As Conference Chair for VSLive Las Vegas, to be held October 13–17, this time at the Mirage Hotel right on the strip, it is my pleasure to lead the second "re-tooled" VSLive event, and to invite you all to participate as speakers.
What does re-tooled mean?: for the remaining VSLive 2008 shows, we are making a concerted effort to break with long-standing formulas around tracks, content and, in some cases, format. Rather than forcing all content to fit within 3 or 4 tracks/topic areas, we are instead pushing for a variety of content covering a variety of subjects relevant to Microsoft developers of all stripes. We are also creating an additional full day of sessions. And with a "pay one price" registration model, all attendees will be able to attend any session.
The end-result of these changes is new freedom and subject matter flexibility and 50% more breakout session content than in past years at our "regional" shows (including New York, Las Vegas and Austin).
A general call for papers (CFP) has already been announced and closed, but I am taking this opportunity to solicit additional content from speakers who perhaps have not spoken at VSLive before. If you have already submitted proposals through the CFP channel, rest assured I will review those proposals and give them every consideration. However, I would like to make a special appeal to those of you who haven't submitted, and even those who have, to submit additional sessions now.
The most important thing is to pick topics that you're excited about and will enjoy presenting on. Meanwhile, if you're looking for guidance, a set of major topics and sub-topics/tags that we hope to include is listed now on the conference's Web site at http://vslive.com/2008/lasvegas/. Check out the full list on the Web site, but please know that if you have something really interesting that doesn't quite mesh with the topics listed there, that I have the discretion and the desire to accommodate you, provided the topic is likely to be well-received by attendees.
One thing that hasn't changed (yet) is the short timeframes we're working on. I have been asked to finalize the session matrix this week. But here's the thing: assuming you can craft descriptive session titles, that's all I really need from you right now (once selected, you'll be asked to produce full abstracts). So take just a few minutes now and send me titles for a couple of sessions you'd love to present.
Please email content to vslive@vergentsoftware.com
Thanks!