Reflections on ITARC

Rob Steward recently attended the IT Architect Regional Conference: Thought Leader Edition, and spoke on “Achieving Optimal Database Application Performance and Scalability.” In this podcast Rob shares about his ITARC experience. The podcast lasts for 1:57 seconds and can be listened to here: http://blogs.datadirect.com/media/ITARCConference.mp3

Rob Steward:

So I thought it was a great conference, fairly small, less than 100 people there, but there were some really big names in the software architecture world: Grady Booch was there, Angela Yochem, Bill Inmon, and John Zachman. There were a lot of big headliner names, and I thought the attendees brought a very high level of knowledge. I was impressed with everybody that I talked to. With less than 100 people and six or eight sessions going on, none of the sessions were very large.

My session on achieving optimum performance was actually a packed room. There were no empty chairs, although it was a small room. I really like environments like that where you've got a small, much more cozy audience. At this conference – due to the high level of knowledge of the attendees and the cozy setting -- I got to ask questions during my session, and to be honest, as a speaker I would much rather stand up there and be asked questions than just point at a screen and lecture. I thought, again, there were some really good questions that I got. I enjoyed talking with the attendees. I enjoyed listening to the panel discussions. I thought it was a very well run conference and very well worth the time. Really enjoyed it.