Monday is done and it was a great day! The general session (the welcome session) was really good, I saw some very cool demo's. Apama is really an amazing product, but you need to have a LOT of data (like stock prices) to use it.
First session, RFID & Voice. Not at all what I expected. This was more of a sales pitch. The demo didn't work well and it wasn't until the last 15-20 minutes that the guy finally got into integrating the voice product with OpenEdge - and the very end with using RFID. A major let down.
2nd session DB2, OpenEdge Replication. This was excellent! I learned a lot about how it works, the things it can do, and about OE Replication Plus. You are replicating the database to a disaster recovery database and with Plus you can run reports against that database. However, this is in READ ONLY mode. Also, if you purchase Replication, you don't need any further licenses for the target database.
Lunch wasn't bad, a nice salad, good chicken thing, and tasty desert.
3rd session INNOV3, Mashup Basics. This was an excellent 50,000 foot view of what Mashups are and what you can do with them. They used the AutoEdge demo to show how to add a Google map to the product. Well done.
4th session DB6, Performance Tuning Made Easy. Adam Backman always puts on an excellent session. TONS of great things here, too many to mention. I have a lot to share next week at our meeting on the 21st and they are things that work for people on v9 as well as oe10.
The Expo. Really small this year, not a lot going on. Spent most of the time visiting with people and a little bit actually talking to some of the booths.
Dinner was excellent at The Keg, then meeting our sales rep with other west coast customers of his, and now to bed. Long day but very productive.
Oh, and Sunday was the workshops. The OE Architect workshop was an excellent 50,000 foot view of what you can do with Architect, I learned a lot and enjoyed it a lot. Hopefully next time they'll add some more that focus on one piece more.
The OO Programming workshop wasn't that good. Too much working in groups where all of us were confused, not enough hands on, and while I did learn some, I'm still in a big fog about why to use OO in Progress.
Lastly, next years Exchange won't be here in the US, it will be in Paris!!!! A LOT of mixed reactions to this, most people I chatted with who are from the US said they won't be going next year. I'm not sure if my company will send me or not. Lots of rumors why they did this (save money, etc), but nothing concrete.
So day one is now done and it was an excellent day. Lots more to see Tuesday, I can't wait. Talk with you tomorrow!
