MIX 09 will be held March 18-20, 2009 in Las Vegas at the ever posh Venetian Resort, Hotel and Casino.  MIX is a great conference and shows off the cool stuff that can be done on the web using Microsoft technologies, or just web technologies in general.  Some of the cool things on tap for this year’s conference include:

• What’s New in Silverlight 3.  Learn about the new experience-oriented Silverlight 3 features, and see how to build Silverlight 3 applications using Expression Blend and Visual Studio.
• What's New in Silverlight 3 Media.  Learn about the latest media features available with Silverilght 3.
• Deep Dive into Silverlight Graphics.  Hear about the Silverlight 3 rendering pipeline, and learn how to enhance your application experience with the latest additions to the Silverlight graphics APIs.

You can also check out the latest MIX09 sessions, including more new sessions on Silverlight, Live Mesh/Live Framework and RIA.  More sessions will be published in coming weeks so check often.  There are also some neat tech projects being highlighted on the MIX web site as well, including:

• Oomph: A Microformats Toolkit is for web developers, designers and users, making it easier to create, consume, and style Microformats
• Oxite: An open source, standards compliant, and extensible content management sample that can run anything from blogs to big web sites. We know this because it runs MIX Online.  It has had a “colorful” reception already. ;-)
• Coming Soon - Descry: Exploring Data and Information Visualization

One thing to keep in mind if you are thinking about attending but worried about the cost is you don’t have to stay at the Venetian.  I haven’t check the prices, but the Venetian is usually pricier than the other nearby hotels.  The Mirage and the TI are just across the street and usually offer much better rates.  You can go down the strip and find great rates at Harrah’s if you don’t mind a bit further walk (I’m not a bit fan of the Imperial Palace which is in between Harrah’s and the Venetian, but you are welcome to stay there <grin/>)  Or go totally out of the box and stay off the Strip at a hotel like the Westin – it’s a longer walk but you will save a lot of money.  Of course, once you are that far away places like Caesar’s (my favorite) and Paris become options as well.

Make sure to register by February 13th to save on the registration fee.  And let me know if you are going – I’m still trying to weasel my way to the conference but hopefully I will see you there – and maybe if I can say I know a lot of people that are going I can get someone to take pity on me!