Friday, May 4, 2012

Informix on Campus at IIUG 2012 Conference

Last week I had the pleasure to be a part of IIUG 2012 conference in (almost) sunny San Diego. The wonderful organizers of the conference did it again! In fact they outdid themselves in several ways. With a sold out hotel, a record number of sessions, and an increased number of users as well as total attendees, it was a great atmosphere. You can read more about the conference in the current edition of IIUG Insider newsletter (Issue #142).


The conference organizers once again welcomed IBM to invite and host faculty members from the regional universities on April 24th, the second day of the conference. We had two faculty members  from two universities at the conference: California State University at Long Beach, and University of Redlands. In addition, we had a representative who is also an Informix user from The University of Iowa. The faculty members were given a one day pass to the conference which included an invitation to Tuesday's keynote, conference sessions, demos, and a round table discussion with the IBM Informix and the IIUG leaders. At the round table, the attendees learnt about the latest Informix technologies, the role of Informix in the database market, and its role in the IBM Smarter Planet initiative.


This year another great thing happened on the academic front. For the first time, the IIUG Directors Award was bestowed upon a faculty member. Dr. Mirta Baranovic from the University of Zagreb, who has been teaching Informix to her students since the 1980s, won the IIUG Directors Award for 2012. You can read more about her passion and contributions to the Informix community here.


All the faculty members that attended the conference and the round table session found it very valuable and are looking forward to collaborating with IBM this Summer/Fall. A big thanks to everyone at IBM and IIUG who made this event a grand success!!