With Microsoft embarking on a new "live era" of Web based services, there's only one thing missing from its efforts to pioneer the so-called Web 2.0: a conference to back it up. Thus, the Redmond company has scheduled next March to hold a 72-hour "conversation" in Las Vegas that it has dubbed MIX 06.

Acknowledging it's been "five long years" since it released a new version of Internet Explorer, Microsoft evangelist Ray Winninger says MIX is designed to showcase the company's renewed investment in the Web through development of new technologies and programs.

Windows Live, Internet Explorer 7 and Windows Vista will all play a central role in the conference, which is targeted at both the entrepreneurs, or strategic thinkers, and the "implementers" -- a group that includes developers and designers.

"At MIX, with the help of some of our key partners, Bill and some of our other senior leaders will begin to illustrate what we're planning, and we'll explore how our various platform technologies can help transform the consumer Web," says Winninger.

"While we'll have plenty of information and ideas to share, we want to hear your thoughts as well. Got an opinion about where we should take Internet Explorer? Windows Media? ASP.NET? This is your chance to tell us."

Perhaps Microsoft's most famous face on the Web, Robert Scoble, will be helping to organize Mix 06. Scoble has long pushed his employer to embrace the new Web ideologies such as transparency and social interaction, and Microsoft seems to be listening.

But Mix 06 isn't just about bringing together the most popular bloggers for three days of hype sessions in Sin City. Much of the conference will involve actual hands-on information about IE7, Vista, Windows Media Center and Xbox 360, InfoCard, Windows Presentation Foundation, the Atlas AJAX framework and more.

Keynotes, presentations and labs will fill the event. Business professionals can learn how to best monetize RSS and provide feedback to shape the technology's future. Developers and designers will learn about building AJAX based applications and how to ensure security for customers.

MIX 06 will take place March 20 to 22, 2006 at the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas. Full conference registration runs $995 USD and Microsoft has set aside a discounted hotel rate for attendees.