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I am here in Las Vegas... not gambling (yet!)
but attending IBM Impact 2008 conference. Given my focus on SOA/BPM consulting
and my current project where I am helping my client come up with an approach to
define 'business design' (as IBM SOA Foundation calls it) and then derive SOA
from the business design, it would be a mistake not to attend. At this
conference, I will be focusing heavily on BPM, SOA and integration and I plan
to share my daily experiences here.
Before I talk about my observations on day
0, here is some day -1 stuff: Registering online was easy and I got early
registration and GWC member discounts. The registration confirmation email
didn't arrive right away; I had to call to get one. The agenda builder tool on
Impact 2008 was nice. You could see all sessions grouped by day, by track, by
type and by speaker. You can add the session you like to your personal agenda -
with the caveat that the tool won't alert you when you double book yourself.
You could email your personal agenda to yourself but the functionality never
worked for me (I never received the email). I had to manually add all sessions
in my outlook so they could show up in my phone.
Anyway, I arrived at the conference on
Sunday afternoon around 3:00 PM. The events before 3 were dedicated to the business
partners. Checking in was quick and I was impressed by all the computers
sitting around where you could pull up and print information about the
conference, look up conference attendees and even surf the web. MGM Grand is a
big hotel and finding your way around is not that easy. I would have liked more
signs or IBM associates walking around to help people. In any case, I was able
to walk between buildings and find places.
When I checked in, I was also told that the
lab registration system had made some mistakes and as a result it confirmed my
registration for part 2 event though part 1 was full. The letter stated that the
lab mentor will try to accommodate me when the lab starts, let's see what
happens.
After the registration, you could take
certification tests for free (well, I would rather say the testing fee is
included in the conference fee). This conference allows taking 3 tests per
brand, so you could take 3 Rational tests, 3 WebSphere tests, 3 SOA tests and
so on. I took one SOA test and passed. I might take more in the next few days.
At 5:30, I went to the solution center and
reception. Solution Center is a place where vendors come in and showcase their
SOA/BPM capabilities - many of them aligned with IBM offerings. What impressed me
here was a device that vendors could use to scan your badge if you stopped by
and starting talking to someone at a booth. This gave them an easy way to
lookup the visitor and follow up later. At some booths I found that the vendor
folks were busy talking to one another and drinking, and not paying much
attention to people stopping by at their booth. At some booths, people were not
as warm and welcoming. In many cases however, I found that people were eager to
talk about their SOA offerings. They were excited to discuss their solution and
answer any questions. I met with quite a few people (vendors and attendees) and
exchanged cards.
Overall, I had a good first day at the
conference. Tomorrow, I plan to check out SOA Jam and probably participate in
Smart SOA challenge.
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