EclipseCon is very much a practitioners Open Source Business Conference too!

Someone told me yesterday they were not coming to EclipseCon because one of his engineers told him:

"...the sessions and workshops would be highly technical and pretty far over my head."

At that moment, I realized I have done a horrible job promoting the Business and Industry tracks at EclipseCon. That is unfortunate, because I've done one hell of a good job recruiting for it.

For example, here is the logical Business track for Tuesday at EclipseCon:

• Apples and Oranges or Fruit Salad? A look at open source versus commercial platform strategies. - Tim Wagner, Microsoft and former WTP Project Lead.
• Why did Deutsche Post open source to Eclipse? - Ricco Deutscher, SOPERA and former architecture expert at McKinsey.
• Open Source Meets Open Specifications. - Kenn Hussey, Embarcadero and involved in may Eclipse projects and OMG teams.
• How to Write Video Games and Create Shareholder Value in Enterprise IT. - Robert Lefkowitz, aka r0ml, former VP of Video Games at AT&T and various investment banking houses.
• Eclipse, Open Source, Wall Street and Competition: Big Drama, Big Money. - Brent Williams, Equity Research at The Benchmark Company.
• Four great short talks to end your day:
  • Eclipse In Japan. - Motoki Mori, NEC Soft
  • How to market your Eclipse project when you don’t have a marketing budget. - Marry Ruddy, Founder of Meristic and MIT MSM Graduate
  • Agile Development: A Business Perspective on How and Why it Works. - Damon Poole, Founder and CTO of Accurev.
    
  • UML Modeling in the Open Health Tools (OHT). - Dave Carlson, Independent Consultant and author of "Eclipse Distilled".
    

That's just the tip of the iceberg!

On Wednesday, for example, you have Rod Johnson of SpringSource talking about The Future of Enterprise Java. Patrick Wagstrom of Carnegie Mellon is talking about Value Creation & Cooperative Resource Exchange in the Eclipse Community.

On Thursday, for example, you have Neelan Choksi, former founder of president of SolarMetric (since acquired by BEA) talking about his experiences with What Traditional Businesses Can Learn About Developer Marketing From Open Source. Ian Skerrett from the Eclipse Foundation is leading a panel which includes participants from Boeing and metafinanz on Enterprise Open Source: Making the case for companies to create open source projects.

Can you please help me pass on the message that EclipseCon is very much a conference for everyone in the Eclipse and Open Source community -- technical and business?!

- Don

Another EclipseCon Schedule Easter Egg - Gamma and Wiegand

As I noted yesterday, there are some hidden gems in the EclipseCon schedule. Here's one that is easily overlooked -- Erich Gamma and John Wiegand are both speaking on Tuesday afternoon as part of the Jazz Developer Track of the IBM Developer Day.

- Don

An EclipseCon Schedule Easter Egg...

There are lots of hidden gems in the EclipseCon 2008 schedule. One great example is that BEA has arranged to have r0ml at EclipseCon again this year in a new talk titled "How to Write Video Games and Create Shareholder Value in Enterprise IT".

I have a question I'm dying to ask r0ml this year -- how exactly does one become the "VP of Video Gaming" various global investment banking houses?

- Don

EclipseCon 2008 Lanyard Sponsor

I would like to thank Birt Exchange by Actuate for being the EclipseCon 2008 Lanyard Sponsor. Until I started helping organzie Eclipsecon sponsorships I had no idea what a Lanyard was, so for my friends who have no clue what a lanyard is, they're these:


Actuate is well known for having very cool conference schwag -- the item to get from Eclipse Summit Europe was the "T-Equalizer" shirt -- keep your eyes peeled for this and other schwag at EclipseCon:




- Don

Power-up in the Cloudsmith Power-up Lounge

Were you at EclipseCon last year? If so, you may remember the popular Cloudsmith Power-up lounge -- a very comfortable and social area at the top of the escalator with excellent wireless coverage and a multitude of places to plug-in and recharge batteries between sessions.

Thankfully, Cloudsmith is a Gold Sponsor this year and the Power-up lounge will be bigger and more, uh, powerful than ever!

- Don

BlackBerry Developer Day at EclipseCon 2008

"Developer Days" are a new addition to the EclipseCon program this year. The BlackBerry development team is sponsoring a "BlackBerry Developer Day" on the Wednesday of EclipseCon.

There will be an overview of the BlackBerry development toolset in the morning session (after Sam Ramji's keynote go to the BlackBerry Developer Day room if you're interested). After the lunch break, there will two opportunities to sit down and go hands-on with the tools and write your own apps.

Space is very limited for the afternoon sessions and I guarentee this is going to be standing-room-only for the hands on parts. There is an option to Register for this developer day as you're registering for EclipseCon.

BlackBerry is also sponsoring the Poster Reception on Wednesday night. Should be a fun and interesting day!

- Don

Can you help promote EclipseCon, because apparently I'm too obtuse

Man am I embarassed.


I just did a keynote session at the STAR meeting at the NADA conferece about what makes Eclipse work and Eclipse as a platform for Innovation. I think it went over well and I even managed to pull out some Gena Gershon material and sort of made it work, I feel vindicated (long story and I am digressing).

But as I was about to start the keynote, someone from OMG said "you're going to plug EclipseCon I assume?". DUH, no, I had not thought to plug EclipseCon because I am obtuse (or as Bjorn would say, I am a constant source of disappointment).

I put in a plug for EclipseCon and sure enough a couple people in the audience tweaked on their love of CDT and said they plan to register.

So -- Are you helping to promote EclipseCon? Especially to audiences you might not think of (like Automobile Retail Software folks)? Just grab a graphic from the friends page, throw it on a slide and let people outside our usual suspects know about the event!

- Don

Check our new screaming fast AMD Hardware at EclipseCon

If you've kept an eye on the Eclipse newsfeeds lately you might have seen that AMD is contributing several Quad-Core AMD Opteron based servers to the Eclipse Foundation and we'll have one on display at EclipseCon in the registration area.

Denis is going to be running our EclipseCon Mirror site on some other AMD hardware that will also be on display at the show.

I'll leave it to Denis to describe the nitty gritty on what's in the all of the boxes we are receiving, but you should know when it was all confirmed Denis was dancing around like a giddy school girl. :) Apparently we need a new rack to hold it all!

Thanks again AMD and be sure to look out for their display in the Registration area!

- Don

Meet you at the Skyway Playzone or Teamprise XBOX Lounge?

Something very new and cool at EclipseCon this year, Skyway Software is sponsoring a Playzone in the Exhibit Hall -- Foosball tables, hoops and after the conference someone will win them as prizes!

Just a little further down the row you'll find the XBOX lounge -- courtesy of Microsoft and Teamprise. After the show? Win them as prizes too!



So if you need a meeting place during EclipseCon -- pick now -- "I'll meet you at the [Skyway Playzone | Teamprise XBOX Lounge]".

Thanks much to Skyway Software, Teamprise and Microsoft for these great sponsorship ideas!!!

- Don

A German St. Patricks Day at EclipseCon

What will the menu and atmosphere be like when four of our very cool Eclipse members from Germany sponsor the "EclipseCon 2008 Members and Committers reception" on March 17th at EclipseCon? Now imagine this -- the head chef at the Hyatt Santa Clara is himself German and says he's up to the challenge.

I happened to have rolled by the Santa Clara Convention center today in between meetings and I can't explain it, but there is already an EclipseCon buzz building...

- Don