This week I attended a Live 360! conference in Florida for which I won a free pass in SilverlightShow's "Futuristic Challenge" a few weeks ago [1]. If you're interested in reading my impressions on the the conference, you can find an article with some detailed descriptions and photos here:

http://www.silverlightshow.net/items/Visual-Studio-Live-Impressions-from-Orlando.aspx

Thanks to everybody for attending and the nice talks and discussions we had!

You may have noticed that so far, the amount of blog posts in June was… zero :). The reason for this mostly is that I'm currently in the process of moving to a new place, and planning everything for that, while still doing my normal day job and work. I still managed to write some articles for our team blog though, so if you're capable of understanding German you may be interested in those too:

June 8th: Meet Windows Azure
I'm talking about the recent announcements and new features for Windows Azure in this post.

June 19th: Microsoft announces Surface™
A detailed description of the just announced Windows 8 tablets and their features.

June 20th: Microsoft gives a sneak peek on Windows Phone 8
I'm describing the news around the next generation of Windows Phone announced at the WP Summit a few days ago in this article.

Apart from that, there will only be a few more minor posts here until I've completely finished moving, which will be in mid-July. Stay tuned!

I am proud to announce that I have joined the team at Applied Information Technologies in Stuttgart, Germany. Founded in 1991, AIT has gained outstanding achievements over the years. In 2011 it became the first Microsoft Gold Partner for Application Lifecycle Management in Middle Europe, and was awarded as Microsoft DevTools Service Partner of the Year. AIT also is a Microsoft Gold Partner as Independent Software Vendor and has won the BQI Agile Leadership Award last year.

Every single member of the team is a deeply committed, skilled professional in their respective fields. You may know some of these people from conference talks, MSDN webcasts, print publications, from their leading role in the community as Microsoft MVPs, or simply from one of the countless projects they have completed successfully. Needless to say that I am thrilled to be a part of this company, and to contribute to the success and spirit of the team. Starting February 1st, my involvement will cover the full .NET stack as well as Silverlight, as a consultant, software architect and more.

What will this mean for my blog?

Short answer: nothing will change. I receive full support from AIT for what I do, and to continue my investments in the community and Windows Phone, so please expect the same quality and amount of blog posts, articles, webcasts and open source work for the community in 2012 as in the years before.