debugging and testing your sites.

Tags: Mobile, Windows Phone