Like most of the developers and other technology professionals who attended the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 2008, held at the Los Angeles Staples Center Oct. 27-30, Dan Rigby attended to see the latest from Microsoft and rub elbows with Microsoft’s technology leaders.

But equally important was the chance to catch up with peers, and meet some new ones. “It’s a great place to build up relationships with people I may only have met online,” says Rigby, Lead Software Engineer at Interactive Intelligence, an Indianapolis-based firm that develops call center software. “I got to meet a lot of people that I knew online through Facebook and other sites, and I saw a lot of Microsoft people I may have met in forums or online.”

For the 6,500 developers who attended PDC2008, the event is one of the tech highlights whenever it’s offered. But along with the usual networking, this year’s PDC also was the site of some major announcements from Microsoft. These include the Azure Services Platform, which extends Windows and an array of services such as Microsoft SQL Services and Microsoft .NET Services in the “cloud,” and also a first look at the new features of Windows 7 as well as Office 14, (code name of the next version of Office) and the new Office Web applications.

For most PDC attendees, the broad outlines of a Microsoft cloud initiative, plus a look at Windows 7, and Office had already been the subject of speculation and techosphere discussion, online and elsewhere.

Source- Microsoft Press Release