UK IUG Meeting, 15th May 2003

Posted in 2003

Neil Truby — Tue, 20 May 2003 08:41:03 +0100 — source: Usenet: comp.databases.informix

The second UK IUG meeting was held on Thursday 15th May at IBM in Warwick. The event began with a welcome message from UK IUG Chairman David Linthwaite. Due to the late arrival of two speakers we had to improvise the programme somewhat, and the agenda proper began with a "DBA Tips and Tricks" presentation from IBM Consultant Spokey Wheeler. This was followed by a talk by Detective Sergeant Burtie Welland of the Metropolitan Police on the integration and sharing of police records held at individual stations amongst all areas of the Met. First up after lunch was Gary Proctor from the Database development team in the US. Gary talked through the IDS roadmap for IDS 9.40, 9.50 and beyond, and the parameters within which his product development team work under IBM. This was followed by breakout sessions: either Mark D Stock's Roles and Responsibilities (or the first half of it - he ran out of time!); or John Machtynger on Office Connect. The afternoon was rounded off by a question to our panel of speakers, a raffle of some IIUG goodies, and David's closing speech. Questions raised were: - Specific questions to Gary Proctor about plans for IDS - Questions on out-of-hours support from IBM - A question on IBM's commitment to Red Brick The attendance was around 65 - some way down on the last meeting in the Autumn. In addition, when David conducted a quick poll, it was evident that perhaps 15 people were attending a UK IUG meeting for the first time, which implies that a significant number who attended last Autumn didn't come this time. We did contact some non-attendees in advance, but the general reason given for non-attendance this time was "pressure of work" - we were unable to get any specific confirmation that the event was less attractive than before, or any reasons why this might be so. Thanks to IBM UK for providing the rooms and catering, and to Dawn Shannon, IBM User Group Marketing Programme Manager for providing the raffle prizes and handouts. We plan to hold the next meeting in Autumn 2003.