View from the Edge

Exchange Online 2009 - Behind the Scenes

In early Spring 2009, when we began planning our first online conference, we had no idea what to do. We knew that we wanted to do something unique and different, but had no idea how long it would take get things done, what would be hard or easy, or how many people we would need. We didn't even know the right questions to ask. I spent a number of weeks educating myself, looking at and participating in online conferences other companies, universities, and organizations like the Smithsonian Museum were doing. Among other things, I spoke at BravePoint's Virtual InterChange conference, which allowed me to see what's involved in doing a live broadcast.

We eventually decided to do something akin to a TV "newsmagazine" style broadcast with a number of separate programs and "episodes", using a variety of media and techniques. What we produced in the end was, on the one hand, not too far from that, and on the other, not at all like that.

We had numerous discussions about what to do, how to do it, and who we could get to help.  Also many arguments about things which turned out not to be important in the end. Key to helping figure it out and get it all done was Cramer, a production company that has done a lot of work for us in the past for our F2F (face-to-face) conferences and all sorts of videos.

Among the things we discussed endlessly were how many technical sessions we should have and how long they should be. Would anyone come? How long an attention span would an online audience have? How many days would be people be willing to "tune in"? For how long? 2 hours? 4 ?  6 ? Would people leave if there was "dead air"?  What should we do about people in different timezones? How many sessions would we have time to produce? Is live or recorded better? Which is harder to do? We got many different answers to these questions. In the end we decided on two concurrent video "channels" starting with general sessions followed by a series of 30 minute technical sessions with a short question-and-answer period in the last few minutes of each one, and a live discussion channel. The sessions were recorded but the q&a period was live. Would that work? We wouldn't know until we actually did it.

When we opened the conference registration site, we got a huge surprise. After two days, we saw that about two hundred people had registered. Then, over the weekend, registrations spiked up over 3,000 and continued rising. At first we were thrilled. Then we learned that someone had posted a link to our registration page on several sites that enabled people to find places where they could get free stuff. We had free stuff. Anyone who registered would get a free T-shirt. Over 4,000 people who had no interest in the conference had signed up just for the free shirt. What else could go wrong? I loaded all the registration information into an OpenEdge database and wrote a 4GL program to rank all the registrations and identify the bogus ones so we could delete them.

Gradually, things came together and all the speakers got their materials prepared and practiced their talks. In early August, we began filming. I spent 4 weeks at Cramer's studios, working with the speakers while we were filming and then with Cramer's folks (thanks Theo!) editing video while others worked on the web site, registration, promotion, and many other things. It was a lot of work but it was fun.

Finally we were ready. The conference broadcast went live at 8:30 am on September 15. We held our breath. Everything worked, with only a few small technical glitches. Here's a picture of the control room for one of the channels.

When the broadcast was finally finished on the third day, we were relieved.  We made it.

As we discovered, 30 minute sessions worked pretty well. Almost. In hindsight, we learned that:

0) 23 minutes of content with 7 minutes of q&a time didn't allow enough time for questions for most of the sessions,

1) our speakers were not used to speaking for such short periods and had some difficulty with that,

3) there were (deliberately) no breaks between the end of one session and the start of the next. Feedback says we should have had them,

4) the "networking lounge" and discussions were hard to use and didn't work as nearly as well as they should have. In spite of the difficulty some good discussion did take place.

Still, I think those were relatively small problems.  In the grand scheme of things, I would say Exchange Online 2009 was a success.

Session videos for the Exchange Online 2009 conference are still available for viewing for another month.  If you haven't had a chance to visit, please point your browser to http://events.unisfair.com/rt/exchangeonline~sept2009

Obrigado

If you have been following this blog lately you can see there has been a lot of focus on customer-facing engagements including Exchange Online, the UK PUG, and Australia Exchange.  I just returned from the Brazil Exchange event, I’ll tell you about that in a minute, and you’ll hear about other events in upcoming posts about other customer facing events over the next few days.

So do we do it?  Why so many events?  Well we think we have an exciting and compelling strategy with OpenEdge 10.2B being released in a few weeks, work starting on OpenEdge 11, and a lot of focus on SaaS and Cloud.  But we also want to hear from you.  So speak up and be counted.  Make sure your account team knows about your issues  and concerns, go to a local PUG event or other regional event, and tell the Progress representative what you think, or head over to Progress Communities , and  layout your thoughts in one of our forums.

But now onto Brazil.  Brazil Exchange, held in Sao Paulo on Oct. 21, was another extremely successful event with over 525 attendees.  The general session was very much focused on Operational Responsiveness and how the entire Progress portfolio of products can help you achieve Operational Responsiveness.  As part of the General Session, Rick Kuzyk put together a very exciting demo showing OpenEdge, Apama, Sonic, and Actional all working together to provide real-time visibility in an automobile manufacturing yard complete with a mashup using Google maps, and showed the dashboard running on an iPhone.  Very slick!!

And there were 15 different breakout sessions covering OpenEdge, Actional, and Apama, and while they were “all Portuguese to me” (literally - except for mine and Rick’s), there was lots of interest in the key capabilities that we are providing including OpenEdge GUI for .NET (sold out crowd) , OpenEdge support for Actional, OpenEdge Management, and RIA.

Excellent job by the Brazilian team, and I would like to thank all of our Brazilian customers for attending this event. 

And don’t forget, there is a great collection of presentations still available on the Exchange Online site, so check it out because it all goes away on December 17^th!!!

Ken

Australia The Tour, Part 2: Brisbane

Today we swapped sun soaked Brisbane for rain soaked Melbourne as we continue on our 3 city Australian Exchange tour.  Our final set of presentations are tomorrow (Friday) before we make the long journey back to Boston. OK, I know, you have no sympathy :)

But back to yesterday.  Brisbane was completely booked with once again 50+ people attending the day long event.  Brisbane certainly has it's own vibe, a little more relaxed than Sydney, but no less eager to participate.  During the tour I've been fortunate enough to share the OpenEdge roadmap detailing some of our thoughts and ideas for the next generation of OpenEdge.  Out of the potentially many new features, the one stand out proposal that generates the most questions & excitement is that of Multi-Tenancy.  Even for those not yet considering Software as a Service (SaaS), the thought of OpenEdge as a platform having built-in Multi-Tenancy capabilities right out of the box is a game changer.  Especially, if as hoped, it can be introduced in such a way that means little to no application changes for the thousands of OpenEdge applications out there today.  This feature alone would consolidate OpenEdge's leadership in the SaaS space offering end-users a huge library of Multi-Tenant applications almost over night.

As we've seen from other conferences, including the recent Exchange Online, the current hot feature in the product today is the OpenEdge GUI for .NET.  Shelley is constantly presenting to packed rooms, full of partners & direct customers eager to know how to make use of this great feature.  I had no personal involvement in the project that created it whatsoever, but each time I sit at the back of the room and listen to Shelley go through her pitch, my mind is always blown away by the engineering triumph that basically allows the running of a Visual Studio environment in OpenEdge Architect which is based upon Eclipse.  Not only that, but the fact that you can mix & match existing OpenEdge GUI with this next generation OpenEdge GUI for .NET is just a testament to the technical skills within Progress.  

As with Sydney, it was also good to see by show of hands how many people are currently using OpenEdge 10 and OpenEdge Architect.  I won't get on my soapbox again, but still it's good to see!

From a purely personal perspective, I'm also impressed by the number of people that have taken the OpenEdge Reference Architecture (OERA) to heart and are really embracing it's principles as they take their applications forwards.  One of the challenges we always face is knowing how well our best practices materials are being received, and used, so events like this give me the opportunity to talk to partners and gauge feedback.  So if you ever see me at any of our events feel free to grab me and give feedback.  I won't bite, promise!

We had a fantastic time in Brisbane and certainly from the feedback at the end of day Cocktail party, the attendees were going home happy after a full days content. Or maybe that was just the free booze talking!!

So tomorrow is our final day and if it's anything like the past few days it will be a blast.  We did by the way gain our hour back when we flew south from Brisbane to Melbourne, not that I still understand how it works.  I had some discussions at the cocktail party about this, but again all the reasons seemed to tie back to the cows!  Either that, or it's all about reducing the hours of sun light so as not to fade curtains!!

As always, thanks for reading

Mike

We're off to see the wizard !

And no, I don't mean Gus. I'm currently sat on the tarmac at Logan airport about to head for L.A on the way to Sydney Australia. Ok, so the title was a little corny! This is a posting full of firsts. My first blog entry on the OpenEdge Perspective, the first posted from an iPhone (so appologies for typos), and my travelling companion Shelleys first trip to Australia. By way of introduction I'm Mike Ormerod and I'm responsible for the Architectural Best Practices, SaaS & Cloud Computing technical strategy for OpenEdge. In my role I report to our VP of Technology Ken Wilner, the guy with the beard in the photos at the side there! We're headed to Australia to present at a series of PTWs located in 3 cities. As we go we will blog more to let you know how the trip is going. The conference agenda is packed full of great sessions with great content so we hope to see lots of familiar, as well as hopefully new faces at the events. The cabin doors are about to close so thanks for now and we look forward to saying more once we hit Sydney!

In case you missed the UK PUG meeting......

On October 1st, if you are a user of Progress technology and reside in the London, England area the Progress User Group (PUG) meeting was the place to be.

Forty PUG members and twenty perspective members attended the meeting to learn and hear from customers and Progress Executives.  Ken Wilner, VP of Technology shared the OpenEdge roadmap which prompted a lively discussion regarding market insights and future requirements.  There was a customer presentation and sessions on the Cloud, Application Modernization and SaaS.

In case you missed it the UK PUG was the winner of the Exchange Online 2009 PUG contest.  As the PUG with the most Exchange registered attendees, at 44, refreshments were on Progress.  No PUG meeting would be complete without prizes and networking opportunities.   

New PUG meetings are always being added to Progress Communities. Don't miss the next PUG meeting in your area…there's always something new and interesting to learn! 

Exchange Online 2009

Exchange Online 2009 has come, but it’s not gone.  With over 2,000 participants from every continent around the world attending 36 sessions on diverse topics such as:

•                    Introducing OpenEdge GUI for .NET,

•                    Serializing ProDataSets to JSON,

•                    Introducing OpenEdge Explorer, and

•                    Transparent Data Encryption,

the event was a resounding success!!

In addition, the live Q&A that was held for each session, and networking forums where attendees could “chat” with OpenEdge developers, architects and engineers, as well as the leaders of several Progress User Groups (PUGs), while maybe not exactly the same as meeting someone face-to-face gave that personal touch to this online event.

Did you miss a session that you really wanted to hear?  Is there one that was so full of information that you just have to hear it again?  Is there a session that a co-worker of yours really should have listened to?  Did you miss the event all together?  Regardless of your reason for still wanting to see a particular session you still can, because all the sessions are still available on-demand on the Exchange Online 2009 site until December 17^th.

And don’t forget if you have a question on any session, Progress Communities is the place to ask your question.  We’ve set up a separate forum for each session, so that you can be sure you question is answered in a timely fashion.

Lastly, don’t forget to check out the Resource Center when you are on the Exchange Online 2009 site.  This is where you can download the slides and related materials for all sessions, as well as find other Progress product related materials. 

Ken Wilner

P.S. O.K. You caught me.  There was no one from Antarctica.

OpenEdge Architect videos on Communities

With Exchange Online 2009 coming right up (September 15-17) I wanted to remind people of the availability of a set of introductory videos that cover a lot of the basic topics related to using OpenEdge Architect. They're all available directly from the OpenEdge home page on the PSDN area of Progress Communities:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/community/psdn/openedge

There's a landing page for five introductory videos to get you started using Architect for the first time, covering topics such as creating your first Architect workspace and project, defining database connections for your workspace, setting project properties, building and running your project, and using the ABL Editor that's a central part of the value of developing in OpenEdge Architect. That page is here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101140

And then there's a continuing series of topics that go beyond the Getting Started series covering subjects such as defining and using perspectives and views, maintaining structured procedures created in the AppBuilder, using the ABL Debugger, and various more advanced features of the ABL Editor. Those sessions are all available here:

http://communities.progress.com/pcom/docs/DOC-101504

The videos are designed to be fairly self-contained, so that you can view what's of interest to you, though there is a recommended sequence to them that's indicated by their organization on the site. And they're kept to around seven or eight minutes each so that you're not overwhelmed with content and can try out what you've learned in each video before proceeding.

We're very interested in your feedback both on this specific set of presentations and on the general format that they use. We're already creating new video series, some accompanied by documents with text and code samples, to help you get started with other major parts of OpenEdge 10, including the support for classes and the GUI for .NET. Keep us posted on your comments and recommendations.

Exchange Online 2009 is Coming and Its Free – Sept. 15-17

Mark your calendars and head on over to the Exchange Online 2009 site to register.  Exchange Online promises to be a very exciting, engaging, and interactive event that you can enjoy from the comfort of your own home or office.  With 36 sessions spread across 6 different tracks, there promises to be something for everyone. 

There will be plenty of sessions on SaaS, and integration, and UI flexibility, and operational excellence, and productivity, and best practices covering everything from the OpenEdge GUI for .NET to the latest Sonic capabilities, to newest capabilities in the ABL  and the database,  to how to build an application for SaaS. 

And these sessions, won’t be presented just by Progress employees.  There are plenty of customer success stories, so you can hear 1^st hand, how OpenEdge and other Progress products are being used to provide real business value.

Now we know that one of the things that Exchange attendees really like about Exchange,  is the ability to network with other members of the Progress community, to share ideas and approaches to solving real problems, and just because this is an online event doesn’t mean no networking.

One of the key features of this event will be the ability to network and chat with other attendees through scheduled chat sessions on specific topics as well as adhoc chat sessions that you can set up with other attendees to the conference.

So head on over to the Exchange Online 2009 site, and register, and check back often so you have the latest information about what is certain to be one very compelling event.

Ken Wilner

What will you ride at the Carnival?

It is almost half-way through the "Carnival" season in New Orleans, Louisiana - the traditional pre-lenten party that runs up until Fat Tuesday (February 24th for those without a calendar handy). Sorry if I've got New Orleans on the brain lately, but it is because we have already started planning for Exchange 2009 - being held in the "Big Easy" this June.

One of this year's tracks will focus on Application Modernization - how you can make it easier to update your application with smarter design and innovative methods - all to make your application and your business more competitive. We've gotten a number of great breakout proposals submitted so far - ranging from great success stories, how customers like you have implemented solutions faster and better than before, to some great failures - with lessons of what not to do. And of course there is the technology - the details and examples from the experts on how to make your products do what you need them to while still doing your day job.

So what do you want to see at Exchange to help you make your application more competitive?

Just like any modern-day carnival - with the rides, parades and neat things to see - Exchange always seems to present everyone with the problem of figuring out which breakout sessions to attend. And of course, you can never see them all...

So help us prioritize all the neat things to see in the MOD track. Send me your feedback and input so you can get to see everything you want to in New Orleans (OK - I'm just talking about at the conference... Once you are on Bourbon Street, you're on your own...(-; )

• What are the biggest business challenges that you are facing with your application and your organization today?
• Do you know how you will solve them?
• What is stopping you from solving them?
• What is the one change you need to solve your most important issue?

Send me your feedback today. It will help us give you the "Big Easy" ideas for keeping your application and your business competitive in today's economy.

UPDATE: Exchange 2009 is going online. To learn more about Exchange 2009, visit here.

Exchange 2008 Thank You!!

With Exchange now more than a week behind us and most of us now back are at our “day” jobs, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for a great conference. With over 800 attendees learning and sharing in more than 110 sessions and 3 pre-conference workshops the conference was a resounding success.

However, it wasn’t just the formal part of the conference that you folks came for. There were also numerous networking events including the Sunday evening Poster Fair, and the Expo’s on Monday and Tuesday, where you met with other customers and with Progress employees in a more informal setting, and where you could see demonstrations of the various Progress products as well as products offered by various Progress partners.

One of the areas where there was a lot of interest  was the OpenEdge Advanced GUI, our brand new Microsoft .NET-based UI technology to be released in the fall as part of OpenEdge 10.2A. The morning workshop on the Advanced GUI was extremely well attended, and the afternoon one was sold-out.

Additionally, the 4 breakout sessions on the Advanced GUI were in high demand and I think it is fair to say that the demo performed by Shelley Chase and Peter Judge where they demonstrated some of the more advanced capabilities of the Advanced GUI was one of the highlights of the conference.

But there were many other great sessions during the conference including sessions on the newest capabilities in OpenEdge Architect, ABL object-oriented extensions, database administration, and using OpenEdge Adapter for Sonic ESB native invocation mechanism. This new way of using the adapter really simplifies the development process when using OpenEdge and Sonic together.  There were also session on using AJAX and other Web 2.0 technologies with OpenEdge. And, of course, there were a number of sessions which provided you with use cases and deep insight to all of the products that make up the Progress SOA Portfolio.

Certainly, one area that got a lot of attention was the structured error handling sessions where over 200 people attended the 2 sessions that were presented. Both sessions did a great job of showing not only the basic capabilities, but also showed you how you can migrate your existing application to use this new capability in an incremental fashion without breaking your existing code.

And I certainly would be remiss if I didn’t mention one of my own session, the OpenEdge Roadmap and Strategy session that I presented with Salvador Vinals, where over 170 attendees where brought up to date on what are some of the latest capabilities that you can find in OpenEdge, and got some insight into what are some of the things we are planning for a future release.

So if you went to this year’s Exchange, we thank you. If you missed this year’s Exchange, or just want to take another look at the slides for a session you attended, or maybe one you missed, you can find copies of all of the presentations on the Exchange download site or on PSDN. And, checkout the Exchange Virtual Expo,  an on-line version of the exhibit hall where you can get detailed information on all the vendors that demonstrated their products and services at the Expo.

In any case, we look forward to seeing at next year’s Exchange, which will be held in New Orleans. If you have ideas for the kinds of sessions and workshops you would like to see at next year’s conference, please submit them to the Exchange Forum and in the interim, consider attending a regional event especially if you weren’t able to make this year’s Exchange.

PSDN Live will be held in Boston from September 7-9, PTW Asia Pacific will be held in Queensland, Australia from August 17-19, and PTW Mexico will be held October 9th with other regional events still being planned.

Thank you.

Ken