Well, Andrew Ford and Art said most of it, really. A really first-rate
conference. This is the first I've been to since Las vegas over four years
ago, and what a contrast.

Location: As previously mentioned Kansas City is not an easy destination to
get to from outside the US, involving at least one change (mine via Chicago)
and therefore a 13-hour-plus journey. Having got there, though, it's a
mighty fine place. We went into Kansas City centre on Saturday night and it
was absolutely heaving, withn an excellent buzz and, for some reason , lots
of young women in prom dresses walking around drunkenly with their shoes off
clutching each other support. Rather like being in Feltham on a Saturday
night really. Except for the prom dresses.

Overland Park is suburbia personnified really, but genteel suburbia. I went
out walking a fair bit (very un-American, I know ;-)), and there were lots
of good shops and nice, well-kept houses.

On the Sunday we did a bit of tourism and went to Knob Noster (my teenage
children managed a big snigger at this of course!) State Park about 60
miles east of Overland Park. You could see once off the freeway that some
parts of Western Missouri are quite depressed. Still, we had the best steak
in years at an unprespossesing grill on the way back.

Hotel: I struggle to remember a better dollar-for-dollar stay in a hotel in
the US to be honest. I wrote a review of the hotel here if anyone's
interested:
http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...rk_Kansas.html.
Given the old maxim of "Never eat in hotels, and never sleep in restaurants"
the conference catering was of a good level (particularly if you like
chicken!). So, Full Marks for the venue in my book.

Sessions: I thought there was a good range of sessions. With 4 concurrent
sessions for every time-slot there were occasional clashes; on the other
hand there was rarely a time-slot when there was nothing worth attending.
The topics and speakers varied in quality from the good to the excellent as
you'd expect; I always like to hear Mark Scranton talk (from a distance and
with earplugs of course - only joking Mark ;-)) and Mark Jamison's talk on
the very complex subject bt scanners made everything clearer than it was
before.

The tenor of the speeches was unremittingly techncial, by design I'm sure.
By "technical" I mean of interest to techies: for example Spokey Wheeler
talked about demonstraing audibility; not a technical talk in itself but
still of interest mainly to technies or technical managers. (This talk
gave several "I'd never thought of that" moments, by the way, and I'd
commend your attention to the presentation if and when it is made publicly
available). Aside from the two "Keynote" speeches by senior IBM execs there
was not much marketing or product direction stuff. I'm sure this was by
design and intended to match the interests of the attendees, but I would
still have liked a public forum or two where the IBM execs could be
cross-examined on the commercial and promotional direction of Informix. I
think a little of this took place in the IIUG AGM.

The was an exhibition where about 20 companies had taken stands. IBM were
demonstating OpenAdmin and Optim, Sun and HP had promotional material about
runnign IDS on their tin, there was some third-party vendors with IDS
offerings (such as Querix, 4Js and AGS), and (I think) 5 IBM US resellers.
All of this was quite interesting (perhaps not the resellers for those of us
not in The Americas).

There seemed to be "about the right number" of people there - I believe it
sold out, but it certainly wasn't over-crowded except perhaps for the
difficulty in getting into the two keynote sessions. As you would expect
most attendees were from N America but there was a good smattering of
Europeans and S Americans there, plus some from the Far East and one noisy
Kiwi!

On each of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night there was a reception or
entertainment, the latter two generously sponsored by Optim (which is a
fairly recent IBM acquisition) and US reseller Kazer. Many thanks to these
guys for the food, drink and entertainment!

Finally: I can't remember what I paid to register it was so long ago, but
Stuart told me it was US$549 so he's probably right. I'm amazed that they
could do it so cheaply. Most comparable conferences are in my experience at
least 3 times this cost. Yet there was nothing about this IIUG Conference
administration - from venue to documentation through to programme and
exhibition - that gave the slightest hint that this was not organised by
conference professionals. But in fact everyone involved in organising the
Conference is an amateur volunteer! I don't want to mention any names for
fear of missing out a key player, but those involved in organising this
should feel enormously proud of themselves. Thanks Guys!

On May 3, 11:54*am, "Neil Truby" <neil.tr...@ardenta.com> wrote:
> Well, Andrew Ford and Art said most of it, really. *A really first-rate
> conference. *This is the first I've been to since Las vegas over four years
> ago, and what a contrast.
>
> Location: As previously mentioned Kansas City is not an easy destination to
> get to from outside the US, involving at least one change (mine via Chicago)
> and therefore a 13-hour-plus journey. *Having got there, though, it's a
> mighty fine place. *We went into Kansas City centre on Saturday night and it
> was absolutely heaving, withn an excellent buzz and, for some reason , lots
> of young women in prom dresses walking around drunkenly with their shoes off
> clutching each other support. *Rather like being in Feltham on a Saturday
> night really. *Except for the prom dresses.
>
> Overland Park is suburbia personnified really, but genteel suburbia. *I went
> out walking a fair bit (very un-American, I know ;-)), and there were lots
> of good shops and nice, well-kept houses.
>
> On the Sunday we did a bit of tourism and went to Knob Noster (my teenage
> children managed a big snigger at this of course!) *State Park about 60
> miles east of Overland Park. *You could see once off the freeway that some
> parts of Western Missouri are quite depressed. *Still, we had the best steak
> in years at an unprespossesing grill on the way back.
>
> Hotel: I struggle to remember a better dollar-for-dollar stay in a hotel in
> the US to be honest. *I wrote a review of the hotel here if anyone's
> interested:http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserR...45-r15517084-O....
> Given the old maxim of "Never eat in hotels, and never sleep in restaurants"
> the conference catering was of a good level (particularly if you like
> chicken!). *So, Full Marks for the venue in my book.
>
> Sessions: I thought there was a good range of sessions. *With 4 concurrent
> sessions for every time-slot there were occasional clashes; on the other
> hand there was rarely a time-slot when there was nothing worth attending.
> The topics and speakers varied in quality from the good to the excellent as
> you'd expect; I always like to hear Mark Scranton talk (from a distance and
> with earplugs of course - only joking Mark ;-)) and Mark Jamison's talk on
> the very complex subject bt scanners made everything clearer than it was
> before.
>
> The tenor of the speeches was unremittingly techncial, by design I'm sure.
> By "technical" I mean of interest to techies: for example Spokey Wheeler
> talked about demonstraing audibility; not a technical talk in itself but
> still of *interest mainly to technies or technical managers. *(This talk
> gave several "I'd never thought of that" moments, by the way, and I'd
> commend your attention to the presentation if and when it is made publicly
> available). *Aside from the two "Keynote" speeches by senior IBM execs there
> was not much marketing or product direction stuff. *I'm sure this was by
> design and intended to match the interests of the attendees, but I would
> still have liked a public forum or two where the IBM execs could be
> cross-examined on the commercial and promotional direction of Informix. *I
> think a little of this took place in the IIUG AGM.
>
> The was an exhibition where about 20 companies had taken stands. *IBM were
> demonstating OpenAdmin and Optim, Sun and HP had promotional material about
> runnign IDS on their tin, there was some third-party vendors with IDS
> offerings (such as Querix, 4Js and AGS), and (I think) 5 IBM US resellers.
> All of this was quite interesting (perhaps not the resellers for those of us
> not in The Americas).
>
> There seemed to be "about the right number" of people there - I believe it
> sold out, but it certainly wasn't over-crowded except perhaps for the
> difficulty in getting into the two keynote sessions. *As you would expect
> most attendees were from N America but there was a good smattering of
> Europeans and S Americans there, plus some from the Far East and one noisy
> Kiwi!
>
> On each of Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night there was a reception or
> entertainment, the latter two generously sponsored by Optim (which is a
> fairly recent IBM acquisition) and US reseller Kazer. *Many thanks to these
> guys for the food, drink and entertainment!
>
> Finally: I can't remember what I paid to register it was so long ago, but
> Stuart told me it was US$549 so he's probably right. *I'm amazed that they
> could do it so cheaply. *Most comparable conferences are in my experience at
> least 3 times this cost. *Yet there was nothing about this IIUG Conference
> administration - from venue to documentation through to programme and
> exhibition - that gave the slightest hint that this was not organised by
> conference professionals. *But in fact everyone involved in organising the
> Conference is an amateur volunteer! *I don't want to mention any names for
> fear of missing out a key player, but those involved in organising this
> should feel enormously proud of themselves. *Thanks Guys!

Thank you for the mention Mr. Truby...and yes I knew you were joking.
Xtivia had a great conference - I'm already on assignment for the next
2 weeks as a direct result of the conference. Quite honestly, I think
it was someone we gave extra frisbees or flashlights to as a bribe. My
highlight was Mr. Fraser's rather animated evening at the comedy club
- the New Zealander was quite the entertainment.

Mark Scranton
Xtivia Inc.
Informix 1995 - retirement

<mark.scranton@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b3cdbbd9-8ce3-459d-8dfe-4e4f7350a6ea@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

One observation that I omitted for some reason, but several people commented
upon it, was the high average age of the attendees. Robert, who also
attended from Ardenta, is in his his early thirties and I wuld say he was
very comfortably in the bottom decile of the age distribution. I have one
Informix specialist at Ardenta who is still not 30, but he seems to be an
aberraton in this respsect, and a good 10-15 years younger than the average
Informix expert.

I think this is quite a worrying demographic for Informix - clearly many
years have gone past since youngsters think it worth studying - and this is
an important thing to counter if Informix is to regain its pomp under the
renewed vigour of IBM's promotion.

I totally agree, with my nearly 40 years I felt very young. But who says that only the young guys can do IT?
So think positive, when the younger DBAs have a family, kids and rediscover their hobbys again, they will move from Oracle to Informix to get the time they need. ;-)

But: I was (positive!) surprised about the percentage of women attending the meeting.


Joerg Volz
(sorry for the big automatic disclaimer, but in Germany it´s law)


________________________________

Von: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org im Auftrag von Neil Truby
Gesendet: Mi 07.05.2008 22:27
An: informix-list@iiug.org
Betreff: Re: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008



<mark.scranton@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b3cdbbd9-8ce3-459d-8dfe-4e4f7350a6ea@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

One observation that I omitted for some reason, but several people commented
upon it, was the high average age of the attendees. Robert, who also
attended from Ardenta, is in his his early thirties and I wuld say he was
very comfortably in the bottom decile of the age distribution. I have one
Informix specialist at Ardenta who is still not 30, but he seems to be an
aberraton in this respsect, and a good 10-15 years younger than the average
Informix expert.

I think this is quite a worrying demographic for Informix - clearly many
years have gone past since youngsters think it worth studying - and this is
an important thing to counter if Informix is to regain its pomp under the
renewed vigour of IBM's promotion.


_______________________________________________
Informix-list mailing list
Informix-list@iiug.org
http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list



IT Handel und Beratung Jörg Volz
Bernhard-Früh-Str. 7
77855 Achern
GERMANY

Tel: 07841-681651
Fax: 07841-681654
Mobil: 0170-2989757
Ust-ID: DE201383541

http://www.it-volz.de

Re: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008>> "Jörg Volz" <Joerg@it-volz.de>
wrote in message
news:mailman.1062.1210192828.20610.informix-list@iiug.org...
I totally agree, with my nearly 40 years I felt very young. But who says
that only the young guys can do IT?
So think positive, when the younger DBAs have a family, kids and rediscover
their hobbys again, they will move from Oracle to Informix to get the time
they need. ;-)

Well, as a 40-plus myself (I know I don't look it, but I am the Peter Pan of
IT), of course I benefit. But I do think the almost complete absence of
young blood is a serious problem for Informix ...

Neil Truby said:
>
> Well, as a 40-plus myself (I know I don't look it, but I am the Peter Pan
> of
> IT), of course I benefit.

I knew I recognised you from somewhere: http://pixyland.org/peterpan/ )

--
Bye now,
Obnoxio

"There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason
and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your
panic you turned to the Labour Party. They promised you order, they
promised you peace, and all they demanded in return was your silent,
obedient consent."

I think you were in the wrong sessions
being in the 40-ish age bracket myself, unless my eyes deceived me, I thought I saw an interesting number of younger folks.

seriously, if you have contacts at universities or other youth oriented venues and would like some focus there, get in touch with me. I had some serious discussions with IBM at the conference regarding this very topic.

thanks much,
Norma Jean Sebastian




________________________________

From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Jörg Volz
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 3:40 PM
To: Neil Truby; Informix list
Subject: AW: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008


I totally agree, with my nearly 40 years I felt very young. But who says that only the young guys can do IT?
So think positive, when the younger DBAs have a family, kids and rediscovertheir hobbys again, they will move from Oracle to Informix to get the timethey need. ;-)

But: I was (positive!) surprised about the percentage of women attending the meeting.


Joerg Volz
(sorry for the big automatic disclaimer, but in Germany it´s law)


________________________________

Von: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org im Auftrag von Neil Truby
Gesendet: Mi 07.05.2008 22:27
An: informix-list@iiug.org
Betreff: Re: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008



<mark.scranton@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b3cdbbd9-8ce3-459d-8dfe-4e4f7350a6ea@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

One observation that I omitted for some reason, but several people commented
upon it, was the high average age of the attendees. Robert, who also
attended from Ardenta, is in his his early thirties and I wuld say he was
very comfortably in the bottom decile of the age distribution. I have one
Informix specialist at Ardenta who is still not 30, but he seems to be an
aberraton in this respsect, and a good 10-15 years younger than the average
Informix expert.

I think this is quite a worrying demographic for Informix - clearly many
years have gone past since youngsters think it worth studying - and this is
an important thing to counter if Informix is to regain its pomp under the
renewed vigour of IBM's promotion.


_______________________________________________
Informix-list mailing list
Informix-list@iiug.org
http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list


IT Handel und Beratung Jörg Volz
Bernhard-Früh-Str. 7
77855 Achern
GERMANY

Tel: 07841-681651
Fax: 07841-681654
Mobil: 0170-2989757
Ust-ID: DE201383541

http://www.it-volz.de

================================================== ==========
The information contained in this message may be privileged
and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader
of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee
or agent responsible for delivering this message to the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reproduction,
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prohibited. If you have received this communication in error,
please notify us immediately by replying to the message and
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================================================== ==========

Sebastian, Norma J. wrote:
> I think you were in the wrong sessions
> being in the 40-ish age bracket myself, unless my eyes deceived me, I
> thought I saw an interesting number of younger folks.
>
> seriously, if you have contacts at universities or other youth oriented
> venues and would like some focus there, get in touch with me. I had
> some serious discussions with IBM at the conference regarding this very
> topic.
>
> thanks much,
> Norma Jean Sebastian
>
>

Yes, but how serious is IBM? Care to elaborate?

JWC

Hi John,
I put forth a couple questions at the IIUG annual meeting and got a
substantial response from IBM.
Look in the Insider (#94) from May 2nd, there is a specific IBM'er
listed whom you could contact directly for further information and to
assist in this effort.
I feel this topic is solidly on the radar.... And we all have an
opportunity to help.
Sorry I don't have more details to share in this forum/at this time....
Stay tuned to the insider and the iiug website....
Thanks,
Norma Jean Sebastian



-----Original Message-----
From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org
[mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of John Carlson
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 9:43 PM
To: informix-list@iiug.org
Subject: Re: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008

Sebastian, Norma J. wrote:
> I think you were in the wrong sessions
> being in the 40-ish age bracket myself, unless my eyes deceived me, I
> thought I saw an interesting number of younger folks.
>
> seriously, if you have contacts at universities or other youth
oriented
> venues and would like some focus there, get in touch with me. I had
> some serious discussions with IBM at the conference regarding this
very
> topic.
>
> thanks much,
> Norma Jean Sebastian
>
>

Yes, but how serious is IBM? Care to elaborate?

JWC
_______________________________________________
Informix-list mailing list
Informix-list@iiug.org
http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list
================================================== ==========
The information contained in this message may be privileged
and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader
of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee
or agent responsible for delivering this message to the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reproduction,
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please notify us immediately by replying to the message and
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Your eyes and brackets betrayed you. You looked like my 14 year old daughter :-)

Honestly, usually I am in the upper third with the old guys and the youngers have the majority. And I did notice the younger than me people attending, so I was not in the wrong sessions ;-) Lets say the age pyramid is a bit on the old side, but a new age pyramid around 25 is growing. And that little gap between both pyramids shouldn´t disturb much.


regards,
Joerg Volz


________________________________

Von: Sebastian, Norma J. [mailto:NormaJean.Sebastian@tellabs.com]
Gesendet: Do 08.05.2008 02:21
An: Jörg Volz; Neil Truby; Informix list
Cc: Sebastian, Norma J.
Betreff: RE: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008


I think you were in the wrong sessions
being in the 40-ish age bracket myself, unless my eyes deceived me, I thought I saw an interesting number of younger folks.

seriously, if you have contacts at universities or other youth oriented venues and would like some focus there, get in touch with me. I had some serious discussions with IBM at the conference regarding this very topic.

thanks much,
Norma Jean Sebastian




________________________________

From: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:informix-list-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf Of Jörg Volz
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 3:40 PM
To: Neil Truby; Informix list
Subject: AW: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008


I totally agree, with my nearly 40 years I felt very young. But who says that only the young guys can do IT?
So think positive, when the younger DBAs have a family, kids and rediscover their hobbys again, they will move from Oracle to Informix to get the time they need. ;-)

But: I was (positive!) surprised about the percentage of women attending the meeting.


Joerg Volz
(sorry for the big automatic disclaimer, but in Germany it´s law)


________________________________

Von: informix-list-bounces@iiug.org im Auftrag von Neil Truby
Gesendet: Mi 07.05.2008 22:27
An: informix-list@iiug.org
Betreff: Re: Musings on the IIUG Conference 2008



<mark.scranton@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:b3cdbbd9-8ce3-459d-8dfe-4e4f7350a6ea@c58g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

One observation that I omitted for some reason, but several people commented
upon it, was the high average age of the attendees. Robert, who also
attended from Ardenta, is in his his early thirties and I wuld say he was
very comfortably in the bottom decile of the age distribution. I have one
Informix specialist at Ardenta who is still not 30, but he seems to be an
aberraton in this respsect, and a good 10-15 years younger than the average
Informix expert.

I think this is quite a worrying demographic for Informix - clearly many
years have gone past since youngsters think it worth studying - and this is
an important thing to counter if Informix is to regain its pomp under the
renewed vigour of IBM's promotion.


_______________________________________________
Informix-list mailing list
Informix-list@iiug.org
http://www.iiug.org/mailman/listinfo/informix-list


IT Handel und Beratung Jörg Volz
Bernhard-Früh-Str. 7
77855 Achern
GERMANY

Tel: 07841-681651
Fax: 07841-681654
Mobil: 0170-2989757
Ust-ID: DE201383541

http://www.it-volz.de <http://www.it-volz.de/>

================================================== ==========
The information contained in this message may be privileged
and confidential and protected from disclosure. If the reader
of this message is not the intended recipient, or an employee
or agent responsible for delivering this message to the
intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any reproduction,
dissemination or distribution of this communication is strictly
prohibited. If you have received this communication in error,
please notify us immediately by replying to the message and
deleting it from your computer. Thank you. Tellabs
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