Software developers and students 'Return to the Code' at this year's annual Microsoft Gulf Developer Conference

This year over 800 students and professional software developers came together to discuss future trends and issues, and work together in a learning environment.

The three day interactive event held at Cinestar Cinemas, Mall of the Emirates in Dubai, showcased Microsoft's new technologies as well as its ongoing and growing commitment to innovation, education and the local software industry.

"Building on the success in 2006, this year's Gulf Developer Conference signifies the maturity and progress that the local developer community has achieved," said Vimal Sethi, DPE Lead, Microsoft Gulf. "This is also the first year that we invited students to participate in the conference - we are committed to empowering students with 21st century ICT skills, upgrading their proficiencies, improving their chances of employability and enabling them to realize their potential.

"Developers and students alike are looking to build on their talent and engage the community to exchange knowledge, ideas and new techniques. This conference gave them the opportunity to develop new skills, learn more about the next wave of the Microsoft platforms and help them build the competence and professionalism of the Gulf region."

Software architects, web designers, systems integrators, independent software vendors and students, were able to witness applications development on the new .NET Framework 3.0 which includes Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation and Windows Workflow foundation and Cardspace. They learned about Windows Mobile development and the new suite of Microsoft Expression Designer Tools, Visual Studio Tools for Office development, SOA and other great technologies to help them prepare for the Next Generation of Software Development.