Archetype CEO Attends Exclusive Steve Ballmer Web Development Roundtable

Attending Microsoft’s World Wide Partner’s Conference (WPC) is a fantastic experience. The sheer breadth of companies, technologies and people that make up Microsoft’s Partner Group is amazing. Wandering the event hall, you’ll see companies focusing on everything from hosted Exchange all the way to the most esoteric applications, robotics and simulations. It is always great to see how many markets and technologies Microsoft is involved in, not only through platforms and technologies but as business units and areas of market focus. 

Needless to say, experiencing all of this in one venue is a great experience. But perhaps even better was talking to the CEO running it all, Steve Ballmer. Along with a few other leading technology firms in the web space, I was invited to an exclusive Steve Ballmer roundtable discussion centered around Microsoft’s Web Development Platform.

Far from a formal presentation of Microsoft’s web dev strategy, this was an open dialogue where the group exchanged ideas and gave feedback on Microsoft’s future web strategies around .NET, Silverlight, SharePoint, Visual Studio and other Microsoft technologies. We discussed with Ballmer the current market trends we’re seeing and experiencing in web and RIA development, as well as our perceptions of Microsoft’s strengths and challenges.  Archetype is proud to have been a part of this discussion and have the opportunity to share our perspective with Ballmer and the rest of the group.