Spectrum 2016 Conference Recap
If you are doing anything MultiValue, the 35th Annual International Spectrum Conference & Exhibition was the place to be for networking, solutions, and education. MultiValue professionals from North America and around the world gathered in Phoenix, AZ, from April 11th - April 14th, 2016, for a week of professional development and networking. Oh, and Google was there, taking about Big Table and how to make it work with MultiValue.
This year's attendees walked away with over thirty hours of professional development education in MultiValue database technologies and integration. And that was just from the sessions alone. This year's included topics for beginners as well as our advanced sessions. We covered MultiValue specific information as well as other topics of a more general nature.
To see a recap video for the 2016 conference, go to:
http://www.intl-spectrum.com/resource/748/2016-recap-video.aspx
During the Welcome Address on Monday, Nathan Rector, President of International Spectrum, talked about what was required for turn legacy applications into next generation applications. One of his key points, which set the tone for the conference, was the idea that building next generation applications was all about layering technologies together. Software development has evolved, not in leaps and bounds, but by building on the previous technology layers.
With that in mind, there were many topics on building integrated software, APIs, and design consideration that would take your business data from green screen applications into sharing data with GUI, Mobile, Web, Windows 10, Outlook, and other external applications. It was clear from these sessions that new application development is about using the technologies that already exists, and enhancing it to do more.
Along with talking about how to extend existing MultiValue Applications, there was a lot of information for the new MultiValue developer and administrators. These sessions on the Fundamental of MultiValue database covered programming, dictionaries, and over-all system design.
There were several case studies done as well. One of the more popular ones was on "Hiring and Keeping Millennial Software Developers." This session turned into a discussion that extended well past the session time.
On Monday's lunch, we had a keynote session from Google. The topic was on cloud computing, and how it was no longer an "if" but a question of when and how. Seeing how Google is expanding Cloud Computing and how your MultiValue Application can take advantage of it, was very informative.
In addition to the keynote, there were several other sessions which discussed cloud and virtualization. With many businesses looking closely at whether to buy new hardware or virtualize their existing systems, these sessions took on questions of speed, storage, and design consideration. There were even checklists for when and if you should plan to virtualize into a private or public cloud.
Security and Encryption turned into a hot topic this year. With changes in credit cards and EMV/PCI compliance, identity theft, and crypto-viruses there was a lot of talk about how security your business information.
Following up the modern application design, mobile and web development was heavily talked about as well. These are no longer new technologies to the enterprise, but are turning into required technologies that companies need to implement.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, the attendees were able to talk to our sponsors about tools and products that would help their businesses. As always, we started with our Vendor Speed Dating, which is always a blast.
For those who do not know what Vendor Speed Dating is, all the sponsors get five minutes to talk to the attendees before the Sneak Preview party to inform them of things their companies can do for the attendees and the MultiValue marketplace in general.
You can listen to this year's Vendor Speed Dating at:
http://www.intl-spectrum.com/resource/750/2016-vendor-speeddating.aspx
During Lunch and in the evening, attendees would gather in various places to Network with each other. One of the greatest advantages that the conference brings to the MultiValue community is its ability to bring together the novice and the expert to compare notes and talk about what issues they are having.
In addition to the non-scheduled networking time, we also included ten-minute appointment blocks where attendees could talk with our conference speakers about any topic they chose, outside of the sessions.
The conference wrapped up on Thursday with our traditional Closing Conference party. Attendees enjoyed one last time to talk, laugh, and network with each other. They also enjoyed the sun, food and drinks.
Most of the attendees took advantage of our post-conference downloads and session videos as well. The chance to revisit popular sessions and get access to downloads provided by the presenters and sponsors has proven very useful. If you didn't get a chance to attend this year, and would like to access to the session videos and downloads, you can still pay a fee and sign up here (free to attendees):
http://www.intl-spectrum.com/conference/show/16/SessionDownloads.aspx
Now that this year's conference is over, it is time to start planning for the International Spectrum 2017 Conference. We'll be back in Phoenix, AZ. See you there.
If you have at topic or session you would like to see at the Spectrum Conference, please let me know. I am always looking for new ideas and new presenters.
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