Mix 07

The good.

Mix07 was probably the best run conference I’ve attended from an operational point of view. There were plenty of talks going on – sadly some of the talks I’d like to have attended happened concurrently. Despite the many naysayers, I think silverlight is genuinely interesting and we will definitely be looking into this technology more. I don’t ever see us porting Pixenate™ entirely from AJAX to Silverlight but I can see scope for a hybrid approach – perhaps using a Silverlight Panel if the plugin is present but using the existing AJAX approach if it’s not installed ( no doubt one of the cool kids will come up with a cool name for this graceful-degradation-from-Silverlight-to-AJAX approach ).
Wifi access was never a problem. There were plenty of breakout sessions. Even somewhere to play ‘Gears of War’ on a plasma TV.
The venue was great. If I ever return to Las Vegas I’m definitely going to try and stay in the Venetian.

The bad.

Mix07 was billed as a networking opportunity and I don’t think it lived up to this. The attendee profile was largely made up of Developers rather than business people / decision-makers.
Nothing to do with the conference itself but getting there turned out to be a bit of a nightmare and a tad more expensive than I’d planned for. Aer Arann refused to fly from Cork to Dublin on Sunday Morning (due to fog – even though Ryanair had no trouble flying) and so I missed my connecting flights from Dublin to Los Angeles and Los Angeles to Las Vegas. What a nightmare – I had to drive like a maniac to Dublin then catch a plane to Chicago and then fly to Las Vegas. Never again will I fly with Aer Arann.

The ugly.

The strip can be pretty ugly in the wee hours. I stayed in the Flamingo. Next door to it is an “Irish themed” casino which should be burned down.

Mix 07 was good but will I be attending Mix 08 ?
Probably not.