Mix On Campus

Keep in touch with Microsoft on campus.

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 22:56:29 GMT

HI all

Although this blog died in the wake of the beast that was 'Mix On Campus', I'm still getting the odd message via the contact details here.

If you're interested in keeping up to date with what we (Microsoft Australia) are doing with universities, please subscribe to http://blogs.msdn.com/msozacademic. It's updated every few days with stuff on what I've been doing, what MS are doing and competitions for students and elcturers alike.

The Mix On Campus blog will be revived in the new academic year when we start planning more "Mix-style" events.

Apart from that, hope all of your holidays are going well and you're about ready to go back for semester 1, 2008 :D

Nick

Mix On Campus - Brisbane Down, Sydney and Melbourne to go

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:50:20 GMT

Brisbane Mix On Campus is been and done, and I have to say, I was really happy with how things unfolded (as were people who attended, apparently, based on the eval forms we got - what a relief!).

We had 150 people turn up to QUT, and the vibe was great, as were the speakers. Strong speaker performances by Nick Hodge and Ashley Angel and Chriss Saad from Faraday Media seemed to kep the crowd particularly enthralled - check the photos. I'll also have video of the speaker sessions up soon enough, so watch this space.

The Melbourne 'Mix On Campus' coming up on Monday (26th), and we have some great news - we've got what we think is the world's first official demo of XNA Games Studio 2.0 beta (released earlier this week) delivered by Australia's leading XNA guru, Glenn Wilson. We've also got free Red Bull, plus all the usual stuff like xbox demo's, giveaways, good speaker content. Honestly, Brisbane was fun, but I think Melbourne is going to be twice as good. Call it a gut feeling ... we have 228 people registered thus far, so it's shaping up nicely. Tell your friends! 333 Swanston St, Melbourne, 26th Noevmber, 10am to 4pm...

Then, on Friday 30th, Sydney Mix On Campus happens. We now have 2 of Australia's biggest web design / advertising agencies coming to talk about careers at the Sydney event - Amnesia and Y&R / Wuderman. We've also got XNA demos, web design for mobiles, free Red Bull and a bunch of other stuff ready to go.

Speaker schedule is released

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 02:09:14 GMT

Are there big guns coming? Well, there's no Bill Gates on the bill, but we got some guys who are probably just as impressive. There's been a number of people asking me about the speaker schedule, and I've been holding off for as long as possible because there are still 2 gentlemen who I am yet to finally confirm. But what they hey, we may as give you an idea of what you're signing up for, right?.

Brisbane - 20th

Melbourne - 26th

Sydney - 30th

9am

Registration

10am

Welcome - Nick Ellery

10.10am

Opening Keynote -"The Future of the Web" Bryn Giles - AIMIA / Qantm

Opening Keynote - "The Future of the Web" Simon Goodrich - AIMIA / Portable Film Festival

Opening Keynote - "The Future of the Web" Debra Symons - AIMIA / Alcatel Lucent Australasia

11.00am

Microsoft's Scott Barnes presents "The Journey of the 'Light - the progression of Silverlight"

Microsoft's Shane Morris presents... "Designers and Developers - Learning to Get Along"

Microsoft's Michael Kordahi presents... "Software IS sexy"

11.30am

Break

11.45am

NEW ENTRY: "Web 2.0 economies and other such stuff" Chris Saad & 'friends' - Faraday Media

"How-to : start your own dotcom startup" - David Geddes / Si-Mi.com

"Designing and developing for Mobiles" - Rob Manson / MobileOnlineBusiness.com

12.30pm

"Why you should Popfly" with Nick Hodge

1.00pm

"Step Up - the Web Careers session" JSA, Microsoft, Speedwell

"Step Up - the Web Careers session" Reactive, Lemonade, Microsoft

"Step Up - the Web Careers session" Eclipse, Microsoft, others TBC

1.45pm

LUNCH

2.30pm

"Research in Games Development" - Ross Brown / QUT

"XBOX and Windows Games Development with XNA Games Studio" - Glenn Wilson - VirtualRealm

"XBOX and Windows Games Development with XNA Games Studio'"- Luke Drumm - Readify

3.30pm

Closing Address and GIVEAWAYS - Nick Ellery

4pm

Stands

CATALYTIC Software

Imagine Cup / Wave Launch

WACOM Graphics Tablets

'Its not cheating' TBC

'Its not cheating'

xbox 360

Don't forget to register for the event, and use these facebook invites to let your friends know. We've got some big venues there, and if they're only half full, I'll be really sad :) So send off those facebook invites today - the more the merrier.

Facebook invites:

Brisbane - http://anuedu.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6719041517

Melbourne - http://anuedu.facebook.com/event.php?eid=6023016303

Sydney - http://anuedu.facebook.com/event.php?eid=19913379552

Prizes, oh the prizes!

Wed, 31 Oct 2007 01:15:58 GMT

I love freebies... I really do. I have the speaker schedule nearly ready to publish (just have to confirm two more speakers - we've got some AWESOME speakers coming) but in the meantime I wanted to talk about the prizes we're giving out at Mix On Campus, because if I weren't working for Microsoft and I was coming along to the event, I'd want to know about the free stuff I can get my mitts on .

First up, everyone who comes along gets a showbag with a whole bunch of swag in it. On top of that we've got some killer prizes to give away on the day/s. Here's a list of what I've got to give away in each city:

- 1 Xbox 360 (yep, 1 per city, meaning 3 total)

- Project Gotham Racing Hooded Sweats

- Copies of Vista Ultimate (i.e. the one with Fax & Scan, Remote Desktop capability and Windows Media Centre - sweet)

- Microsoft LifeCam vx-3000's

- A massive jar of jelly beans (yeh, that's right, I'm taking it back to primary school fund-raiser tactics and having a jelly bean guessing competition)

Lottery rules dictate that I'm not allowed to give prizes out randomly, so to win prizes, you have to guess how many jelly beans are in the jar (making it a game of skill). Your register for the day, make your best guess, and the closest guestimate wins the major prizes, and we work our way down from there until the top 5 guesses have a prize.And who can honestly say they wouldn't want a big jar of jelly beans on their desk / coffee table / waistline?

Don't forget, you need to register for the event, so get cracking!!

Students miss out on all the good events.

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:05:25 GMT

"Students always miss out on the good events"

I wrote this on my blog once. And I always stood by that statement. Until now...

What is Mix On Campus?

I'm MSOZACADEMIC (although people more commonly call me Nick Ellery) and I work at Microsoft. I work in academic relations and I guess I'm the official champion of Mix On Campus.

Mix on Campus is an event designed specifically to meet the needs of students, lecturers and educators. If you're into web development and multimedia design, and want to get together with others from the same background from all across your city, read on...

The event is inspired by the sheer bulk of students and lecturers who miss out on industry events each year due to high costs, timing, lack of invitations or other factors. This always kinda irked me - why should universities, high schools and TAFEs miss out on the good stuff? Mix On Campus has been timed to happen just after exams finish in each state, so come along, chill out, forget the final few weeks of hellish study and get happy with like minded web design and web developer students from all around your city! Speakers will cover the latest web trends, web technologies and talk about career opportunities technology students can look forward to. You'll be learning new skills, getting an insight into the tech tools of today and tomorrow and making new industry connections. We'll also be giving out a bunch of prizes, and it's also a great chance to come along and learn about the latest web tools from Microsoft. It doesn't matter what institute you're from (high school, uni and TAFE students & teachers included), you're all welcome to join in the fun.

Check out the details below and follow the link to register online. Places are strictly limited, so please only register if you are serious about attending, otherwise others miss out.

CITY	VENUE	DETAILS
Brisbane - 20/11	QUT City Campus - Room 117, B Block, 2 George St, Brisbane	10am to 4pm - Register - Map
Melbourne - 26/11	Melbourne City Conference Centre, 333 Swanston St, Melbourne	10am to 4pm - Register - Map
Sydney - 30/11	UTS City Campus - Guthrie Theatre, Building 6, 702 Harris Street, Ultimo	10am to 4pm - Register - Map

Blog list: Friends of Mix On Campus

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 04:44:20 GMT

Friends of Mix On Campus

AIMIA
AIMIA are very supportive of the Australian Student and Interactive Media communities - many thanks to the AIMIA members who volunteered to deliver the opening keynotes
Microsoft
They pay my wages, and paid for these events
RMIT University School of Computing Science and Information Technology
Queensland University of Technology
University of Technology, Sydney
MSOZACADEMIC
My official Microsoft Australia Academic blog - the place where the idea started

Custom List: Register Today

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 04:01:34 GMT