Stacey Falconer - Big Blue and Cousins

September 2000 Big Blue & Cousins
The internet has usurped so many words, one might
imagine that conferences are only virtual. Even real
conferences get rebroadcast on the internet. But
none of these replace the experience of “being there”.
“Do You Know the Way to San Jose...”
In March, Nozer Dadachanji and I travelled to San Jose
to attend Software Development
2000, or SD2000, a conference
sponsored by the publishers of
Doctor Dobbs Journal, and now in
it’s 13th year.
Here are the Paths one
could follow at this conference
Go Go to to a a Real Real Live
Live
Conference!!
Conference!!
Conference Primary Path
Descriptions:
C++ Programming
COM & COM+
Component-Based Development for Distributed Systems
Design Patterns
Enterprise Application Integration
E-Commerce Architecture
Java Programming
Open Source
Team Project Management
User Interface Design
Windows 2000
The advantages of a conference of this breadth, over, say,
a Java-only conference, are the comparisons presented. If you
want to know if your organization is crazy to be planning your
life around an application written in Perl, where to invest your
time or money, or where to take your career, then go to a conference,
ask people, and catch the nuances of their responses. The
WWW won’t give you that experience.
Conferences typically join an exhibition, that has a nominal
attendance fee, with tutorials and seminars which, for the
private person, cost big bucks. But Keynote speeches are usually
available to exhibit attendees, and there are many demonstrations
worth seeing on the exhibit floor, if you dig in and ask
questions. Don’t take the spouse, you can talk to him/her some
other time. Take a colleague, split up, and compared notes at the
end of the day.
SD2000 did not disappoint, and I have attended this conference
twice before. Though seemingly smaller, I found great
advice that I have used to redirect my job. No better way to
spend a few days. With a cheap flight and off-site hotel, you can
cover expenses for less than C$500. And a good conference
like SD2000 has great evening entertainment, for programmers
that is.
Closer to home, we have a great conference centre here
in Victoria, and good facilities around town. If you watch the
conference schedule at the Victoria Conference Centre,
http://www.victoriaconference.com/vcc_cal/, or search the
WWW, you may find an international meeting of professionals
coming here that has a session open to the public. Students
often have a special rate, and conferences sometimes trade
volunteerism for free attendance. Contact the conference
chair...
George Bowden
- Ear to the ground
If you are not ready for
crashing a conference of professionals,
come to the Victoria
Computer Show 2000 (info. at
http://www.dandunbar.com/)
with a few questions and bucks
in your pocket. I got a great deal
on some software last year. Focus
your attendance by selecting
presentations beforehand.
After you have seen those, then do some browsing.. Bring
lots of business cards for the draws, and wear runners. Plan to
spend most of an afternoon or evening.
Vancouver has more conferences, including Raincoast this
year: http://www.raincoast.bc.ca/ug/. Last year Vancouver had
pretty good professional pickings: Cisco Networks at the conference
centre ($$$$$ to attend, but you could hang about for
free), and in the same week, ISO/ICE JET 1/SC 29 - Coding of
Audio, Picture, Multimedia and Hypermedia Information, which
I walked into for free. Now that was an interesting comparison:
Cisco marketing vs. International Standards Organization
ponderings. At the end of the week ISO gave a free seminar on
MPEG4 in the Robson Square Conference Centre. No such public
education program from the world’s biggest corporation.
If you’d like more information, you can email me at
gbowden@bbc.org. Writing this has inspired me to search for
another conferences to attend this year.
18 www.bbc.org