About 100 attendees traveled to the UNITE 2011 Technology Conference and Exhibition, which was held last month at the Hyatt Regency Orange County in Garden Grove, California.
Sixteen vendors exhibited at the conference, including Applied Information, Attachmate, B&L Associates, Canam Software Labs, Dynamic Solutions, EMC Corporation, Formula Consultants, GoldEye Software, G Force Global, KMSYS Worldwide, Locum Software, Metalogic, Oracle, SMA, TeamQuest, and Unisys.
Highlights included a keynote by Ann Thureen, Unisys vice president of engineering and supply chain technology and infrastructure services, and Wayne Carpenter, Unisys vice president of sales, application modernization, and North American technology. Thureen and Carpenter laid out the long-term strategy for the ClearPath product line, which is an important topic for customers who have made significant investment in the technology, Jim Shelton, UNITE board chairman, tells 5 Minute Briefing. In addition, Unisys CEO Ed Coleman stopped by the conference and spoke for about 15 minutes, emphasizing the importance of users and customers as well as the value UNITE as an organization provides.
The UNITE User Advocacy Committee held a discussion about validating the metering information on Libra and Dorado platforms, said Shelton. UNITE acts as a user advocate, determining if something is a one-off event or an issue that might more widespread, and presents these concerns to Unisys. In this case, there were questions about how to determine which activities on the system are using how much of the metering units, and how Unisys verifies the impact on metered usage when testing their new releases. Shelton said that UNITE expects to hear back from Unisys shortly on how to improve the situation for users, which might be a simple as providing more education on the topic.
About 30 Unisys engineers from the Irvine plant (formerly Mission Viejo plant) were at the conference at various times, attending sessions, the lunches, and the Expo, and mingling with the attendees, providing an "incredible opportunity" for both parties, Shelton said. The conference sessions, as well as the conference venue, which was within walking distance of Disneyland, received high marks from attendees, Shelton added.
The location for next year's conference will be decided this summer. For more information, visit the UNITE website.