It's taken a while to get all of this content organized because I took so many notes at the event and I needed to give them a chance to percolate and simmer away. Before I dig into what we saw and what I thought, a big thank you goes out to John Oxley and Daniel Shapiro of Microsoft Canada for inviting me to tag along and especially for respecting my opinions enough to tolerate my long-winded, vitriol filled attacks on their employer!

UX Report: The Series!

Since there's a lot to talk about, I'm going to break this up into a series of posts over the rest of the week. While many of my colleagues are down in Austin frolicking at SXSW, I'm going to stay where it's still cold and wet and tell you all about a trip to the one place in the tech industry that's pretty much the complete yang to the SXSW ying. I do it for you, really. Can you feel the love?

Today's post is about the setup and format of the two days, while the rest of the week will tackle specific sessions and presentations. Here's the breakdown:

    
• Today: Format (c:)
    
• Tuesday: The New Microsoft (Again)
    
• Wednesday: Design Matters (Maybe?)
    
• Thursday: Expression
    
• Friday: Wrapping Up

I'll come back and turn those into links as the rest of the pieces get published so you can always just tune back into this post to find them again.

Behind Enemy Lines

Let's get the bit about being the contrarion out of the way first: As a lifetime Mac user and passionate believer in Open Source, Culture, and Community, I viewed this trip as an opportunity to visit the beast's lair and to peek behind the curtain at what it contained. Back when my youthful naievity hadn't been dulled by the wisdom of time, I fought the Holy Religious War of the Operating System with all of the passion that a teenaged fan boy can muster.  I lost the need to convert the Great Unwashed Masses to the One True Jobsian Way sometime around the point where I became really interested in the User Experience of technology. As I got older, I realized that they're all just tools - some nicer than others - but in the end the importance is the outcome. I still think Apple makes better machines and software (although it has plenty of faults of its own), and we run our business almost entirely on Macs, but I'm happy to admit that there are plenty of times when their technology is not the right answer. This was a chance for me to go spend a few days with people who I respect a great deal, in a friendly and welcoming environment, and to learn what the other half will be up to for the next few years. It was interesting to note that there were four MacBookPros out of fifteen attendees and that four or five other people around the table admitted to owning a Mac at home (just for the kids to play on, of course).

Around the Table

Since the event was organized by Microsoft Canada, the Round Table consisted of some of the best and brightest Canadian UX minds. A quick introduction:

    
• Ryan Apps, Traffik Group
    
• Colin Bowern, Official Community
    
• Audrey Carr, Organic
    
• David Crow, Radiant Core
    
• Nicole Flippance, High Road Communications (Microsoft Canada's PR Company)
    
• Tom George, Design Axiom
    
• Dave Goodwin, University of Waterloo
    
• Anthony Hempel, Blast Radius
    
• Bryce Johnson, Navantis
    
• Kerri McKenna, imason
    
• Ben Skelton, Haberñero
    
• Gene Smith, nForm

Our Hosts

We were graciously hosted by a number of Microsoft Canada folk in addition to the great list of speakers. Thanks go out to:

    
• John Oxley, Microsoft Canada Director Community Evangelism
    
• Daniel Shapiro, Microsoft Canada Audience Manager
    
• Jerome Carron, Microsoft Canada Developer Evangelist

Format (c:)

As per my Reporting Live from Bellevue post, the event was held at the beautiful new Westin Bellevue hotel. We camped out in one of their conference rooms for two days and heard presentations from an amazing group of speakers:

Day One: UX at Microsoft

    
• Darren McCormick, Worldwide UX Role Owner for Microsoft: What’s up with UX at Microsoft?
    
• Will Tschumy, West Coast User Experience Evangelist (formerly Director of Experience for Flock): User Experience in Research - the Ribbon in Office 2007
    
• Jeff Pettiross, Senior Program Manager: User Experience in Practice - Health Explorer
    
• Kevin Gjerstad, Group Program Manager (WPF Reader): A User Experience Story – NY Times Reader
    
• Michael Suesserman, Technical Evangelist: Windows Vista Desktop and Live Gadgets

Day Two: Expression

    
• Erich Zocher, General Manager Tools (Expression): Turning UX Ideas into Reality (The Tools Roadmap
    
• Arturo Toledo, Technical Product Manager (Expression): Expression Design and Expression Blend
    
• Wayne Smith, Senior Product Manager (Expression): Expression Web
    
• Angela Baxley, Product Manager (Expression): Expression Media

The presentations largely consisted of someone speaking to a PowerPoint deck, followed by a Q&A with the Round Table panelists. These posts are based off my extensive notes taken during the presentations, but if I missed something and you were there to catch me on it, please add it in the comments!

That's it for Day 1 - tune in tomorrow for The New Microsoft (Again)! I'll leave you with a neat PictoBrowser of all my shots from the event: