ISUG Focus Group
My next stop was an ISUG Focus Group on Sybase Education. We discussed a number of ways in which the education, training, and certification programs at Sybase might be improved and made more valuable to their customers. My own comments included:
•  The certification program needs to stay current with the product. Right now the PowerBuilder certification program is stuck at version 9 and 10, whereas 10.5 and 11.0 are the current versions.
•  That education offerings need to be recorded Webcasts that are shorter and more focused on a narrower topic area, similar to those offered by MSDN.

Sponsor Reception
Next was the sponsor reception in the exhibit hall. Because I had been at the Focus Group when this started, I arrived late after most of the food was gone. That's primarily why the booths in the exhibit hall look deserted. There were many more people wandering around the hall most of the time it was open.

Dinner with the PB Development Team
Fortunately, since I missed the food at the sponsor reception, Dave Tong (VP of engineering), Dave Avera (Mr. DataWindow), Evan Ireland (Mr. PowerBuilder Application Server Plugin), and a number of the developers from the Singapore office took pity on Millard Brown and me and invited us to have dinner with them.

Wednesday
Data Management Keynote
First thing Wednesday (after the continental breakfast and morning education sessions that is) was the Data Management Keynote. As with the Mobility Keynote on Tuesday, there was a Customer Panel afterward moderated by Irfan Khan and consisting of Chris Crosby (eSpeed), John Belz (Symantec), and Mark Carrington (LoanPerformance). Also similar to the Mobility Keynote on Tuesday, the bulk of the audience slipped out during the Customer Panel. Merv Adrian (Forrester Research) spoke next. By this time we were running close to lunch, and most of the rest of the audience slipped out. For those who left early, there is a recorded webcast (http://s3.podiumsystems.com/sybase/techwave2007/keynote3.html).

It was unfortunate that so many people left, because - once again - awards came next. First was the Special Agent 15 awards won by Paul C. Jackson (Western and Southern Financial Group), Eduardo Serikava (Caixa), and Grigory Kagan (eSpeed). That was followed by the ISUG Journal awards won by Paul Vero, Buck Woolley, Terry Voth, and Breck Carter.

Exhibit Hall Lunch
Lunch was in the Exhibit Hall. However, there was supposed to be a press lunch with Raj Nathan that I was invited to because this year I insisted on being included in press events. I tried to go to that instead, only to find that I had been given the wrong location - as a result, no lunch for me in either location.

Web Services as a DataWindow Data Source
Next stop was a packed session of the Web Services as a DataWindow Data Source class. Once again, a new PB11 feature class that was filled to capacity - a great sign.

Using PowerBuilder to Develop Applications for Oracle
My own session was next, which is why I don't have any photos. It's a beefed up version of the session I did last year. This time I added, among other things, .NET stored procedures, DBMS_PIPE, and DBMS_ALERT.

This year I didn't include the sample code in the presentation slides. Instead, I obtained a batch of refurbished 128MB USB flash drives and copied my presentation and all the sample code to them. Then I gave them to the attendees at the beginning of the class. I thought more people would have brought laptops with them to the class (I always do), but only three people had them with them. They still got to take the flash drives home, but I thought more people would have been able to look at the source code directly on their own machines during the class.

I recently upgraded to PowerPoint 2007. The new version has some great new features, including SmartArt graphics and a new Presenter View. The downside is that my Ovation for PowerPoint doesn't work with the new version, although the Presenter View addresses a large part of the reason I was using Ovation. The end result is that I was looking at the Presenter View on my laptop while the slides were shown on the screen to the session attendees. I also had the various tools (PowerBuilder, PL/SQL Developer, Visual Studio, etc.) running on my laptop and would drag them over to the second monitor (the screen shown to the attendees) whenever I wanted to show them code or a running sample.

The only downside was that I set up in a typical face-the-audience-with-the-laptop-in-front-of-me position, which meant that I had to keep looking over my shoulder to see what was on the screen the audience was seeing when showing the code samples or demos. It was a bit awkward and slowed down the presentation. Note to self: next time sit in the front seats in the audience so I can look right to see the screen and look left at the audience.

Discussion with Dimitri Volkman
As I mentioned earlier, this year I asked to be included in the press events. The only event I was able to attend was a one-on-one session with Dimitri Volkman. I arrived late because it was scheduled to start about the time that my own session was supposed to end. In the time we had available we discussed:
•  The "unified development tool" mentioned during the Tuesday keynote
•  The new Sybase org chart now that Raj Nathan is CMO

I'll cover that discussion in a later article.

Exhibit Hall Refreshments
Refreshments were provided in the Exhibit Hall.

PowerBuilder 11 Launch Event
Wednesday evening there was a PowerBuilder 11 launch event at the Rum Jungle. It was a bit dark and noisy (I could barely hear Sue Dunnell and Debra Harrington when they did the trivia contest), but otherwise I had a great time just chatting it up with other PowerBuilder fanatics. They handed out some real nice commemorative jackets as well.