Business Objects 2004 International User Conference

[IdoMillet]

The conference is taking place November 7-10 in Texas:

http://www.businessobjectsevents.com/userconference04/

Any chance of meeting some of you Tipsy-Tek-Tippers at the conference? It would be nice to match faces to "handles"... )

In any case, I'll post my impressions when I get back.

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[vidru]

I try not to enter the state of Texas as a rule.

Are you doing any presenting at the conference? The agenda doesn't get any more specific than topics covered.

Look forward to hearing about the future of Crystal, and whether they're treating MSSQL Reporting Services as a threat.

Have fun Ido!

-dave

 

[IdoMillet]

Yes, I'm presenting a session on Tuesday.

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[dgillz]

Ido,

Where is this being help in TX? I might make it over for a day or so.

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports
askdon@srhconsulting.com

http://www.srhconsulting.com

 

[IdoMillet]

Here's the destination info:

http://www.businessobjectsevents.com/userconference04/index.cfm?action=destination

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[bdreed35]

dgillz:

The conference is being held right in Grapevine.

Ido:

I will be attending next week. We should get a table at lunch at the very minimum. What session are you presenting? I enjoyed your session up in Vancouver at CDUGNA back in 2003.

~Brian

 

[IdoMillet]

Brian,

Are you presenting?

My session is under the "Reporting, Query, and Analysis" track and the title is "Reporting Insights & Techniques" (Tuesday, 2:15 - 3:15). It's going to be similar to the Vancouver session, so target another session but we should definitely get a triple-T (Tipsy-Tek-Tipprs) table going... )

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[dgillz]

Tips Tek Tippers. What an image!

Stop me before I tek-tip again!

Software Sales, Training, Implementation and Support for Exact Macola, eSynergy, and Crystal Reports
askdon@srhconsulting.com

http://www.srhconsulting.com

 

[bdreed35]

No, I am not presenting, just attending and helping to man the booth.

I like the table idea. We should figure out how we can make that happen.

~Brian

 

[rhinok]

I try not to enter the state of Texas as a rule.

I agree with Dave, but I would have made an exception if they had accepted my presentation! Unfortunately, I can't make it to this year's conference. If somebody agrees to write a synopsis of the conference, then I'll post a question as to the Crystal content of the conference, so that you can 'answer' the question.

~Kurt

 

[IdoMillet]

Yes, there are some tortured souls lingering on this board that seem to be offended when a discussion develops around Crystal conferences (because it "promotes" a commercial event).

A post I made about impressions from CDUGNA 2003 was flagged and the thread was dropped. Stunning.

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com

 

[bdreed35]

Well, if a thread gets started, and then dropped, perhaps Ken Hamady would be willing to put your write up in his newsletter as he has done in the past.

~Brian

 

[IdoMillet]

Got back from the conference last night. A few random impressions:

1. It was a much bigger event than the annual CDUGNA conference. About 2,000 people attended.

2. Track sessions were bigger, with ~300 people attending the popular ones.

3. Mostly Business Objects people attended the conference though there was also a good number of Crystal or mixed backgrounds. I hope next year they make it easier for people who are mostly interested in Crystal to find each other.

4. My subjective sense is that the merger has been executed in a smooth manner and they are executing on schedule and with quality results.

5. They seem to be focused (perhaps too much) on big accounts with server-based thin-client deployments. This is reasonable since that's where the big money is and that's where some pain points (compliance issues) are.

6. Perhaps I missed something, but I didn't notice anything new for Crystal Designer beyond the already rumored dynamic & cascading parameters for Crystal 11. I'm not sure that cascading parameters would allow mixed types (single-value or multi-value throughout the cascading chain). Not a reasonable restriction in my opinion because you may want to select, for example, multiple customers within a single Product Line.

Cheers,
- Ido

CUT, Visual CUT, and DataLink Viewer:
view, e-mail, export, burst, distribute, and schedule Crystal Reports.

http://www.MilletSoftware.com