Announcing PUG Challenge Americas

The death of Exchange as a face to face event has left a void in the Progress community. Many of us here in the Americas have been keenly jealous of the Europeans' ability to organize PUG Challenge and now we've decided to do something about it!

Our Goals

Ultimately it is all about content, technical content, geeky content. But aside from content (and more content) there a few other attributes that we want this conference to have:

Inexpensive.
- The venue (hotel) should be affordable.
- No "resort fees" and intenet access charges!
- Transportation should be affordable.
- The conference cost should not be prohibitive.
- An online option for people who cannot attend in person.
Easily reached -- the location should be easy to get to.
Provide "networking" opportunities.
- Plenty of peer networking opportunities.
- Receptions where one can actually have a conversation.
- Lots of chances to mix and mingle with PSC developers & product managers.
- An open and engaging "expo" with low barriers to entry.
Hands-on workshops.
Broad and deep, technically oriented, coverage of all Progress products.
- No marketecture presentations -- just real stuff.
- Technical "how-to" expositions of non-OpenEdge products.
- Sonic, FUSE, Actional, Apama, Savvion...
- Virtualization, "The Cloud" etc.
- A mix of the old and the new -- not just this year's new release.
Did we mention that it should be technically oriented?

Discussion Forum Created
We have created a Discussion Forum for everyone interested in what is happening or who is wanting to help organize and plan this event.

Unfortunately spammers descended on it immediately so a registration and confirmation process has become necessary. It is, however, as painless as we could make it and anyone with an interest is welcome! Register today so that we have your contact information and can keep you up to date as this event unfolds!

Many of you have participated in one or more discussions. Thank-you! And keep up the good work. Make your voice heard!

Status Summary

This is all preliminary -- you can still make your voice heard!
The "Early June" time-frame looks fairly good. Specifically June 6-7-8. The reasoning behind this is that it is nicely offset from other events in the community (Virtual Exchange, PUG Challenge and Virtual Interchange); as well as being sandwiched between Memorial Day and the start of summer.

We have emerging consensus regarding the "shape" of the event. Something similar to this is probably where we will end up:

At least 2 days, hopefully 3.
Roughly 4 parallel "technical" tracks.
A "commercial" track.
One hour sessions.
Some "workshops".
An "expo", probably continuously offered and with a low barrier to entry.
A focus on content over fluff.

The discussion regarding location and venue has been very productive. No hard decision has been reached but a consensus does seem to be forming that there are many persuasive reasons to favor a "Boston Area" location. A big part of the rationale behind this is that we would be local to The Mother Ship (Progress HQ) which would make it very easy for Progress personnel to participate.
In light of that preliminary proposals from several potential venues have been solicited and received. Highlights:

We are being offered room rates of less than $100/night. With free internet.
Flexible meeting space is available -- we can confidently host an event with anywhere from 50 to 500 attendees.
The meeting space is suitably professional.
Menus are flexible and affordable -- but food is definitely the biggest cost.
The responding venues are accessible to good airports.
Airport shuttle service is available at reasonable rates.
Alternative super-economy hotels are nearby.
The venues are close to The Mothership.