14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft has just announced that it does not plan on hosting the MIX 2012 conference at all. Instead, the company will have the event merged with another developer conference this year.
Apparently, Microsoft is keen on making changes related to the conferences it participates in, as the announcement on MIX 2012’s slashing came about one month after the company announced plans to skip CES from next year on.
Tim O’Brien, general manager, Developer & Platform Evangelism, Microsoft, explains in a recent blog post that, at the beginning of each year, the company is usually reconsidering the conferences it should hold.
“As part of that reflection, we have decided to merge MIX, our spring web conference for developers and designers, into our next major developer conference, which we will host sometime in the coming year,” he explains.
“I know a number of folks were wondering about MIX, given the time of year, so we wanted to make sure there’s no ambiguity, and be very clear… there will be no MIX 2012.”
The MIX conference was held for the first time back in 2005, when the company was shipping IE6, and was focused mainly on what the development of Internet Explorer was all about.
Microsoft explains that the web community and the segment of developers MIX was targeted at are different now, and that there has been a lot of confusion regarding the conferences that Microsoft is holding.
“Firstly, the notion that the ‘web community’ is somehow separate and distinct from the community of developers we care about no longer makes any sense,” Tim O’Brien explains.
“Secondly, we got a lot of feedback. Developers were confused, and asking us about which event to go to. Reporters, analysts and tech bloggers were trying to manage ‘event fatigue’, and asked us the same question.”
Moreover, Microsoft reconsidered the time spent by engineering teams to prepare for these events, and considered that the resource should be saved. However, there will be other engaging events, Tim O’Brien explains.
“As we look ahead to 2012 and beyond, the goal is to ensure that global Microsoft developer events are of the caliber that many of you experienced at BUILD last September, in addition to the thousands of online and local developer events we host around the world to support communities and connect directly with developers,” he notes.
“We will share more details of our next developer event later this year. In the meantime, know that we are we are hard at work and will look forward to seeing many of you there.”