Career artifact · Microsoft era

Metro VIP Event

An invite-only look at Windows 8, live code, and a custom game built to prove what the platform could do.

Developer influencers gathered after hours at the Microsoft Store in Tysons Corner for a hands-on introduction to the Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Metro-style applications.

Dave Isbitski demonstrating a custom space game he built for Windows 8 to a packed Microsoft Store audience — Dave demonstrates his custom space game running on Windows 8, moving from platform concepts to something built and playable. Photo by Bob Familiar, CC BY 2.0.

Preview, code, proof

The strongest platform walkthrough is a working application.

Windows 8 asked developers to rethink how software looked, moved, and responded across a new generation of touch-first PCs. This private event gave influential developers an early, close-range view of the Consumer Preview and the Metro-style application model inside the Tysons Corner Microsoft Store.

I walked the audience through the platform and then opened the project itself. One photograph freezes Visual Studio on the store's main display while I explain the code. The next shows the result: a custom Star Trek-inspired space game I built, running live in front of the same room.

That sequence mattered. Showing the code established technical credibility; running the game made the platform's possibilities immediate. It was developer advocacy through a real build, with enough access for the room to ask detailed questions and see how the pieces connected.

Do not just describe the future of a platform. Build something with it, open the code, and let developers see the path for themselves.Career perspective · Windows 8 era

A complete technical story

Gather the right room. Show the implementation. Make it memorable.

Curate the audience

An intimate VIP format created room for detailed questions from developers who could carry the platform into their communities.

Open the code

Visual Studio on the main display turned a product preview into a concrete development walkthrough.

Demo what you built

A custom space game gave the technical concepts motion, personality, and a result the audience could remember.

Inside the Tysons Corner event

The crowd arrived. Then the code went on screen.

Dave Isbitski showing the source code for his Windows 8 application in Visual Studio to the Metro VIP audience — “Show me the code!” Visual Studio fills the main display while Dave explains the application to the developer audience. Photo by Bob Familiar, CC BY 2.0.

Developers queued outside the Microsoft Store in Tysons Corner for the private Windows 8 event — Developers queue for the after-hours event at the Tysons Corner Microsoft Store. Photo by Bob Familiar, CC BY 2.0.

Public record

Explore the surviving event archive

Bob Familiar · FlickrMetro VIP event photo albumExplore the full event record → Bob Familiar · Flickr“Show me the code!”View the original photograph → Bob Familiar · FlickrWindows 8 game development demonstrationView the original photograph → Wikimedia CommonsPreserved game demonstration photographView the Commons record →