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| tleichen |
 Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 6:55 am Post subject: Editorial on IMPACT & future conferences |
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Yatiri
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 663
Location: Center of the USA
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I've had several days now to question those who were "fortunate" enough to have attended IMPACT 2007. The overwhelming opinion is that IBM was using this as a selling mechanism for SOA and at the cost of what the attendees had wanted.
I can remember when the name changed from MQSeries to Websphere MQ. IMHO, this was strictly for the convenience of IBM's marketing and only created confusion and chaos for the general user. But, more prominently, it was a way of containing, and in some cases losing, the product inside another entity. I now wonder if IBM wants to do the same process with Websphere and SOA. Are future conferences going to have Websphere simply as a mere part of SOA?
You may ask, “Why would I care?” Quite simply, MQSeries hasn't gotten level of coverage at conferences since the name change to Websphere MQ, mainly because of the other Websphere products. Let's face it, you can only do so much in one conference.
I believe we now need a conference that would be concentric around MQSeries (or Websphere MQ, or whatever future name IBM wants to call it.  ). If they want to present how that technology is leveraged into other facets of Websphere or whatever, that's fine, but not vice-versa. As I said, you can only do so much at one conference and if you combine too much, then everything gets watered down.
I can only hope that IBM will take a hard look at how these conferences are architected going forward. The reality is that budgets for attending such conventions are not as readily available as they have been in the past; at least in most companies. If the material that the attendees seek to focus on is so diluted that the real value is lost, then they simply will not attend. Grouping too much together can have this result. On this conference, it really was evident. 
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| jefflowrey |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:18 am Post subject: |
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Grand Poobah
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 19981
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I hope you've supplied this feedback through the conference feedback mechanisms, and that you also send this to your IBM Sales representative.
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| tleichen |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:28 am Post subject: |
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Yatiri
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 663
Location: Center of the USA
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Indeed I shall. 
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| tleichen |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:33 am Post subject: |
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Yatiri
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 663
Location: Center of the USA
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| jefflowrey wrote: |
| I hope you've supplied this feedback through the conference feedback mechanisms... |
BTW, what is an affective link to use for this? 
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| jefflowrey |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:35 am Post subject: |
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Grand Poobah
Joined: 16 Oct 2002
Posts: 19981
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I dunno. I'd assume there's something on the conference page?
Also, the last time I was at an IBM conference, there were feedback forms all over the place, so I hope that you filled those out with your opinions.
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| PeterPotkay |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 7:54 am Post subject: |
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Poobah
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 7722
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When I thought I might be able to go, I was looking at the available sessions, and was dissapointed that it was basically the same ones that were offered in years past. I figured oh well, I'll just hit the ones I never went, the more basic ones or the ones that aren't exactly about what I work on.
Then I heard a lot of the seesions were offered one time only, and a lot of those were scheduled for the same time!
I could probably come up with a dozen sessions they should add for a once again legitimate MQ / WMB tech conferance.
* Sessions specific to important Support Pacs - MS03, MO71, MQIPT, etc.
* More advanced sessions about the internals of how MQ and WMB work.
* DR - In this day and age, you would think a session on how to handle DR for MQ / WMB across multi-country datacenters would be heavily attended
* Upgrades / Migrations - Sessions discussing hints tips gotchas best practices for doing upgrades and migrations
* Prominent vendors should be able to have sessions (both technical and sales oriented) - MQSoftware, Capitalware, Transaction Vision, contact admin, etc.
I think the next one well be heavily attended, regardless if they make any changes to the content, because of the Las Vegas location.
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| tleichen |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 8:00 am Post subject: |
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Yatiri
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 663
Location: Center of the USA
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| jefflowrey wrote: |
I dunno. I'd assume there's something on the conference page?
Also, the last time I was at an IBM conference, there were feedback forms all over the place, so I hope that you filled those out with your opinions. |
Other than a developerworks blog site, I have not found any place that IBM has set up for feedback on this. If anyone that has attended the conference knows anywhere to submit this kind of feedback, please post here.
BTW, all good points, Peter. Maybe I should suggest that you be put in charge of organizing future MQ conferences?? 
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| Michael Dag |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:18 am Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 13 Jun 2002
Posts: 2607
Location: The Netherlands (Amsterdam)
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I have put the comments about the MQ sessions on my feedback form, I have not seen an "electronic" version and it was only handed out during the conference.
Sandy Carter was in "charge" of the conference, so worst case you drop her an e-mail... just google her e-mail address
as for MQ... the idea I got is the "plumbing" is less and less important (but we know different!!!) in the "overall" picture, every body is drooling over the latest "sink" and "water-closet" to stay in bathroom terms...
face it... the sink that was "hot" 10 years ago is alot different then the one that is hot today, but I bet the "plumbing" underneath is still the same and doing it's job...
lot's of people jumping over each other to understand the latest sink, and I'll stick to the plumbing for now...
just my 2cents...
I am not "blind" to the future and did go for the IBM Certified SOA Solution Designer (665) test... it was really tough and made it barely, but made it and maybe one day, I'll put it to use
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| dkeister |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:30 am Post subject: |
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Disciple
Joined: 25 Mar 2002
Posts: 184
Location: Purchase, New York
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I hope I am not creating a problem for Sandy Carter who was the key IBM exec responsible for the conference. I saw her on Friday at the close of the conference and personally gave her my feedback (as well as put the info on the feedback form). She said she read every form and wanted feedback. Hopefully what we send will be constructive and not just complaints.
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| dkeister |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 9:38 am Post subject: |
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Disciple
Joined: 25 Mar 2002
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Location: Purchase, New York
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PS. I just sent Sandy an email referencing this topic.
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| tleichen |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 10:19 am Post subject: |
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Yatiri
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 663
Location: Center of the USA
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| Michael Dag wrote: |
...face it... the sink that was "hot" 10 years ago is a lot different than the one that is hot today, but I bet the "plumbing" underneath is still the same and doing it's job...
lot's of people jumping over each other to understand the latest sink, and I'll stick to the plumbing for now...
just my 2cents... |
This is precisely my point. Taking an established area like Websphere MQ and then to group it with some newfangled method that does not directly tie in with it and which (practically) nobody has yet like SOA(at least to the degree that IMPACT was done), is ludicrous.
| Michael Dag wrote: |
| I am not "blind" to the future and did go for the IBM Certified SOA Solution Designer (665) test... it was really tough and made it barely, but made it and maybe one day, I'll put it to use |
This has always been my pet peeve. Most of industry is just not up-to-date with regard to technology and methodology. I think we all know that it never actually will be; probably not in our lifetime, anyway. When we pay the cost of these conferences, we want timely training that is of use. I wish you luck. But I think we both know that probably by the time (if any) that you do get to use it, you will probably be starting from square one again.
| dkeister wrote: |
| PS. I just sent Sandy an email referencing this topic. |
Many thanks.
I can only imagine why IBM orchestrated this conference in the manner that they did. Some of the reasons I come up with could be efforts to remedy poor planning and/or timing constraints. Others are too political for this discussion, and I don’t really want to go there with this. But as far as the economic aspects are concerned, it is obvious that putting on these events does take a lot of money. But, I would imagine that the attendees more than pay for the bulk of that expense. The fact that CDs were not even offered of the sessions smells like there is an accountant at the bottom of all this.
Bottom Line: There are certain fundamentals that have become expected with regard to these conferences and you cannot do it on a shoestring budget!
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| RogerLacroix |
| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 2:35 pm Post subject: |
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Jedi Knight
Joined: 15 May 2001
Posts: 3264
Location: London, ON Canada
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All,
As a vendor at IMPACT 2007, I would give it 4.8 out of 10. I would give last year's Transaction Conference 8 of 10.
IBM drastically increased the vendor fee for the conference and promised 4000 attendees where as last year's conference only had 900 attendees.
I only saw about 60% more people than last year (and I had a great spot this year). The booth next to me, which did give aways, said they only saw 33-40% of what they typically get for 4200 attendees.
I don't know if it was because they had all the platinum and gold vendors in the hall or not but we sat at different tables for breakfast and asked people about the 'vendor/solution room', all but one person knew there was a separate room for 'other vendors'. 
By early Tuesday afternoon, the hotel caterers stopping putting drinks / snacks in the vendor area. They would bring they out food & drink and 10 minutes later rush back to the backroom. When I cornered them, they got there floor-manager out and he said they were given very specific instructions from IBM to curtail all drinks and food. (He said IBM had received their 1st bill and were shocked.)
So for Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday, there was no incentive for people to walk through the vendor room.
Many, many people complained to me that many sessions had no 'meat' (technical details) in them. i.e. marketing info only.
I spoke with Sandy Carter at the partner events (plus listens to her speeches) and I got the distinct impression that she does not walk the talk.
IBM said there were over 4200 attendees. People paid either $2000 (early bird) or $2200 to attend. So, lets round it to 4000 people times $2000 which is $8 million dollars. Plus vendors kicked in around $1 million dollars. So, given that IBM got a cash advance of $9 million for their SOA marketing event, you would think that simple things like CDs with the sessions or bottled water / coffee / tea in the vendor room would be a no brainer.
A couple of people joked that IBM was running a 'for profit' event.
Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.
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| tleichen |
| Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2007 7:58 am Post subject: |
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Yatiri
Joined: 11 Apr 2005
Posts: 663
Location: Center of the USA
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| RogerLacroix wrote: |
...A couple of people joked that IBM was running a 'for profit' event.
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Joked???? Now I think we're catching on....
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