It’s good to be back from the Avectra Users and Developers Conference for 2009; had an amazing time in the sessions learning about product enhancements, additional functionality, and meeting the friendly and amazingly knowledgeable staff.

I’d say some key takeaways for me would be:

• Strong focus on web services for integration; makes me excited about developing a mobile app
• Strong focus on Sharepoint as NetForum’s external presence and great conversation with susqtech.
• Each staff member REALLY knew their respective area of expertise and showed a willingness to find solutions
• Really good technical tracks in the conference series
• Brought back some good information and specifics on looking at the NetForum 3.0 upgrade

Some stuff I’d like to see:

• Would be nice to have a highly technical session for SQL developers and .Net; maybe sharing with the Q&A practices that Avectra’s developers use. I think that is what makes the ‘Open Developer’s Forum’ so good is because it allows for asking those kinds of questions … getting deep into the tech.
• OLAP … and this comes from the technical concepts at point above. I think business intelligence (BI) is a hard piece to integrate. From the developer’s perspective though it would be a great benefit to have Avectra put forward an OLAP structure its clients can build their own reporting and BI from. It’s something I’ve seen in other enterprise products such as BlackBaud enterprise (not quite the same market space but I think it plays).
• Access to power outlets in the conference rooms; on a few occasions it would have been great to pick-up a quick charge.
• Perhaps there is a way to improve the vetting of the association speakers; not displeased but one or two were a little more of a ‘miss’ than a ‘hit’ as I felt the content could go deeper.