1. You need to have enthusiasm!
2. Enjoy what you are talking about.
3. Don't mumble.
4. Try to avoid talking mono-tone and droning. (sometimes it just takes practice!)
5. Slides should be a combination of visual text, voice and images as well as diagrams.
6. Real world examples and examples that the audience can relate to are a good idea.
7. Practice your presentation if you are nervous in front of people.
8. Interact with your audience, presentations don't have to be a one way information channel.
9. Questions are best left to the end of the session but if you must answer one keep the answer short and sweet and follow up at the end with the individual in more detail.
10. It is all about the transfer and way in which you present the information that helps people to learn.
11. Hand outs can be useful... especially ones where you can write your own notes next to the slides.
12. Get your audience to turn off their mobiles and do not allow walk outs.
13. Include the right level of information for your audience, and make it clear what you are going to cover in the summary.

I think that will do to start... (these are general comments about presentations based on what I have seen from some good and bad presentations today... They are not a full set of guidelines by a long way!)

I have been told that there will not be a Vista Embedded but there will be feature pack add-ons to XP embedded as it stands currently to provide support for the new features.  This makes a lot more sense to me than completely re-writing/ issuing the embedded system as it means that backward compatibility and remote updates of such enhancements can be pushed out to all devices, which could be very useful under certain circumstances.

Some things to consider when deciding between the systems is whether you need real-time systems, and how big a footprint you can support with your hardware.  Also consider what sort of future applications you will be looking to support... it will become obvious what operating system type you should be going for in the end.

I was full of hope with this hands on lab that it would give some hints, tips and best practice on how to do good multi threading applications and unfortunately it was just the absolute basics of creating a mobile application and doing thread joins and aborts.  Nothing much about handling race conditions best and nothing much about best practice at all. 

I am hoping that other hands on labs will be much better.  I have earmarked a couple to go to so I will keep my fingers crossed.  The sessions themselves are very good but you can only take so many lectures in a day before you turn off. 

I am actually quite glad that I haven't been out of uni for too long as it does mean that I manage to concentrate throughout most of the sessions.  Others seem to be struggling... I have seen a few sleepy heads in the sessions this afternoon!

Mike Hall chaired this session on Windows CE 6 and what it was really all about.  I am just going to do bullet points on this one as I would be here all day otherwise and most of the info is around on the net anyway!

CE6 is a:

• real-time system (MS do not guaruntee end to end safety cases)
• Increased footprint size
• Micro second Real time
• New XFat file system -> Compatible with standard Windows OS
• Removed the 32/32 process limit and increased it to 32k/32k (via the new kernel)
• New Virtual machine model and OS layer
•  Anticipated dates for things... June 06 feature complete milestone, H2 06 RTM
• Major changes to wifi driver accesses to the kernel

OK will leave it there for now... back to the hard work of listening to lectures again :)

Well today is day one of the Mobile and Embedded Developer Conference here in Nice and I thought I would do my best to give a few brief overviews of what goes on at the event and maybe even podcast a few of the sessions, assuming MS allow me to host the content. :)

The first session of the day was with Todd Warren, Corporate VP of Mobile and Embedded Development for Microsoft Corporation.  His talk was all about the big picture of mobility, embedded devices and where Microsoft are planning on taking things. 

Todd started off with some quick facts and figures about the mobility department being one of the fastest growing areas within Microsoft with a 40% recenue increase across eight quarters and that Microsofts main aim is to "Simplify and enrich life for people around the world, with devices that they can't live without!" 

He went on to talk about the Micro Framework for SPOT devices briefly, although really these are irrelevant in the European market as the devices are based on a radio frequency that isn't available out here! (Smart Portable Object Technology)

Windows Mobile was spoken about and by the sound of things we should expect to hear more from teams such as the Exchange team (Eileen ;) ) regarding the integration of mobility into areas such as e-mail and enterprise applications.  The launch of the IMate developer kit was mentionned which provides developers with access to the I-Mate devices for development. 

Todd handed over briefly to Loke Uei Tan, Product Manager and he spoke on patterns and practices.  He went into details about two of the 6 mobile client software factory blocks: orientation & sometimes connected devices.  He also gave a brief overview of SQL Server Everywhere... what he didn't do was give more than the briefest introduction to it.  I am hoping to hear a little more about this... find out it's limitations etc!

The next thing that was discussed was windows embedded and the roadmap.  Basically Windows CE has CE6 on the way out in the next 6 months, then shortly followed by the feature pack in 07.  XPEmbedded will come out with a new feature pack in the next 6 months followed by a Vista version with embedded restrictions, whatever that means and then other bits to follow... there was nothing concrete stated about this area and it was all left a bit too open for my liking. 

@media Social

For those who aren't able to attend the @media 2006 conference, or for those who are attending and want to continue the experience, the @media Social is an opportunity to meet, eat, drink, and chat away the day with likeminded web enthusiasts.

The special event will take place the day after @media 2006 - on Saturday 17th June. It's free to attend, but please buy a bit of food or a drink or two to help us keep the venue people happy!

Get Togethers

We've suggested a few 'get-togethers' throughout the day based on certain topic areas, but it's up to you to organise yourself. You don't have to talk about those topic areas at those times if you don't want - the main thing is just that we're all in the same place having a good time!

Geek Dinner

London's infamous Geek Dinners have become well renowned as unique social events honouring leading figures in the industry. This one promises to be an extra-special occasion with guest speakers from the @media conference in attendance.

The Plan

Okay, so here's what we suggest: Arrive at around 1pm for a bit of lunch then chat about CSS, Accessibility, JavaScript, Design, or whatever tickles your fancy, really. Following the not-to-be-missed Geek Dinner, the place is yours to do with anything you please for the rest of the evening. Well, maybe not anything...

• 1pm-2pm: @media lunch
• 2pm-3pm: CSS get-together
• 3pm-4pm: Accessibility get-together
• 4pm-5pm: JavaScript get-together
• 5pm-6pm: Design get-together
• 6pm-7pm: Geek Dinner
• 7pm Onwards: Partay

Where It Be

The @media Social will take place at The Livery, a nice little bar with a good selection of drinks, and tasty food. It can be found at 130 Wood Street, near St. Paul's Cathedral. From St. Paul’s tube station, walk down Cheapside, and you will soon find Wood Street on your left.