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Last night, I attended a friendly meet and greet hosted by Microsoft in downtown Toronto. The venue was the funky, artist-friendly Gladstone Hotel, which used to be a major focal point when the trains stopped there way back when. The train tracks are still in use, but a lot has changed since! The hotel was run down for ages, but some smart money came along, and they've updated the place, and it's now become one of Toronto's hippest spots. Lucky us. Lots of black, and artsy types, but when you get by that, the space for Microsoft's event was bright and cheery, and a very like-minded crowd.

Kudos to local tech PR firm, High Road Communications for doing such a nice job. Don't get me wrong - I'm a fan of Microsoft, but this is a venue I would associate more with Skype or Google. So, if part of the plan was to make Microsoft more in tune/in touch with the developer community, this was a great way to do that.

The event was part of their Windows Live Update buzz, and the formal briefing takes place on Friday by teleconference. Last night was all about Phil Holden, who I haven't met before, but is a key advocate for Windows Live. From what I could tell, it was was blogger crowd, and I'm sure many are active in the BarCamp scene (especially David Crow), which colleagues like Alec Saunders are.

Not much to say about the event itself. I got to meet Phil, and seem to have become fast friends with David Crow, who has an interesting wireless startup going, among other things. The time was well spent for sure, and I'm looking forward to the Windows Live update call on Friday.

Here are some photos, again, off my Nokia N90.