Learn how we tailored content, made a major partnership announcement and revealed our plans for OpenEdge 12.8—our upcoming Long-Term Supported release—the 2023 Progress OpenEdge World Tour in Las Vegas.
Many people worked tirelessly to bring all the details together for one great show in Las Vegas—the largest stop on our 23-city Progress OpenEdge World Tour for 2023. We hosted colleagues, partners, customers and sponsors from across North America and even welcomed some attendees from Europe. After so many years apart, it was great to see everyone together in one place again.
If you couldn't attend, fear not! What happens in Vegas need not stay in Vegas! Here, we recap the five things that made the event so special, informative and, dare we say, impossible to miss next year.
1. Content That Updates and Educates
Our post-event survey showed that 88% of respondents said the agenda’s content “strongly influenced” their decision to attend this two-day event. So, what was on the agenda?
John Ainsworth, EVP & GM of the Application and Data Platform team at Progress, opened with a Progress business update. He spoke about our recent acquisition of Progress MarkLogic and Progress Semaphore, and demonstrated to attendees the advantages of a non-relational database using real-world data and scenarios. John also announced our new partnership with Software Improvement Group (SIG). If you missed it, you can learn more about the capabilities by watching our joint webinar, A Comprehensive Approach to Enhancing Your OpenEdge Application.
Subsequent sessions broke out into two tracks. One track featured content with a strong business focus, covering why certain factors like security and modernization are important to an organization. The other track was for attendees, like developers and database administrators, who crave technical-focused material. Since we had a track for both segments, many companies sent two employees: one to cover each track.
2. A-list Presenters
In addition to John Ainsworth, we were pleased to have a second Progress executive join us in Las Vegas: Ian Pitt, EVP & Chief Information Officer of Progress. Ian’s presentation for the business track, Managing Cybersecurity: A CIO's Perspective, was a cautionary tale for any executive. We learned about the need to state and restate (often) the importance of security with employees and customers. Every time someone clicks something they shouldn’t, it’s a security vulnerability. An OpenEdge application that isn’t patched or modernized with the latest version is a target for bad actors.
The overarching theme of all the World Tour events this year: “We are ready for 2030 – are you?” We covered the main reasons businesses need to modernize their OpenEdge applications—from preventing security vulnerabilities and loss of competitive edge to offsetting loss of customers and staff due to outdated applications. Several of our sessions not only emphasized these key points but also provided valuable guidance, offering clear directions and actionable next steps attendees should take to ensure their own readiness. OpenEdge continues to innovate to stay ahead of these threats and support the more than six million end users who rely on applications powered by OpenEdge.
Michael Banks, Senior Principal Software Engineer, gave a talk titled Are You Vulnerable? Configuring PAS for OpenEdge with practical steps to mitigate risk in your testing and development environments. Jessica Malakian, Senior Product Marketing Specialist, discussed Growing Your OpenEdge Developer Base with step-by-step instructions for how to attract and train new OpenEdge developer talent.
We also brought in an outside voice, Dr. Arnal Dayaratna, Research Vice President, Software Development of IDC. Dr. Dayaratna’s years of experience with trends in software development helped tell the story of why modernization and preparation for the future are vital. He used IDC data to show the importance of creating a modernization strategy.
Our sponsors also brought their years of expertise to the audience. Event sponsors, Consultingwerk, ISCorp and Cyberscience were at the conference with booths and giveaways and helped to round out the OpenEdge offerings with supplemental products and services.
3. A Prime Location for Distinguished Guests
Las Vegas was a natural choice because of its central access from other US airports and its wealth of hotels, fine dining and entertainment options. As our first in-person event for the North American OpenEdge audience since 2019, we wanted to make it memorable.
Since Las Vegas is also the headquarters of one of our 2023 OpenEdge North America Partner Awards winners, FDM4, the World Tour event provided the perfect opportunity to recognize them in person. We also awarded some of our other incredible partners, DMSi, ISCorp, The Picas Group, Carrier Logistics and My Office Apps. As John Ainsworth put it, “Our partners are an integral and strategic part of customer success. Each recipient of this year's awards has developed applications that help solve complex business challenges and exemplify the power of Progress technology to deliver game-changing outcomes.”
4. The Big Reveal
Our final presentation seemed to be the session everyone was waiting for, The Future of OpenEdge. Rob Straight, Senior Director of Product Management, delivered a talk about OpenEdge 12.8—our upcoming Long-Term Supported (LTS) release. It builds upon the stability of 12.2, our last LTS version, and adds in many wonderful features and capabilities that were delivered with our Innovation Releases, most recently, version 12.7. Some of the key features Rob reviewed include the memory profiler, Kafka, OpenEdge Command Center, the Hardware Security Module and Dynamic Data Masking.
Attendees took notes furiously as Rob talked since the details he discussed are not currently available online and this was the only North American audience to receive this early information. We were excited to announce a major and exclusive product reveal that kept people’s attention all the way through the last session.
5. Feedback for the Future
In our follow-up survey of attendees, 100% of the respondents said they felt “positive” or “very positive” about their likelihood of attending an event like this next year.
To keep our events customer-centered, we have been listening closely to feedback from our attendees and those who were unable to join us this year. Our goal is to incorporate their suggestions into our plans for next year so we can deliver an even better experience for returning guests and newcomers.
Be sure to join us at a 2024 OpenEdge World Tour location so you can get in on the learning, networking and fun.
Joelle Andrews
Joelle Andrews is a Product Marketing Manager focused on Progress Customer Care. Joelle’s past experience includes two years with the DataDirect team and a decade of experience in other product marketing, marketing automation, and sales roles. Outside of work, Joelle loves hiking, getting lost in a book, rescuing cats, and traveling the world.