Meeting Topic Lineup:

After scouring the four corners of the globe for speakers with the depth of knowledge and experience that Ontario PUG members demand, the Executive is pleased to announce the following topics and speakers for the Spring 2010 meeting:

What's New at Progress!
Dave Ireland, General Manager and Executive Vice President of Application Development 

There's been a sea-change at Progress Software with the appointment of five new "C" level executives, a new product strategy, a new sales organization, a new target market, and a new culture. During this session, Dave will discuss the motivation behind these changes, including Progress Software's overall strategy to raise their visibility in the market, grow the company, and how they are executing on that strategy.  Who is on the new executive team, what roles will they play in the "New and Improved" Progress Software, and what does this mean for Progress partners in general and the OpenEdge business roadmap in particular? Come to the meeting and find out!

Dave will be presenting via WebEx from Progress's headquarters in Bedford MA. 

Team Development: Best Practices and How-to's
Cameron Wright - Bravepoint

Distributed team development is a reality in all application development; OpenEdge development is no different. Fortunately, there are many tools for team development that can be utilized with OpenEdge development. This session will demonstrate some of those tools and discuss the best practices in:
• Issue tracking
• Version Control
• Automated builds
• Automated Unit Testing
• Coded standard reports

Cameron will be presenting via WebEx from Bravepoint's Atlanta GA offices.

William MacDonald – Architect Manager – Strategic Information Technology Inc.

Meeting Schedule:
08:00 - 08:50: Doors Open, Continental Breakfast
08:50 - 09:00: Meeting Opening, President's Remarks
09:00 - 10:30: "What's New at Progress!" 
10:30 - 12:00: Managing Change – The Better Way
12:00 - 13:30: Lunch 
13:30 - 15:00: Team Development: Best Practices and How-to's
15:00 - 16:30: Using OEA Projects in a Sandbox or Multi-Project Application

All times are Eastern Standard Time.

Each presentation block includes the presentation, Q&A, and break.

For those who are looking for an opportunity to get social, I'll be at The Old Mill's "Home Smith Bar" Wed night before the meeting around 7PM. The bar requires a $20 minimum food & beverage charge per-person. 

Speaker Bio:
David Ireland - Progress Software: David is the executive vice president and general manager of Application Development Platforms at Progress Software Corporation.

Ireland joined Progress Software in 1997 as vice president, core products and services, responsible for the development and product management groups that supported the Progress client/server and WebSpeed® product lines. Soon after joining Progress, Ireland assumed responsibility for worldwide field operations, and in 2000 was appointed president of the OpenEdge product division.

Ireland has over 30 years experience in the software industry - spanning mainframe platforms to desktops and has led sales, professional services, technical support and engineering functions for application companies as well as software infrastructure suppliers. Prior to joining Progress Software Corporation, Ireland served as vice president and general manager of PRISM products and services at Marcam Corporation.

Ireland holds a bachelor's degree in mathematics and computer science from Richmond College, City University of New York.

Michael Solomon - Tugboat Software: CISSP, PMP, CISM, GSEC, has been a full-time Progress/OpenEdge and Roundtable consultant/trainer since 1988. Michael is the president of Solomon Consulting, Inc., a provider of OpenEdge security, performance, Roundtable, and project management solutions for organizations of any size. From 1998 until 2001, he was also an instructor in the Kennesaw State University’s Computer Science and Information Sciences (CSIS) department and has authored several security and project management books and courses.

William MacDonald – Architect Manager – Strategic Information Technology Inc.:William is fairly new to ABL development and has only 7 years of experience in integrating Financial applications at SIT and is currently working on the next evolution of SIT’s product, Portfolio Plus, using the OERA. William also has over 12 years in Human Resource and Payroll application development and has been involved in a large number of integration projects over the years. William has experience in many development tools and platforms and attempts to harness those experiences to enhance the ABL development environment.

Cameron Wright - Bravepoint: Cameron is currently a Senior Application Technology Specialist in the advanced technology group at BravePoint. In this group, Cameron is focused on the cutting edge of application development not only in OpenEdge but Java, PHP, and C++. Currently, Cameron’s is working with OpenEdge message integration on an IBM WebSphere message bus.

With over 13 years of experience in the Progress community, Cameron has worked with several software packages including QAD’s MFG/PRO and CSS, in a wide spectrum of industries. Cameron has also traveled extensively as an instructor for BravePoint, delivering training in several areas of OpenEdge development.

Vendor Information:
Tugboat Software - Tugboat Software Inc., headquartered in Newport Beach CA., is a provider of innovative team management solutions that streamline human capital management and strengthen decision support. Products include Roundtable®, Schedule Optimizing Software (SOS), Vacation Scheduling. Established in 2000, Tugboat Software delivers products and support to industry-leading customers worldwide in both software development and manufacturing, including Alcoa, Applied Micro Systems, St. Jude Medical and many others.

CornerStar features the Aurora Analytics interactive data analysis tool designed specifically to provide the information small and mid-sized companies need to improve operations. CornerStar provides reporting services and Business Intelligence solutions through fully integrated business-specific data marts for Sales, Finance, Inventory, Manufacturing and Purchasing. Yes, Aurora Analytics is tightly integrated with Progress software meaning you can re-purpose Progress 4GL code.

Cyberscience is the developer and provider of Cyberquery for reporting, BI, analytics and dashboards. The product uses a Native Driver for Progress and other databases. Unparalleled speed and consolidated reporting across multiple database types are two of Cyberquery’s hallmark features. Multiple interfaces are available for all levels of users.

Strategic Information Technology (SIT) - Strategic Information Technology Ltd. (SIT) develops and sells Portfolio Plus, a complete, real-time banking software solution for banks, trust companies, credit unions and building societies. The functionality of Portfolio Plus banking software continues to expand and includes modules for loans, term deposits, investments, retail banking, point-of-sale, ATM, web banking, and accounting.

Location:
A great meeting needs a great location, and to that end the Executive has secured theBalmoral Room of The Old Mill Inn and Spa. This classic facility is a two-minute walk from the Old Mill subway station, a fifteen minute drive from downtown, and has 400 complimentary parking spaces.

Old Mill Inn and Spa
21 Old Mill Road
Toronto, Ontario M8X 1G5
Canada

Facility website: http://www.oldmilltoronto.com/index.php
Directions: http://www.oldmilltoronto.com/location.html 
PDF Directions: http://www.oldmilltoronto.com/OldMillMap.pdf
TTC Subway Map PDF: http://www.toronto.ca/ttc/pdf/subway_rt.pdf

Cost:
The cost to attend this event:

On-site: $100.00 / person.

Via WebEx: $100 / person, or $400 / site.

The on-site meeting price includes the meeting, continental breakfast, snacks during the break, and an excellent sit-down dinner.

All prices are in Canadian funds.

Vendor Table Registration:
Vendor tables are available for $150 each. Selection of placement locations in the fair will be allocated based on when registrations are received.

Meeting attendance charges are not included in the table charge and must be paid separately.

Overnight Accommodations:

The PUG Executive has made arrangements with The Old Mill for overnight accommodations at a discounted rate of $199 CDN / night.  Mention that you're attending the Ontario PUG meeting to get the discounted rate. 

Registration:

You can register at http://ontariopugspring2010.eventbrite.com

Payment by check or invoice is available, but you must register athttp://ontariopugspring2010.eventbrite.com to reserve your spot(s).

Invoicing is available on NET 14 terms. Please have all members of your company sign under a common company sheet.

Registration for vendor tables closes at 5:00 PM EST on Fri, Mar 12, 2010.
Registration for the on-site meeting closes at 3:30 EST on Wed, Mar 24, 2010.
Registration for remote attendance closes at 8:00 AM EST on Thu, Mar 25, 2010.

After the close of registration for the on-site meeting, admission to the on-site meeting will be $150 / person, and accommodated on a space-available basis.

Pre-Meeting Material Distribution:
Before the meeting starts the Executive will be sending an email to all registrants which contain a link to the meeting material (ie Powerpoint slides, code samples, etc.). For people attending remotely via WebEx, the WebEx link to the meeting will be distributed as a separate message. These emails will be sent out the day that the on-site registration closes, and the day before the meeting. Emails for any remote-site registrations made between the close of business the day before the meeting and the start of the meeting will be sent before the meeting starts.

All correspondence will be sent from ontariopug@gmail.com - please ensure that you have this address whitelisted by your spam filter.

Printouts of the slides will not be provided at the meeting, so if you want a hard copy to follow along with please print a copy and bring it along.

Cancellations and Refunds:
Refunds for on-site meeting registrations are available if the Ontario PUG Executive is notified before registrations close. After this time payment in full is required due to contractual obligations with the venue based on the registration count.

Refunds for off-site meeting registrations are available if the Ontario PUG Executive is notified before the start of the meeting. After this time payment in full will be required.

Communications:
Please send all correspondence to ontariopug@gmail.com.