A lot of what I keep hearing about from Paul and others who have used or are thinking of using the new Microsoft tools is that it greatly impacts and integrates our workflow.  The key-note demos that were shown today really bring to light the impact of what can be accomplished when our design and developer teams work closely together in a common tool set.  Completely immersive user interfaces such as a rock memorabilia site designed for Hard Rock enterprises (live by end of week: memorabilia.hardrock.com), an elegantly functional site for Aston Martin (AstonMartin.com) and robust Olympics site mentioned by Paul for the Beijing Games could clearly not have been created without teams of designers and developers working extremely closely together. 

I know we've been, especially in the last year or so, working more collaboratively as teams  but for someone who creates schedules and staffs projects at Tribal it's very intriguing to me to think about ways we could be working more efficiently and delivering a higher quality end product.  One of the demos shown was the creation of an expandable video-enabled 728x90 banner - this was done in the new Silverlight ad builder with Expression Blend and the ad was created, designed, functional and tested in about 5 minutes.  Of course done by someone extremely familiar with the products but I think it clearly demonstrates the power of these tools....

- Nicole