Evaluating vCampus Live! 2011 - What are your impressions?

Discussion created by MvanderVeeken

on Dec 6, 2011
Latest reply on Jun 12, 2012 by jcasanova

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vCampus Live! 2011 was a great success. We had almost twice the number of attendees compared to vCampus Live! 2010.

This year we had a lot of new things. The biggest change has to be the 3 tracks of hands-on sessions. I believe the concept was very well received, even though there were some (serious) hiccups with some of the Virtual Machines. The Developers Lounge also received good comments. Having the general sessions in the food area was also well received!

Rhys has blogged about his experience during vCampus Live! with a good response from Rick Davin. You can find that blogpost (with the comment) here.

We as the vCampus Team would like to thank everyone who attended. You made this event awesome. We had some really great discussions during the breaks, but especially during the Vox Pop sessions and the Roundtable discussions.

vCampus Live! is our event, so it's up to us (as the community) to make this awesome. That's why we need your feedback and post-vCampus Live! feelings. We really value your opinion in order to make vCampus Live! 2012 a worthy sequel.

vCampus Live! 2012 has been scheduled for the week of Nov. 26th 2012. We received some concerns that this was just after the US Thanksgiving holiday. Please note that the actual dates are not set. We will probably have a same schedule as this year (starting at a wednesday with the official event, and tuesday being the pre-conference day).

What did you like? What did you not like? What would you like to see again?

Here are some pictures to give an impression of the event!

The vCampus All-Star awards, with (r to l): Ahmad, Lonnie, Asle, Rhys, Dr. Kennedy, William Leong, Michael

The registration desk

One of the great discussion sessions.

That guy looks concentrated

Meal time: a great opportunity to network!

The Developers Lounge

The Developers Lounge, with (r to l): Steve Mohr, Steve Pilon, Ray Verhoeff

Outcomes

26 Replies

Ahmad Fattahi Dec 6, 2011 7:03 PM
Michael made a very good wrap up report. Let me add a couple of points:

1) The PI System 2012 Technology Adoption Challenge was kicked off. It means if you develop something valuable based on the following technologies and send an entry to OSIsoft Users Conference 2012 you will have a chance to win and be part of the UC 2012 keynotes and breakout sessions, and also enjoy some special privileges on vCampus such as your own blog space:
- PI Server 2012
- PI Event Frames
- PI Notifications
- Asset-based Technologies and PI AF
2) Congratulations again to our newest All Stars Lonnie Bowling, Asle Frantzen, and Rhys Kirk! Great job guys. The field is already open for the next year All Stars to impress the community. As they say, "post to impress"

3) We learned a lot and are working hard to improve on the implementation of the hands-on sessions. It was clearly a step in the right direction which might be repeated during the Users Conference as well.

Thanks again and hope to double the size of the event again in the week of Nov 26, 2012 at vCampus Live! 2012!
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- rdavin @ Ahmad Fattahi on Dec 7, 2011 1:51 PM
  As for the proposed dates for 2012 ... the week of Nov 26, 2012 is not bad by itself - but it depends on which part of that week we are talking about. If the event is held on Wed-Thurs again, specifically Nov 28-29, it would be greeted with cheer by my co-workers. But if the event is held on Mon-Tues, namely Nov 26-27, then the dates bump up against the heavily traveled American Thanksgiving holiday. Sun Nov 25 is also more expensive to fly specifically because it is heavily traveled.
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  - rdavin @ rdavin on Dec 7, 2011 2:17 PM
    Mentioned elsewhere but more on it. Without a keynote dinner on the 2nd night, the conference kind of just fizzles out. Knowing that budgets are a concern, I'm not suggesting a dinner be hosted. I know there were some attendees who could better afford the conference specifically because they could fly out mid-Thursday afternoon. Perhaps there could be some wrap-up event like an early happy hour in the Developers Lounge. Nothing too grand so that those that leave early feel they are missing out, but something of enough substance to bring the event to a close.
    
    I liked the first two vCampus Live! events where the last presentation of the day had random candid shots of the conference.
    
    Perhaps could have a moderator solicit comments right then and there about what they liked or disliked about the conference. Just a thought.
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    - MvanderVeeken @ rdavin on Dec 7, 2011 6:33 PM
      Rick Davin
      
      Mentioned elsewhere but more on it. Without a keynote dinner on the 2nd night, the conference kind of just fizzles out.
      
      This I agree with. Like you said, there was no general 'ending' to the event, other than the sessions ending. I don't think a 'formal' dinner would be the right way to end it, but a good 'get together' with food and some kind of closing and evaluation would be more suiting. If we keep this informal, people can choose too attend that ending, or they can choose to leave early for bussiness or economic reasons. Just like you suggested.
      
      Rick Davin
      
      Knowing that budgets are a concern, I'm not suggesting a dinner be hosted.
      
      I don't think that it's really a budget concern, rather than finding a suitable end. I think us geeks can appreciate a nice 'get together' with some nice food more than a formal dinner. You will have much more freedom to roam around and evaluate the event with peers and OSIsoft staff.
      
      Rick Davin
      
      Perhaps could have a moderator solicit comments right then and there about what they liked or disliked about the conference. Just a thought.
      
      Yes, I like that idea.
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      - rdavin @ MvanderVeeken on Dec 7, 2011 7:24 PM
        @Michael ... my comments about budget wasn't aimed at entirely at OSI for the cost of hosting a dinner. It also applies to certain attendees, particularly those on the West Coast a short plane ride from SF. I think some budget-minded people were more able to attend by strictly staying 2-nights (Tues & Wed). They could miss the tail end of the conference, leave early Thursday afternoon, and not have to pay for another night at the hotel for Thursday night.
        
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        MvanderVeeken @ rdavin on Dec 7, 2011 7:33 PM
        Rick Davin
        
        @Michael ... my comments about budget wasn't aimed at entirely at OSI for the cost of hosting a dinner.
        
        Right I did misinterpret that. Thanks for clearing that up.
        
        That's good information to have, so we can try to accomodate these situations!
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        Ahmad Fattahi @ MvanderVeeken on Dec 7, 2011 11:28 PM
        Thanks for the feedback and suggestions Rick; we will definitely consider your points. One addition from our angle is that we had to change the date pretty late in the game due to Microsoft BUILD. It put us in a tough situation not only in terms of budget, but more importantly with respect to available space and rooms in the hotel. As you may have noticed we were sharing the hotel with two other events.
        
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        wpurrer @ Ahmad Fattahi on Dec 8, 2011 1:12 AM
        * their should be a "level" beginner/advanced differentiation of the Hand on sessions.
        
        * I hope you post the "documentation" of the hand on session's + presentation's soon.
        
        * the vox pop session and the presentation provided the most value to me. (and one hand's on session about sap integration)
        
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        Ahmad Fattahi @ wpurrer on Dec 8, 2011 1:37 AM
        We have already put this down as a very good suggestion for next year; thanks for bringing it up!
        
        We are working on the documentation and the recordings. We will be able to post most of the workbooks soon. Some other ones are difficult to replicate due to the involved nature of the environment.
        
        We are glad you found the Vox Pop and presentations useful! Hope to see you next year in vCampus Live! 2012!
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        francois_ruel @ wpurrer on Dec 8, 2011 1:38 AM
        Hi!
        
        In the good Hands On Labs I participated, is the one about PI OLEDB Enterprise. The reason, good balance between product presentation, potential application and finally the lab. Many of the hands on session were mostly typing labs. In those typing labs I asked many times what is the goal of the lab. I think there is no gain in labs where you just follow a book. Some presentation, tips and trick and then hands on labs on what is important for the topic will be awesome.
        
        Francois
        
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        spilon @ francois_ruel on Dec 8, 2011 1:11 PM
        François Ruel
        
        In the good Hands On Labs I participated, is the one about PI OLEDB Enterprise. The reason, good balance between product presentation, potential application and finally the lab.
        PI OLEDB Enterprise... AND PI JDBC ;) Remember, there was one Java guy in the room :) Good thing I spent all that time swearing at Swing components that don't behave the way you want did you like the lab, Bruno??
        
        On a more serious note, glad you liked the lab and many thanks for the feedback! And also glad you liked the Transpose Functionality in PI OLEDB Enterprise... Hopefully that was useful to a number of other folks!
        
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        Lonnie Bowling @ spilon on Dec 8, 2011 11:17 PM
        OK, just catching up after a few crazy days at work. I’m on the road again and have some time to get my thoughts collected on the conference. Overall, I felt that vCampus Live 2011 was a big success and gave our community some needed momentum. I agree with what others had to say about the labs, a good step in the right direction, I don’t have any more to add on that subject.
        
        My biggest enjoyment was just talking with other vCampus members and OSIsoft employees. I had a couple of great extended conversations in the dev lounge. I think the lounge could have been laid out a little better so that people would be brought together, it was too easy to hide out in the corners maybe more whiteboards, with a couple of PI severs available, so when the conversation gets really technical we can bust open AF or whatever is needed.
        
        I could see there were some issues with the room sizes on the first day and I didn’t really like the sign-up for sessions. I know there are limitations for computers in the labs, but the other sessions don’t really require it.
        
        The Vox Pox (sp?) was great, but seemed to lack people voting on a subject. Not sure why, the mobile/cloud one I sat in on the second day had at least 20 people, but only 6 votes on the board!
        
        Also, a few of the presentations I attended were a bit “infomercial-ish” for 3rd party software. I would much rather see someone coding or explaining the complex nature of PI buffering. It is good to know about those software packages, but I don’t want to spend 60 minutes of my time hearing about them. I really like the real-life stories of how PI is used. Think “Reality TV, PI style”.
        
        OK, enough negative stuff, on the positive side…
        
        I really, really like all the prizes that the All-Stars received I think next year we should even pile more lavish gifts on them, all right j/k on that last point. But seriously, it was a great honor to receive the award this year, no prizes needed.
        
        I like that Pat came up and spoke; it felt like “vCampus” has arrived! I talked to Michael about how I would like to see vCampus have a much larger profile at the UC Conf. I think we have a lot to offer the “non-geeks”.
        
        The way the announcement for vCampus Live 2012 was done on the second day totally rocked! Great idea, loved how twitter was used. How about if there are live feeds of our twitter stream in a few places next year, that way people can see what is happening and will be encouraged to get involved in the twitter-sphere.
        
        OK, I’m really bummed I missed the SCADAHacker’s presentation, please, please get it posted ASAP, I can’t sleep at night, it is killing me.
        
        Great job to all the OSIsoft folks that worked on the event, I appreciate the hard work!
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        MvanderVeeken @ Lonnie Bowling on Dec 10, 2011 7:15 AM
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        Overall, I felt that vCampus Live 2011 was a big success and gave our community some needed momentum.
        
        That's really good to hear, we as the team feel the exact same way.
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        My biggest enjoyment was just talking with other vCampus members and OSIsoft employees. I had a couple of great extended conversations in the dev lounge. I think the lounge could have been laid out a little better so that people would be brought together, it was too easy to hide out in the corners maybe more whiteboards, with a couple of PI severs available, so when the conversation gets really technical we can bust open AF or whatever is needed.
        
        That was also one of my biggest enjoyments: being able to talk to a lot of you guys and share idea's. Good comment on the Developers Lounge. We feel the same way exactly. We feel that the Developers Lounge can have a real central place in the event. For next year we are definetly going with the same concept, only in a more centralized way. We are making an effort to give it a much more central place that will attract more attention.
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        I could see there were some issues with the room sizes on the first day and I didn’t really like the sign-up for sessions. I know there are limitations for computers in the labs, but the other sessions don’t really require it.
        
        Could you elaborate a little bit more on this? I think you can appreciate the fact that we are trying to have the hands-on sessions in a more 'intimiate' fashion. Having a hands-on lab with 100 attendees seems far too much for us. We do want to keep a closer eye on the popularity of sessions, and (try to) repeat the populair sessions so everyone has a chance of attending.
        
        Registration for the event is our way of measuring the popularity of those sessions, so we can try to repeat them. I personally see no other way in measuring that, and ensuring people a seat in their session of interest.
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        Also, a few of the presentations I attended were a bit “infomercial-ish” for 3rd party software. I would much rather see someone coding or explaining the complex nature of PI buffering. It is good to know about those software packages, but I don’t want to spend 60 minutes of my time hearing about them. I really like the real-life stories of how PI is used. Think “Reality TV, PI style”.
        
        I get you. For me there are two sides to this though. I personally love the in-depth coding sessions, where the presenter takes you from A - Z in coding a specific solution. On the other hand, I really like to see what other people have accomplished: just to get inspiration, and witness what is possible. We are making an effort to keep the 'marketing' to a minimal level, and make this a true technical event. That comment is valuable, and we will take it with us in preparing for vCampus Live! 2012.
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        I really, really like all the prizes that the All-Stars received I think next year we should even pile more lavish gifts on them, all right j/k on that last point. But seriously, it was a great honor to receive the award this year, no prizes needed.
        
        With the chance of sounding cliche: your earned it! Your efforts to the vCampus community are very much appreciated. Offcourse we have to make an effort to top this years prizes . That also means that you have to pursue your 2nd All-Star (like Rhys and Asle)
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        I like that Pat came up and spoke; it felt like “vCampus” has arrived! I talked to Michael about how I would like to see vCampus have a much larger profile at the UC Conf. I think we have a lot to offer the “non-geeks”.
        
        Pat's talk was really inspiring, and I really hope the message came across to everyone. We hope to get the video's up as soon as possible by the way.
        
        We are planning a larger UC profile for vCampus. Stay tuned, vCampus members will not be dissapointed
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        The way the announcement for vCampus Live 2012 was done on the second day totally rocked! Great idea, loved how twitter was used. How about if there are live feeds of our twitter stream in a few places next year, that way people can see what is happening and will be encouraged to get involved in the twitter-sphere.
        
        I like the idea of the Live feeds, definitly something for us to consider! I liked the fact that people used #VCL11 in their tags, even as they were arriving home from the event. Thanks for everyone that helped us get the word out on Twitter!
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        OK, I’m really bummed I missed the SCADAHacker’s presentation, please, please get it posted ASAP, I can’t sleep at night, it is killing me.
        
        It was one of the coolest presentations I ever saw. You may want to know that Joel Langill (the scadahacker) is really enthusiastic about vCampus, and he will probably have some blogpostshere in the near future... Video's are being processed, we really try to get them up as soon as possible.
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        Great job to all the OSIsoft folks that worked on the event, I appreciate the hard work!
        
        Indeed. A lot of people from OSIsoft went to great lenghts to get everything done. This was the first time I was involved in organizing this event, and I had no idea what was involved in getting it done (it's a lot...). The same goes for non-OSIsoft people, with attending and presenting (and being active on the vCampus forums).
        
        All I can say is: keep the good comments comming. We are already working on the vCampus Live! 2012 event, and it is going to be more awesome than ever...
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        RJKSolutions @ MvanderVeeken on Dec 12, 2011 1:06 PM
        One other thing that I just remembered that was 'missing' from the event.
        
        Throughout the year of posting we make reference to posts that are extremely good for one reason or another, for example Charles Henze gave some in depth posts on PI SDK that have been very useful.
        
        I wonder if these posts should be showcased at the Live! events in categories? "Most informative post of 2012", "Most popular blog of 2012", "Post with highest number of replies 2012", etc
        
        Categories with the post nominees could be decided by the vCampus team and then voted on by the community.
        
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        MvanderVeeken @ RJKSolutions on Dec 12, 2011 3:04 PM
        Rhys @ Wipro
        
        Throughout the year of posting we make reference to posts that are extremely good for one reason or another, for example Charles Henze gave some in depth posts on PI SDK that have been very useful.
        
        I wonder if these posts should be showcased at the Live! events in categories? "Most informative post of 2012", "Most popular blog of 2012", "Post with highest number of replies 2012", etc
        
        Categories with the post nominees could be decided by the vCampus team and then voted on by the community.
        
        That's really cool that you bring that up! We have been discussing this before the event, but it kind of fizzled out. I don't know why, maybe because the overload of other stuff that had to be taken care off. After vCampus Live! we have revived the discussion, and we are definitly going to do this. It's very nice to know you had the same idea.
        
        You will be hearing more about this in the coming year. Any extra comments, insights or tips regarding this?
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        rdavin @ MvanderVeeken on Dec 12, 2011 3:25 PM
        I agree with Rhys on recognition of posts. However, I'm more of a believer in qualitative vs. quantitative regarding posts. I want more steak and less sizzle. Quality of content over volume. In the vein of doing more with less, I'd rather have more information with less reading!
        
        So a big thumbs up categories of "most informative" or "most popular" but a thumbs down to "highest number of replies". Just one man's opinion. A post with a high number of replies generally falls into 2 categories: (1) someone who keeps asking for a lot of help and flood their own post with lots of questions, or (2) a post where a dozen or more vCampus members have a lot of replies. In the case of the latter, it would most likely be a post in the running for most informational post.
        
        I'd also like to avoid a predicament where someone could intentionally flood their own post just to generate high numbers. Skipping this as a category keeps people more honest and hopefully would add to 'better' posts, not just simply 'more' posts.
        
        I also agree with Lonnie on the seating for presentations, although I think some misread his remark. The hands-on sessions should have limited seating, especially to provide quality hands-on time with that class. However, I don't think the presentations needed to be capped at the same 50 limit, other than the physical dimensions of the room and layout of chairs. But then again, maybe it's good the presentations were not doubled to 100 because it would have made my presentation all that more empty! It might be tough to concentrate with a lot of echoes bouncing around.
        
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        Lonnie Bowling @ MvanderVeeken on Dec 12, 2011 10:52 PM
        Michael @ OSIsoft
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        I could see there were some issues with the room sizes on the first day and I didn’t really like the sign-up for sessions. I know there are limitations for computers in the labs, but the other sessions don’t really require it.
        
        Could you elaborate a little bit more on this? I think you can appreciate the fact that we are trying to have the hands-on sessions in a more 'intimiate' fashion. Having a hands-on lab with 100 attendees seems far too much for us. We do want to keep a closer eye on the popularity of sessions, and (try to) repeat the populair sessions so everyone has a chance of attending.
        
        Registration for the event is our way of measuring the popularity of those sessions, so we can try to repeat them. I personally see no other way in measuring that, and ensuring people a seat in their session of interest.
        
        This comment is mostly related to having to sign up for sessions where there is only a lecture, no hands -on. Some people (like me) don't want to scheduled the entire conference because sometimes I have other things grabbing my attention. Often I decide last minute what I may want to attend. This was the case for the PI 2012 session on the first day. I did not sign up, so waited outside the room (that was too small for everyone to attend). I was able too get in, but I think there might have been people turned away.
        
        If you want to find out what is popular, can't you just count the number of people that are in the room? This could be recorded pretty easily. Anyway, I think the bigger problem was the limited # of spots for sessions that were held in the Napa room. That was mostly what I was getting at. Last year there were two tracks in the large room downstairs, I don't think those rooms ever filled to capacity. Also, I think a good way to figure out what was popular is to include that in the survey cards. I know it is a pain to get people to fill them out, but I'm guessing that giving away prizes this year helped. Maybe have a drawing and every time you fill out a session survey, you get a chance to win a prize. Anyway, just ideas, I'm sure most of this has been thought of or considered already.
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        MvanderVeeken @ Lonnie Bowling on Dec 13, 2011 10:54 PM
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        This comment is mostly related to having to sign up for sessions where there is only a lecture, no hands -on. Some people (like me) don't want to scheduled the entire conference because sometimes I have other things grabbing my attention.
        
        I get you. This was also something that has great priority for 2012.
        
        To be honest, the issue this year was that due to the event being rescheduled due to Microsoft Build, we had some smaller rooms in the hotel. This will be very different next year
        
        Lonnie Bowling
        
        If you want to find out what is popular, can't you just count the number of people that are in the room?
        
        Sure, but we need to have some idea beforehand in order to know what sessions are popular and we might want to repeat.
        
        edit: spelling
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        MvanderVeeken @ MvanderVeeken on Dec 14, 2011 12:08 AM
        Here are some additional pictures from vCampus Live! 2011
        
        Presentation from Track 4.
        
        The audience during one of the general sessions.
        
        Steve Pilon and John Baier
        
        Rick Davin, Chris Manhard and yours truly
        
        One of the discussion sessions (Vox Pop or Roundtables)
        
        Central area on the 2nd floor (first floor for most Europeans )
        
        One of the Vox Pop whiteboards used for voting for - , and proposing sessions
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        Asle Frantzen @ Lonnie Bowling on Dec 14, 2011 1:05 AM
        All right - finally found some time to chime in here :)
        
        Firstly - I'm honoured to get the all-star award again, and I'm looking forward to another interesting year in the forums. And also, I'd like to congratulate Rhys and Lonnie again with their awards! Well deserved!
        
        I agree with many of the things already mentioned here:
        
        - Like the small problems with some of the laptops/vmware images in the hands-on sessions, but considering this was the first time for this I think it was ok (at least for the sessions I attended).
        
        - Some of the labs were too simple or too advanced for some - one of my colleagues who's daily work doesn't include Visual Studio, was thrown head first into an AF development lab, and I attended a session which turned out to be setting up a few common (to me, at least) interfaces. Ok, to be fair I have to admit that some of these things were mentioned in the abstracts part of the event website, but speaking for myself - I probably read through that quickly during a hectic registration process a couple of months before the event. And by the looks of a couple other comments - so did other people as well.
        
        Going to Microsoft events is a pretty tidy affair - they clearly distinguish between TechNET (configuration) and MSDN (development) tracks, and use level numbers (100, 200, 300, etc) to determine how advanced the content is. I would like to see some sort of indication for next year's event - and maybe have it not only in the "extended descriptor" but also in the name of the session. Like [Dev. 200] or [Config. 100].
        
        - I think that some of the hands-on sessions were extremely valuable - and some were extremely hectic & exhausting. The valuable ones was the "self-paced" ones, where you could have a variety of different tasks to try, and the OSIsoft specialists would come see you if you had questions or comments. I didn't really like the other kind, where both the instruction booklet AND the presenter told you step-by-step what to do. Even though some of the sessions had interesting content.
        
        - One of the reasons it became hectic could be that the US keyboard layout made my typing very slow, and this is something I also heard from other non-US attendees. I would like to use my own laptop, I've dragged it halfway across the world in the first place, so please
        
        - Another thing with the laptops/vmware setups is that it was a bit tricky to copy files to a memory stick, so that I could keep the example files. At least when I do assignments in this kind of hands-on setting, I would like to keep my own code - have it accessible for later. Maybe a few of these hands-on session points could be solved with allowing us non-US attendees to use our own laptops, and just connect to the OSIsoft virtual labs environment as we have done in the learning labs the previous years? Or possibly by keeping the vmware images on external harddrives - and just have people install the vmware viewer as a pre-req?
        
        - There were three hands-on tracks and one presentation track, and for obvious reasons only the presentation track was video recorded. I only attended hands-on sessions, since I can see the presentations when they're published online. I think I would prefer having two presentations tracks next year, and maybe include a wider range of tasks to do in each of the hands-on sessions. If you had a wider range of OSIsoft experts/topics in self-paced hands-on sessions people could move on to other topics if things became difficult/less interesting/etc.
        
        - I also agree that there should be a proper ending of the conference thursday afternoon. 15 minutes wrap-up would be enough.
        
        - I think Rick mentioned this somewhere else, but coming from last year's "complimentary internet access" I expected it this year as well. It's no problem to pay for it, but as Rick said, it would be nice to know! I got my 3G data high-limit text message warning from my provider already on tuesday evening
        
        Moving over to the pro's:
        
        - I really liked the Developers Lounge concept. Throughout the year I have ideas and plans which could be discussed in the forums, but there's never a better venue than discussing face-to-face, especially when I get a valuable 15 minutes with the AF crew for my AF question :) Maybe it could have been a bit more organized though, you "never" knew when you'd catch the experts for your exact problem - they were possibly in a session. My only regret is not spending more time in the developers lounge - most likely due to the fact that I booked too many sessions :)
        
        - Having the stage in the Gold ballroom to get announcements and speaks during the meals was a good thing
        
        - The Vox Pop sessions were great, but could get more time in the future. I ended up going to the same topic both times, and we still didn't have enough time. (Maybe the Vox-pop's should be recorded as well, at least for internal OSIsoft use.) PM's (or vCampus team) should start discussion threads immediately after the sessions, to sum up what was said - and to encourage further discussions!
        
        - The Vox Pop I went to was called "PI AF as an Enterprise Integration Layer", and this topic was so wide it could deserve its own conference. I think a lot of those attending these sessions had touched into at least one of the challenges which were discussed, and the guys from Wipro were definitely preprared with their challenges and requests. Even though many didn't say much I saw many agreeing nods when the different challenges came up.
        
        - Another thing I liked was the WebParts 2012 session. Even though it had a few bugs and wasn't ready to be released yet, we still got to play with it. Excellent! Only wish we could have seen ProcessBook 2012 as well!
        
        - I also loved the "Troubleshooting from the trenches" session. Getting tips & tricks you normally can't read in a book, or details you normally overlook when reading the manuals. I'm sure I'm not alone having at least a couple of "how, what, where, etc" questions about PI products at any time. More "nice to know" stuff highly appreciated!
        
        All in all I think this year's event was the best one so far! Let's work together to make an even better event in 2012
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        MvanderVeeken @ Asle Frantzen on Dec 14, 2011 3:03 PM
        First of all: thank you for your extensive reply!
        
        It's good that you have a lot of the same comments that other people also have. This shows that vCampus has the same idea about the conference. This goes for the positive feedback, but also the comments on topics to improve. We use these comments to prepare for vCampus Live! 2012, and make sure it will be even better.
        
        Asle Frantzen @ Amitec
        
        Going to Microsoft events is a pretty tidy affair - they clearly distinguish between TechNET (configuration) and MSDN (development) tracks, and use level numbers (100, 200, 300, etc) to determine how advanced the content is. I would like to see some sort of indication for next year's event - and maybe have it not only in the "extended descriptor" but also in the name of the session. Like [Dev. 200] or [Config. 100].
        
        We have vCampus Live! as the technical conference which both holds configuration and development. Distinguishing between the two seems a pretty good idea. Also the idea of prerequisites and skill level indication has come up. We are definitly taking those comments with us in preperation for 2012.
        
        Asle Frantzen @ Amitec
        
        - One of the reasons it became hectic could be that the US keyboard layout made my typing very slow, and this is something I also heard from other non-US attendees. I would like to use my own laptop, I've dragged it halfway across the world in the first place, so please
        
        Good one. I'm also European, but I'm so used to using the US layout that I don't think about the other layouts that often . I can imagine this can be a real hassle if you are used to a different layout.
        
        Using computers provided by OSIsoft saves a lot of time in getting ready for the session compared to people bringing their own. But I think we can certainly discuss if there are some possibilities there.
        
        Asle Frantzen @ Amitec
        
        I also agree that there should be a proper ending of the conference thursday afternoon. 15 minutes wrap-up would be enough.
        
        Are you also thinking of something informal? I also really like the idea of having a wrapup, and the time for people to mingle and evaluate the event.
        
        Asle Frantzen @ Amitec
        
        The Vox Pop sessions were great, but could get more time in the future. I ended up going to the same topic both times, and we still didn't have enough time. (Maybe the Vox-pop's should be recorded as well, at least for internal OSIsoft use.) PM's (or vCampus team) should start discussion threads immediately after the sessions, to sum up what was said - and to encourage further discussions!
        
        Yes, we also noticed that. Now they were 45 minutes, I'm thinking extending it to an hour and having the possibility to maybe have those continue in the Developers Lounge?
        
        Asle Frantzen @ Amitec
        
        All in all I think this year's event was the best one so far! Let's work together to make an even better event in 2012
        
        That made me smile! For me this was also a very very successful event, and indeed: let's all work together during the year to make vCampus Live! 2012 even more awesome
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        Asle Frantzen @ MvanderVeeken on Dec 14, 2011 3:57 PM
        Michael @ OSIsoft
        
        Good one. I'm also European, but I'm so used to using the US layout that I don't think about the other layouts that often . I can imagine this can be a real hassle if you are used to a different layout.
        
        Writing in English on a US keyboard is not really a problem, but programming on one is a different matter. At least here in Norway we have three more letters in the alphabet, they're placed between the P and L keys, and the Enter key. This makes all the typical "coding characters" be placed somewhere else. I imagine other countries having the same thing.
        
        Michael @ OSIsoft
        
        Are you also thinking of something informal? I also really like the idea of having a wrapup, and the time for people to mingle and evaluate the event.
        
        Yes, just a quick wrapup where everybody gathers and you'll have your last chance at exchanging a few words if there are still people you haven't talked to. There could be more developer lounge time after that, or possibly roundtables, etc. At least for us coming all the way from Norway it would be interesting to hang around a bit more - we're usually not flying out until a day or two after.
        
        Michael @ OSIsoft
        
        Yes, we also noticed that. Now they were 45 minutes, I'm thinking extending it to an hour and having the possibility to maybe have those continue in the Developers Lounge?
        
        Exactly! I think that many of the attendees in the sessions I went to would gladly spend another hour in the Developers Lounge if the discussions continued.
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        spilon @ wpurrer on Dec 8, 2011 1:03 PM
        Wolfgang P
        
        (and one hand's on session about sap integration)
        A topic of big interest, indeed... In fact this was partly the goal of the Wednesday 6pm Roundtable Session, but we ended up talking about other, also very valuable, topics. That said I would like to kindly invite you, or anyone else with interest in the topic, to initiate a discussion thread on the topic in the PI System Integration discussion forum. What are the main use cases and goals? What are the challenges or gaps with integrating PI System data with SAP? What is the best approach and why?
        
        I''m thinking we could very easily organize a Virtual Roundtable Session in a not-too-distant future, if that discussion generates enough interest...
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        jcasanova @ spilon on Jun 8, 2012 3:04 PM
        Good morning Steve, I would like to know how SAP can be integrated with the PI system. What are you need for do the integration?, I need integrate the module CO, PM, FI of SAP with PI.
        
        Best Regards
        
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        Gopal @ jcasanova on Jun 11, 2012 8:44 PM
        From a license standpoint, you need PSA Server.
        
        And, then it depends on whether you're planning to use the SAP technology stack or Microsoft technology stack and what middleware, if any.
        
        I understand integration w/SAP-PM, but can you please elaborate on the specific use cases for integration w/FI-CO?
        
        Also, please look at this:
        
        vcampus.osisoft.com/.../vCampusLive2011_5F00_SAPMaximoLab.zip.aspx
        
        Thanks.
        
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        jcasanova @ Gopal on Jun 12, 2012 9:28 PM
        HI Gopal, please Can you send me more information about the integration of PI and PM SAP. Will I need the Biztalk adapter?. I just know that the client requires integrating PI with PM SAP to generate maintenance orders depending of some events of the assets. (pumps, valves, etc).
        
        Thanks for all.
        
        Antonia Keudari
        
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