MGX comes to a close

Sat, 21 Jul 2007 20:48:49 GMT

All this week I've been in Orlando with 17,499 of my closest work colleagues at the annual Microsoft Global Exchange (MGX) event. A gathering of so many people is impressive enough in itself, that one company chooses to invest so much money to run an event on this scale is quite remarkable.

This is my third MGX (or MGB as it used to be known), although my first in Orlando. I've learned lots of things, including that I don't think much of Orlando (too humid, sprawling and fake), that bad crab cakes can give you food poisoning, and that my phone can take some fairly neat panoramic pictures. I've attached one to this blog entry, taken from row 72million right at the top of the Amway Arena. The panoramic stitching is not perfect (I took 3 photos then my Windows Mobile Pocket PC automatically stitched them together for me) but it's pretty impressive for a phone camera.

But more importantly I learned a huge amount about what's coming up in the next wave of our Software + Services evolution. Some of the secret and upcoming Windows Live stuff is very cool, and I've been blown away by Silverlight and Popfly. I even did my own Popfly mash-up, which is currently too lame to share but will grace this screen someday soon when I've figured out what the heck I'm doing.

These are exciting times in the software business. I'm looking forward to bringing these cool new services to market very soon.

The UsefulTechnology Blog: Microsoft

MGX comes to a close