Microsoft has opened registrations for the dramatically revamped Professional Developers Conference (PDC) 2010, noting it will only be two days long and held on their Redmond campus.
While senior Microsoft officials initially said there wasn"t going to be a PDC this year, Microsoft on Monday revealed there will in fact be a PDC 2010, which will be held from October 28-29 and will undergo a series of modifications to make it more hands-on and appealing to developers, with some of the more dramatic measures including the trimming of day three -- making it a two-day event -- and the relocation of the event.
For the first time ever, the entire conference will be held on Microsoft"s Redmond campus and live streamed by Microsoft to viewers on the Internet. Steve Ballmer, the CEO of Microsoft, will open the conference with the keynote presentation, while sessions for the event will be focused on "Cloud Services, Phone, Tools & Technologies, Internet Explorer and Gaming Platforms" -- with notably not a single mention of any Windows-based sessions.
"The PDC has always provided direct access to the people behind the technologies, but this year we’re upping the ante by providing access to the places, too," Microsoft said.
"For the first time ever, our most influential customers will converge on the Microsoft Campus in Redmond for the PDC, this October 28 – 29, 2010. We’re opening the doors to our buildings and labs, and providing unprecedented access to Microsoft’s leaders and engineering teams on their home turf."
According to ZDNet, Microsoft will elaborate more on Windows Azure"s systems-management application programming interfaces, provide an update on Windows Server Virtual Machine Roles on Azure -- virtual machine support for Windows Azure -- and reveal more about Project Sydney, a "new IPV6 technology designed to connect on-premises and cloud servers".
Pricing to attend the conference has been slashed to just $1,000, down from the regular fee of $2,095 for the 2009 event. Microsoft says space is "limited," and is encouraging those wishing to attend to register now. As yet, no conference schedule is available for the 2010 event.