Microsoft: If we 'Build' a new developers conference, will they come?

Microsoft execs told developers earlier this year that there would be a new developers conference happening in mid-September 2011. But until this evening, details about this until-now-unnamed event were relatively few.

On June 1, in conjunction with Windows President Steven Sinofsky's Windows 8 demo at the AllThingsD conference, Microsoft shared the new name of the conference -- "Build/Windows." (I'm guessing the name could be inspired by the Maker Faire brand.)

Microsoft's hope is to convince Windows, Windows Azure, Windows Phone and Web developers to attend the September 13 to 16 Build show in Anaheim to learn what's going on across all of Microsoft's platforms. (Microsoft also is postponing and relocating its annual Financial Analyst Meeting from its typical late July in Redmond venue to September 14 to Anaheim, Calif., this year.)

Build supersedes the Microsoft Professional Developers Conference (PDC), Microsoft's near-annual gathering of developers interested in the company's developer tools and platform futures. Like other Microsoft watchers, I'm expecting Microsoft to deliver a test build of Windows 8, as well as a possible test build of Visual Studio 2012, in conjunction with the conference. And maybe Microsoft will finally raise the curtain on "Jupiter," its new XAML-based app model for Windows 8 there, too....

Microsoft is opening registration for the Build conference on June 1.