MIX11 – Day -2 and -1

Yes I know it’s a weird title and with good reason. Roy and I are in Las Vegas the coming week to attend MIX11. Instead of skipping the days before the MIX11 conference I thought it might be fun to show you a little more about the location where the MIX11 conference is held.

What am I doing in Vegas?

Roy Cornelissen and I are in Vegas the coming week to attend MIX11. The MIX11 event gives developers insight into what Microsoft is doing now with web and user interface technology today and what is going to happen in the next few years. For use this means that we will be checking out sessions on HTML5/CSS3, Silverlight 5 and Windows Phone 7. During this week I am going to try to post some information up here to give you a sense of what’s going on.

MIX11 however isn’t the only reason why we are here. It is the main reason, but we came up with a few more things to do as we have a bit more time here. As soon as we started talking about plans for Vegas we got some ideas. After tweeting about it and talking some more we came up with a culitour and a movietour for ourselves.

Movietour and culitour sounds worse than it is really. We’re both so-called foodies and discovered that Vegas features some very good restaurants one of which we’re going to try out. The movie thing was an idea of Alex Hoeksma who by the way is running a #FilmTip thread on twitter where he gives daily picks of movies that are broadcasted on dutch television. He told us about a few movies that were recorded in Vegas to watch and from that we’ve extracted a few locations that we will be checking out before the conference.

So there it is, a very jammed trip to Las Vegas.

First impressions

After leaving the plane on to our way to grab our baggage we quickly discovered that Vegas is about gambling and shows period. Before you even get to the baggage carousel you see the first series of slotmachines and giant ads to lure you into going to some of the best shows in Vegas. Or so they make you believe.

Things you should definitely see or do

It’s a bit early for a top 10 of things to see in Vegas. However, I’m still going to give a few tips. The main thing you should be doing in Vegas is to take a walk down the strip. Roy and I did it and it’s a lot of fun. Be sure to bring a camera as there’s more than enough to photograph. I took about 250 pictures during the walk. They are not yet available online, so instead I used pictures from Roy’s mobile phone.

Note: A walk up and down the strip is about 15 miles. I suggest you don’t do this without a couple of breaks. There are plenty of starbucks coffeebars along the route and a couple of lunch locations, so there’s really no reason to do this in one go.

Don’t forget to enter the various hotels along the way. Each hotel you see is even more extravagant than the previous hotel. For example, Ceasar’s palace is build completely in roman style. It has a pool that gives you the feeling that you’re inside a roman bathhouse.

Other hotels you should check out are:

• Luxor
  This hotel is shaped like a piramid. It even has a sfinx in front of the hotel. What makes this hotel special is the way the hotel rooms are placed. Every floor is shaped like a terrace against the side of the piramid. It’s hard to explain here, so you should definitely take a look when you have the chance.
• Bellagio hotel
  The bellagio is a very classy hotel, the lobby and the garden that is located inside the hotel are beautifully decorated. Kids will love this place because of the butterfly theme, but I think this place is good for nerds too.
• The Venetian
  They build Venice, what else do you want?!
• Paris hotel
  Roy and I haven’t checked this one out from the inside, but the outside sure does look promising with a miniature eiffel tower and a smaller version of the arc de triomphe.

Also be sure to check Vegas by night. The hotels look great during the day, but I think they look even wilder at night. They spend a fortune in neon light in this place with all kinds of effects.

Last, if you got the time I suggest you take a tour to the grand canyon. Don’t have the pictures right now, because Roy and I will be going there tomorrow, but from what I’ve heard it’s a pretty dramatic landscape.

What’s up next?

As I said in the introduction, there’s a lot of work to be done. First I need to get of this jetlag thingie (Don’t want to wake up in the middle of the night every two hours or so).  Don’t worry, I’m sure it’s over by the time it’s monday.

During the conference I will be spending a lot of time talking to various people about technology and working in the IT business. Roy and I have made a planning (Does sound like work, doesn’t it?) to cover as much sessions, that we think are important, as we can. I will be posting about it here, so you can follow me/us as the week progresses. After that we will be going home, with new insights in how to improve the way our customers do their business.

Keep following me (@wmeints) and Roy (@roycornelissen) on twitter. We will be posting updates there as well.

Share this