Exchange Online 2009

[tamhas]

From a post on the PEG a few minutes ago:

Dear Customers and Partners,

Progress Software's annual Exchange Conference was created to help meet the needs of our customers and partners. It has become an event that we've always looked forward to hosting and we believe it offers tremendous value to all. It is, however, increasingly clear that 2009 promises an unprecedented economic climate for all of us, in which, all expenses, including travel, must be tightly managed. Combining today's economic realities with our quest to expand access to Exchange information, we have decided to change the format of Progress Software's 2009 Exchange Conference originally scheduled to be held in New Orleans in June. Instead, this year we will be offering the Exchange Online 2009 program, enabling a broader audience to learn more about Progress products and services in a cost effective manner. At Exchange Online 2009, you will have access to the same comprehensive information about new products, enhancements, and best practices on effective utilization of Progress technologies.

Maintaining the vibrancy of our Progress community is important. We support powerful online resources to help you connect to Progress and other members of the community, including the following individual community online site:

· www.psdn.com - your source to a vast array of OpenEdge product and technical information as well as Actional, Apama, Artix, DataXtend, EasyAsk, ObjectStore, and Sonic products.

We will be in touch with you again to let you know schedule, content and how you can take advantage of Exchange Online 2009.

Progress Software values your continued business and support. If you have any questions or suggestions, do not hesitate to contact me (email: exchangeonline@progress.com).

Thank you.



David G. Ireland
Executive Vice President, Progress Software

 

[tamhas]

So, I take it no one here is interested in Exchange. There has been a lively discussion on both PEG and PSDN about this announcement ... mostly negative.

 

[jongpau]

I agree, even though I would not be going to an Exchange event in the USA myself - I do like (going to) the ones organised here in Australia. I would personally be very disappointed if Progress were to decide not to have en Exchange event in Oz this year - I have not heard anything about this.... yet. When I saw the email announcement about the American Exchange event yesterday I could not believe that Progress would go down the path of attempting to replace what is a combination of a technical *and* social event where you can catch up with colleagues and competitors with some online "event" (and I use the word loosely).

Yet another bad idea from the people in Bedford if you ask me...

 

[KnutHandsome]

So, I take it no one here is interested in Exchange. There has been a lively discussion on both PEG and PSDN about this announcement ... mostly negative.

Different demographic.

I would say the participants on the Peg particularly are more 'hardcore', and therefore more interested in the event.

Posters here seem generally to be younger, more internationally spread, more transient in that Progress is often their second technology, and less emotionally tied to it. More power to 'em.

Personally, I like the idea of a Real World 2.0 conference as an option, but I've only ever been to one and found it useful and interesting, but not vital. It was certainly nice to meet some of the Progress 'celebrities', and other developers though.

 

[Casper]

Well I totally agree with Toms reply @ PEG. And it is a shame that I can't link it in this thread.

Fortunately for us Europeans there is going to be another PUG Challenge this year (http://www.pug.nl/cms/). So we are not completely bound to our laptops.

I myself always went to the PTW and not to Exchange, after a few disappointing PTW's it was very refreshing to be at last years PUG Challenge.

Casper.

 

[tamhas]

Yes, good for pug.nl for doing something since I gather the PTW is cancelled as well. I suspect that means that Oz is off too, although I haven't heard anything specifically about that.

 

[TomBascom]

Well I totally agree with Toms reply @ PEG. And it is a shame that I can't link it in this thread.
Casper.

I can fix that:

With all due respect it is my opinion that you are making a mistake.

Exchange is all about meeting with real, live people in person. Customers mixing with Progress employees and each other. Progress people interacting with and listening to customers in an *open* and dynamic environment.

A virtual or online "Exchange" is not very interesting. I get that every day in my in-box and any time that I care for it on PSDN. If you want to improve PSDN that's fine, it could certainly use it, but please don't pretend that it is some sort of substitute for Exchange.

Although stealth marketing has succeeded admirably in making it difficult for anyone to notice you've just released 10.2 -- the most important release in a decade. Maybe longer. You need to be working with developers across all fronts, not just the "easy" ones like PSDN.

There is a world of difference between sitting through a web cast or downloading a presentation and actually being in the room with a live speaker where you can see and hear the nuances, ask questions and interact with the speaker and your peers. And then continue the discussion in the hallway or over a few beers later that evening. At Exchange we can do all of those things.

I can understand that there may be a need to change some things. Personally I'm no big fan of scorching hot locations in June. I'd much prefer something crisp and clear in September or October. And the expense *is* a problem -- not just this year but for quite some time now it has been getting ridiculous. I think you really should evaluate the sorts of hotels and locations being chosen and the fees charged. You could do a lot better for a lot less money -- exchange attendees aren't typically sales people on expense accounts. We're techies looking for decent coffee, reasonable meals at tables where we can let our elbows fly, free internet connections (you know that you've picked the wrong hotel if they charge for internet in the room), access to our peers at Progress Software and good beer. We really don't give much of a hoot for the long boring rah rah general sessions.

And don't bother wasting our time talking about Apama, Actional, EasyAsk and so forth unless you are actually going to do something to get those products into our hands so that we can develop something with them. We don't need to be "qualified" for an "eval". We need to be coding. And we can't code solutions that use products that we cannot get our hands on.

Now is a time when we are all facing a lot of challenges. This is a the time to be seriously investing in your base of deeply committed developers. Out of these challenging times will come a lot of innovative solutions and new applications. These will be the drivers of our future together. But that future will be smaller and less fulfilling if it isn't nurtured in the early days.

There is no higher bandwidth communication medium than a live, face to face meeting. There is a *lot* of detail that needs to be communicated about Progress right now. 10.2 isn't magic -- it's hard work. Building an application that uses the whole product portfolio takes a whole lot of communication too. White papers and webinars aren't nearly enough. Rethinking the details of Exchange makes sense. Going "virtual" does not.

 

[taqvia]

Very well said Tom.

"stealth marketing has succeeded admirably in making it difficult for anyone to notice you've just released 10.2 -- the most important release in a decade."

 

[jongpau]

Yes, good for pug.nl for doing something since I gather the PTW is cancelled as well. I suspect that means that Oz is off too, although I haven't heard anything specifically about that.

I spoke with someone from Progress Oz the other day and it *seems* that the event(s) in Oz are still on -- there was some mention that they may have to change the format somewhat because they get a lot of their content out of the USA. Anyway, wait and see

 

[tamhas]

Yeah ... small change in format ... like on-line!

Actually, at this point we really have no idea yet what the format of Exchange will be, so who can tell how it would translate. Anyone who gave a web based talk for Exchange could presumably show up in person and give that talk in Oz ... but if there were a good quality presentation already recorded, the main purpose in doing so would be to have a live Q&A ... pretty expensive to fly to Oz in order to answer 5 minutes of questions.

I'm sure that events farther in the future simply haven't been decided on yet, so "still on" may simply mean "we haven't thought about it yet". But, I wouldn't buy plane tickets yet or plan a vacation around it.

A number of people are trying to pitch this as a positive move because of greater access. Done well and with enough imagination, I suppose it could be. Goodness knows going to Paris was pretty expensive and most of the food wasn't even very good. I just hope they do something more interesting than the virtual Expo they did in Paris ... that was amateurish.