Hi, My apology for posting this late, but I paid $3000 to go there and the organizers need feedback, to keep the quality up :
a) General Session Keynote - Miles O'Brien Green Technology Was he related to any of the Share board members ? I have never seen such a bad General Session in my life. He knew nothing about "Green Technology"... ZERO... He tried to show us Video footage of interviews but I saw better programs on PBS and I can watch these programs on my DVR whenever I want too. I hope, nobody paid him anything for this speech ? Can we get future "Paid" speakers to talk about their "Claim to fame" rather ? b) Sunday Feb 25 sessions The IBM speaker decided he is not going to do as advertized because there was not enough attendees for his sessions. My Conference notes said nothing about a minimum quantity of attendees and I paid , based on the speeches advertized. So, if i paid for the FULL conference and the presenters change their advertized speeches, who is too blame ? c) First time Attendees I met people from Norway/Sweden on Sunday/Monday night.. during the cocktails and they could not speak English, they have never been in Texas and needed lots of help. Maybe , there should have been a "First time Attendee" meeting every morning of the Conference... Not sure but people from outside of the USA needs more help and surely, IBM can look at the Registration of these conferences and assign a SE to attend to the foreigners. I have been on a Hitachi tour in Japan and Hitachi assigned a permanent "tour guide" during our visit to all the Universities, factories etc. d) The CICS presentations Was impressed with the IBM presenters and the quality of the stuff presented. e) Oracle on Linux Was impressed with these talks too f) Bill Fairchild Bill, 90% of that stuff is old.. but you did say, this was a "repeat/rerun" g) Leigh Compton Great speech... Was always impressed with your professionalism. h) Ed Jaffe You looked too young for your postings on IBM-MAIN. I was looking for an older person , that are about to retire. i) The visit to the IBM labs on Wednesday night Those labs are for Executives that really do not know much about computing. Maybe, in future.. IBM should make a distinction between "Excel Spreadsheet" attendees and people that have seen the inside of a computer room before and knows what the difference is between a Z9 and a Z10. Why did I go there, just to be told , they do not have a Z10 on show. j) The Venue Not sure, if having a Conference in a downtown area is safe enough any more. Heard some "funny" stories about ladies , trying to get to their cars in the car park, after dark and being followed by homeless people. Maybe a University campus during the Summer break could be better option. I attended Oxford University once, during a University break and there was enough accommodation and presentation facilities, for a conference like this. That is all for now... Oh , the entertainment ? I heard lots of people asking about entertainment in Austin, downtown. Again, maybe IBM or the Share board members can act as tour guides for certain predefined evening entertainment in the future. Hitachi in Japan, provided entertainment, every night. I was taken to the "Cowboy Dance Hall" in San Antonio on the Friday night... but that was "With the help of a local friend" http://www.cowboysdancehall.com/ Anton ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: GET IBM-MAIN INFO Search the archives at http://bama.ua.edu/archives/ibm-main.html
