Microsoft is the proud Gold sponsor of the CRE8 event at Orlando this year! Come join us and discover new and exciting technologies and tools from Microsoft specially crafted for creative designers who wish to participate in the creation of next generation experiences for the desktop and the Web. Learn more about Silverlight, a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering rich compelling experiences for the Web. As a designer, discover how you can easily collaborate with developers to create better user experiences by using Microsoft Expression Studio, a new family of tools for professional designers that help you unleash your creativity to design standards-based Web sites, rich desktop experiences or Silverlight content. Microsoft will host a keynote on May 1st where Brian Goldfarb, Director of Platforms and UX Product Management will take us into a journey of creative discovery learning more about the new User Experience driven technologies from Microsoft like Silverlight, WPF (Windows Presentation Foundation), XBOX, Zune, Media Center and Surface. After the keynote, Arturo Toledo, Designer Audience Product Manager at Microsoft will host two breakout sessions where he will take us deeper into practical techniques for designers to create amazing content using Silverlight and other rich UX (User Experience) Microsoft technologies.

Quark Inc. helped spark the revolution in desktop publishing. With the Quark suite of enterprise publishing software — Quark Publishing System, Quark Content Manager, and Quark Dynamic Document Server — Quark is paving the way for custom publishing in a multiple-channel environment. The company's industry-leading design, publishing, personalization, and content management software let publishers efficiently create content once and deliver it anywhere, now. Quark is headquartered in Denver, Colorado.

Aquent Graphics Institute is a member of the Adobe Solutions Network as both a training provider and a developer. For more than 10 years, AGI has been providing technical services to publishers and communications professionals. More than 1,000 companies and organizations trust their consulting, services, and training needs to AGI.

Some of the services provided by AGI include: Adobe Acrobat training, Adobe InDesign training, Adobe Flash training, Adobe Dreamweaver training, Adobe Illustrator training, and Adobe Photoshop training.

Wacom Technology is the world's leading pen tablet manufacturer and is best known for its Penabled® brand of patented cordless and battery-free pen technology. Wacom pen tablets are now owned by millions of photographers, designers, artists, and other computer users worldwide. Wacom Technology Corp. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wacom Co., Ltd. in Japan, and is headquartered in Vancouver, WA.

iStockphoto, the world's busiest online stock image marketplace, was created to meet designers' needs for high-quality, royalty-free stock images at affordable prices. iStockphoto started the micro-payment phenomenon: now anyone can purchase stock images for as little as a dollar each or stock videos for $10 each. With 47,000 contributing artists, a community of more than 2.7 million, and an image or video downloaded every 1.4 seconds, iStockphoto has become an addictive destination for creatives, always a step ahead of the industry they created.

Extensis is a software developer that allows creative workgroups and professionals to streamline their workflow and securely manage their creative assets and fonts. Extensis' award-winning client/server and desktop products are used by hundreds of Fortune 5000 companies and include Universal Type Server for server-based font management, Suitcase for single-user font management and the Portfolio suite for creative assets management. Extensis was founded in 1993 and is based in Portland, Oregon, and the United Kingdom. Extensis is a division of Celartem Inc., which is wholly owned by Celartem Technology Inc.

BrightQube is a new online creative resource changing how the world finds images. BrightQube’s innovation allows people, for the first time ever, to view all relevant images at once, making browsing through page after page of search results a thing of the past. BrightQube has over 2.5 million royalty-free and microstock images ready for purchase and download.

Software602’s Print2PDF network shareable printer gives users the ability to create an Adobe® PDF or ISO standard PDF /A from any application. Windows Vista, Terminal Services, Citrix and 64-bit compatibility together with custom profile support provides the same user experience regardless of operating system. Automate PDF conversion services through watch folders and POP3 e-mail accounts. To learn more and download a free trial, visit software602.com.

TAXI Design Network is a daily-updated international design media that bridges diverse creative disciplines and promotes collaborative interaction to propel unlimited innovations and infinitive breakthroughs. Attracting up to 13 million page views monthly from creative professionals, educators, and students worldwide, TAXI focuses on supporting the entire initiative in raising awareness in design.
In 2007, as TAXI partners AQUENT to launch the world’s most extensive creative staffing Job Center, it delivers a wider spectrum of services for the global creative industry, providing exposure for creative businesses and practitioners, and encouraging employment opportunities.