If you're thinking about creating a smart client application, Microsoft has introduced the Smart Client Software Factory (SCSF) to help you out.

During the presentation an overview of the intent of a smart client application was introduced as taking the best features of fat client architectures and the best features of thin client architectures, and merging them together leaving out all the negatives associated with each.  Almost sounds too good to be true huh?

Most of this framework magic is accomplished by taking advantage of the Composite UI Application Block (CAB), and the Guidance Automation Toolkit (GAT).  A significant amount of time during the session was consumed by describing and demonstration these tools.  If you haven't familiarized yourself with these tools already, I urge you to do so now.

Overall the presentation was pretty good, and the next time I take on a smart client application, I will definitely be considering using the SCSF as a starting block.  Best part of the presentation was the demonstrated integration with GAT... very cool possibilities.