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| Impact 2009 - Feedback |
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| mqonnet |
 Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 10:31 am Post subject: Impact 2009 - Feedback |
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Grand Master
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 1114
Location: Boston, Ma, Usa.
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This sounds ridiculous but IBM doesn't really have a way to provide this feedback to them directly. But i hope that someone from IBM actually forwards this "first hand" feedback to the upper management.
The Good
1) Done on a very grand scale
2) Amazing setup and ambiance
3) Good hotel and conference arrangements.
4) Well Organized
The Bad
1) The first thing that i would like to say about IMPACT 2009 is that it is a like a superb film that had Great sound effects, Great star cast, Technically awesome, shot at the most exotic locales... But without a story. Whosoever did the planning for IMPACT 2009 forgot who the targeted audience were.
2) There was NO real way to provide feedback.
3) Almost all sessions, including deep-dives were all hush-hush, didn't cover even the basics, was completely hurried down.
4) The whole IMPACT conference was nothing but a SALES pitch. Come on guys, IBM could have done better than this. In this economy, i think if IBM spent those $$$ trying to understand the customer and associate with the customer deeper, that would have given a better ROI for the buck spent. Instead they chose to just demonstrate one product after another without giving the user any option of providing feedback.
5) More than 65% of the attendees were IBM employees. Not sure what was the point of such a conference where you didn't even get to meet as many customers as the employees of the company itself.
6) Even the customer experiences were ridiculously painted with a SALES pitch saying SOA is great and go for it. Again, barely allowing any feedback from the end-user.
7) Sounds extremely embarrassing, but more than half of the online forms @ Impact would error out saying "Servlet not found".
In the end, i was confused. Was this conference meant for Sales folks, Mangers or Technical personnel. Because, from what i have seen, neither were properly addressed and everything was half-baked.
So, to sum-up, i would tend to agree with other folks here who believe that older messaging conferences were much better with "a real agenda and motive".
May be my expectations were high being an ex-IBM'er. And it all fell down the roof.
An amazing opportunity missed!!! :clap:
Cheers
MQ
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| RogerLacroix |
| Posted: Wed May 13, 2009 8:42 pm Post subject: Re: Impact 2009 - Feedback |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 3264
Location: London, ON Canada
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Hi,
Rumor has it (from fellow colleagues) that roughly 3 weeks before the conference, colleagues received calls offering free tickets to Impact (you had to pay for airfare & hotel). 
| mqonnet wrote: |
| 5) More than 65% of the attendees were IBM employees. Not sure what was the point of such a conference where you didn't even get to meet as many customers as the employees of the company itself. |
That's easy. IBM made commitments to the hotel and Impact vendors that there would be 6000 participates at the conference. I heard that IBM announced number of attendees was 5300. A little off the mark so nobody can really hold IBM for not making their commitment. But if more than half of the people were IBM employees, then it would be a VERY big disappointment for Impact vendors.
Given the economy, this is exactly what I feared and why I didn't pony up a huge chunk of change to go to the conference as a vendor.
I'll make my case again to IBM in June about about bring back the T&M conference.
Regards,
Roger Lacroix
_________________
Capitalware: Transforming tomorrow into today.
Connected to MQ!
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| hankknowles |
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 4:36 am Post subject: Re: Impact 2009 - Feedback |
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Centurion
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Posts: 114
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| mqonnet wrote: |
This sounds ridiculous but IBM doesn't really have a way to provide this feedback to them directly. But i hope that someone from IBM actually forwards this "first hand" feedback to the upper management.
The Good
1) Done on a very grand scale
2) Amazing setup and ambiance
3) Good hotel and conference arrangements.
4) Well Organized
The Bad
1) The first thing that i would like to say about IMPACT 2009 is that it is a like a superb film that had Great sound effects, Great star cast, Technically awesome, shot at the most exotic locales... But without a story. Whosoever did the planning for IMPACT 2009 forgot who the targeted audience were.
2) There was NO real way to provide feedback.
3) Almost all sessions, including deep-dives were all hush-hush, didn't cover even the basics, was completely hurried down.
4) The whole IMPACT conference was nothing but a SALES pitch. Come on guys, IBM could have done better than this. In this economy, i think if IBM spent those $$$ trying to understand the customer and associate with the customer deeper, that would have given a better ROI for the buck spent. Instead they chose to just demonstrate one product after another without giving the user any option of providing feedback.
5) More than 65% of the attendees were IBM employees. Not sure what was the point of such a conference where you didn't even get to meet as many customers as the employees of the company itself.
6) Even the customer experiences were ridiculously painted with a SALES pitch saying SOA is great and go for it. Again, barely allowing any feedback from the end-user.
7) Sounds extremely embarrassing, but more than half of the online forms @ Impact would error out saying "Servlet not found".
In the end, i was confused. Was this conference meant for Sales folks, Mangers or Technical personnel. Because, from what i have seen, neither were properly addressed and everything was half-baked.
So, to sum-up, i would tend to agree with other folks here who believe that older messaging conferences were much better with "a real agenda and motive".
May be my expectations were high being an ex-IBM'er. And it all fell down the roof.
An amazing opportunity missed!!! 
Cheers
MQ |
I was not in attendance this year I attended the 2007 impact in FL and it really wasn't much better.
I undertsand IBM has to sell to survive but they billed that one as technical oriented. Turns out after attending that is was a sell job for SOA and the target was the executives that attended. They threw in some lame technical sessions but usually after 10 minutes it turned sales pitch.
Well after working for IBM for 17+ years as a systems engineer and ending as a consulting SE I was trained to do those things, we did it alot getting tech folks in expecting one thing and giving something different and we as IBM'rs had little choice in the matter. Of course we didn't charge $$.
In 1994 IBM successfully dismantled it's technical sales force and customers suffered and some abandoned IBM. Now they charge you to pitched too! The 2007 Impact was the first time for the messaging conference was changed - disappointment on my part in most aspects, when I returned mgmnt wanted a rundown. I almost put down I wasted your training dollars instead I did lot's of cut and pasting... Luckily they never asked for more!
IBM needs to wake up! |
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| mqonnet |
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 9:05 am Post subject: |
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Grand Master
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 1114
Location: Boston, Ma, Usa.
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Not to mention the "show-off" from Sandy Carter when she was consistently stating that "IBM Impact 2009" is among the top 10 most searched and active keywords on Twitter. With over 5K people sitting in the conference hall listening to all the talk, don't you think it is fair to get feedback and have at least 10 min Q&A directly with people attending the show (this was the inaugural ceremony)???
Instead Sandy and IBM decided to use the Q&A posted on Twitter??? May be it gave them enough time to prepare for answers in the most Sales(full) way. Or may be IBM themselves formed those questions.
Not sure what was the point of referring Twitter once in ever 5 sentences. Did IBM buy twitter by any chance??? Incidentally i didn't know that twitter was this big until i attended the conference. May be i need to upgrade myself from the dark ages. :-)
But again, the whole point is that if you are doing a live session, you ought to have some sort of one-on-one communication. Or else, one could have very well watched a recording of that speech that could have saved IBM ton of money.
Bottom line is that IBM needs to get closer to customer and STOP SELLING all the time. :-)
All of the above holds true Provided someone from IBM is really listening to the honest feedback and cares for it.
Cheers
MQ
_________________
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IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 Solution Designer
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| RogerLacroix |
| Posted: Thu May 14, 2009 3:43 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 3264
Location: London, ON Canada
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| mqonnet wrote: |
Not sure what was the point of referring Twitter once in ever 5 sentences. Did IBM buy twitter by any chance??? Incidentally i didn't know that twitter was this big until i attended the conference. May be i need to upgrade myself from the dark ages.  |
Twitter is one of the stupidest inventions I've ever seen (read). It ranks right up there with "Pet Rocks".
Are we so bored in life that we need play-by-play of what someone is doing?
| Twitter wrote: |
- I'm going to the bathroom.
- I'm going to the Frig.
- I'm calling a friend
- I'm going to a bar
- etc.. |
The people reading Twitter messages need to get a life because if they were not so bored, they would ACTUALLY be doing something.
That's my 2 cents.
Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.
_________________
Capitalware: Transforming tomorrow into today.
Connected to MQ!
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| mqonnet |
| Posted: Fri May 15, 2009 8:39 am Post subject: |
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Grand Master
Joined: 18 Feb 2002
Posts: 1114
Location: Boston, Ma, Usa.
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| RogerLacroix wrote: |
| mqonnet wrote: |
| Not sure what was the point of referring Twitter once in ever 5 sentences. Did IBM buy twitter by any chance??? Incidentally i didn't know that twitter was this big until i attended the conference. May be i need to upgrade myself from the dark ages. |
Twitter is one of the stupidest inventions I've ever seen (read). It ranks right up there with "Pet Rocks".
Are we so bored in life that we need play-by-play of what someone is doing?
| Twitter wrote: |
- I'm going to the bathroom.
- I'm going to the Frig.
- I'm calling a friend
- I'm going to a bar
- etc.. |
The people reading Twitter messages need to get a life because if they were not so bored, they would ACTUALLY be doing something.
That's my 2 cents.
Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc. |
Nicely put.
When i went to the helpdesk @ IBM Impact stating i want to provide feedback i was told IBM is going GREEN this year and hence there are NO paper feedback(s). I was asked to do it online. When i went online, i kept getting servlet errors.
If you spend $50Mil and upwards for an event, at least one would have expected to get the basics right.
Cheers
MQ
_________________
IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 Developer
IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 Solution Designer
IBM Certified WebSphere MQ V5.3 System Administrator |
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