I am going to be doing a user group talk on January 28th 2008. You will learn and see demos of some new data scenarios including MVC, ADO.NET Data Services, Dynamic data and the Entity Framework along with new Ajax history support and Silverlight controls for ASP.NET using the ASP.NET 3.5 Extensions Preview. This release provides new features for ASP.NET 3.5 and ADO.NET in VS 2008.
Here are some good resources that you can tap into now and learn why this new stuff is so so cool.
I really hope that David Hayden shows up to keep me honest. He is having also putting on an event called "Day of Patterns and Practices" on January 31st. http://www.pnpguidance.net/ It should be a great event!