Microsoft Developer Days Largest Software Developer Event Ever With More than 45,000 Expected at 95 Sites Worldwide on March 19

REDMOND, Wash., March 10, 1997 — A record 45,000 developers around the world are expected to participate in Microsoft® Developer Days, a series of intensive one-day events slated to begin on March 19. The first event will feature the public unveiling of the Visual Studio

97 development system and a keynote by Microsoft Chairman and CEO Bill Gates.

Expected to be the largest developer conference in the industry’s history, Microsoft Developer Days will be hosted at 95 sites in more than 45 countries worldwide. In addition to major North American and European centers, Microsoft Developer Days will be held in Auckland, New Zealand; Beijing; Bogota, Colombia; Buenos Aires, Argentina; Cairo, Egypt; Delhi, India; Dubai, United Arab Emirates; Dharan, Nepal; Jakarta, Indonesia; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Manila, Philippines; S
ã
o Paulo, Brazil; and Tel Aviv, Israel, among other cities.

The conference is designed to educate developers and enable them to share information and experiences on the latest Microsoft tools for integrating client/server, Internet and intranet development. Attendees will receive a broad range of free software, products and other giveaways.

“The response to this year’s Developer Days has been phenomenal,”
said Tom Button, director of marketing, developer tools division at Microsoft.
“We are looking forward to sharing our vision for the future of application development as well as training developers on new tools and technologies to help them raise the bar on solutions combining client/server and the Internet.”

Microsoft is presenting Developer Days in conjunction with global and national sponsors Advanced Micro Devices Inc., Digital Equipment Corp., Fujitsu Ltd. Inc., SAP AG, Siemens Nixdorf Informationssysteme AG, Ziff Davis and U.S. sponsors The Cobb Group and Programmer’s Paradise Inc. In addition, Developer Days will be hosted by local Microsoft industry partners, selected for their technical and Microsoft product expertise.

Unveiling Visual Studio 97

The highlight of Developer Days will be the unveiling of Microsoft Visual Studio 97, Professional Edition, a comprehensive suite for integrating Internet technologies and client/server solutions, and Visual Studio 97, Enterprise Edition, for teams of developers creating scalable multitier and Web applications. More than 5 million developers worldwide use Microsoft Visual Tools to create custom applications and business solutions.

Attendees will learn about the full suite of next-generation Microsoft development tools, with demonstrations of Visual Studio 97 products including the Microsoft Visual Basic® programming system version 5.0, the Microsoft Visual C++® development system 5.0, Microsoft Visual J++

development software 1.1, the Microsoft Visual FoxPro

database management system 5.0, and the Microsoft Visual InterDev

Web development system 1.0. By using the client/server and Internet technologies in Visual Studio, developers can build solutions that make optimal use of existing investments in hardware and software while taking advantage of the universal connectivity of the Web. In addition, with support for open software component and interoperability (ActiveX

, Open Group), data (ODBC), messaging (MAPI), Java

and Web (HTML from the W3C) standards, Visual Studio 97 enables developers to build solutions that work within most existing investments.

Bill Gates to Address Conference via Satellite, Internet

Developer Days will start with a satellite broadcast featuring Bill Gates discussing his vision for the role of Microsoft Visual Tools in integrating client/server and Internet environments. The keynote address will be broadcast later on the Internet at major sites including http://www.microsoft.com/ , (http://www.digital.com/) , (http://www.sap.com/) , (http://www.sni.com/ ) and others.

Nine in-depth technical sessions in three separate tracks will further inform and educate attendees on the latest Microsoft developer tools and technologies. These sessions will help developers bridge the gap between traditional client/server development and the latest Internet technologies by addressing key issues such as these:

Cross-language development
Component development and reuse
Integrating enterprise systems and building scalable solutions
Web application development and new data-access technologies
“N-tier”
development (client/server and multitier)

Event Includes In-Depth Information, Free Software, Great Giveaways

Developer Days underscores Microsoft’s commitment to providing comprehensive support, information and resources to the developer community. At each Developer Days location, local technology experts and community leaders will lead individual sessions designed to educate and inform developers and answer questions about new Microsoft tools and technologies.

Special events are planned in conjunction with each city’s Developer Days activities. For example, in Houston a special scholarship fund will allow 30 disabled developers to attend. In Istanbul, Turkish television will broadcast Developer Days to 300 million viewers in four former Soviet republics.

Every Developer Days attendee will take home a free CD toolkit packed with valuable software, samples and code. All United States and Canadian residents attending Developer Days will receive a free one-year (12-issue) subscription to ZD Internet Magazine. In addition, attendees will be eligible to win computers, software and publications from participating sponsors. For United States and Canadian residents, these include annual subscriptions and reference CD-ROMs from The Cobb Group – publisher of
“Microsoft Web Builder,” “Inside Visual Basic,” “Microsoft Office Developer’s Journal and” Exploring Windows NT® ”
– and for all Developer Days attendees these include millions of dollars worth of software from Fujitsu, Siemens Nixdorf and others.

Locations and Registration

In most locations, Developer Days will begin at 8 a.m. local time on March 19. For the Developer Days location and schedule for your area, please visit the Developer Days Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/devdays/.

Limited space is available at some Developer Days locations. To register for Developer Days in the United States or Canada, please call (800) 206-3000 between 6:30 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. Pacific time. International customers should contact their local Microsoft office or visit the Developer Days Web site.

The event registration fee in the United States and Canada is $120 (U.S.). The cost to attend in locations outside the United States and Canada will vary.

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (NASDAQ
“MSFT”
) is the worldwide leader in software for personal computers. The company offers a wide range of products and services for business and personal use, each designed with the mission of making it easier and more enjoyable for people to take advantage of the full power of personal computing every day.

* International contest restrictions may apply. Microsoft assumes no responsibility for fulfillment of prizes awarded by Developer Days sponsors.

Microsoft, Visual Studio, Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual J++, Visual FoxPro, Visual InterDev, ActiveX and Windows NT are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.

Java is a trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc.

Other product and company names herein may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/ on Microsoft’s corporate information pages.

Developer Days Sponsors

Global sponsors: Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)

Lori Flanagan

(512) 602-3383

[email protected]

(http://www.amd.com/)

Digital

Ernie Lou

(206) 865-8754

[email protected]

(http://www.digital.com/)

Fujitsu Ltd.