From the Websphere User Group UK:

It's only 3 weeks to our next WUG UK event at our regular Edinburgh venue and free registration is now open via our website www.websphereusergroup.org.uk. We've some truly fantastic speakers & some excellent topics planned for this fabulous location that can host 170 attendees.

The event will likely run from 09:30 to 16:30, with plenty of break time for you to network with speakers/attendees or to visit the vendor exhibition. As usual, the beverages & lunch will be provided on the day, so all you need to do is arrange your time out of office & your travel expenses, which can be very reasonably priced even at this time of year. Depending on level of interest, there maybe a pre-event social the evening before (not free, but not expensive either).

Unfortunately, due to extremely busy day jobs & it being the holiday season, it's taken longer than we'd like to confirm the speakers & the event agenda. We've therefore decided to delay no longer in publicising the event whilst the agenda is being finalised (to be uploaded to our website within next few working days).

As usual, we'll have a mix of UK based and international speakers, this time from the USA, Canada, Austria & Germany, including the return of 2 of our most-popular keynote speakers & biggest supporters, Jason McGee & Tim Vanderham. The agenda is expected to include c.20 sessions covering a number of special interest areas, including WebSphere Application Server (WAS); Java (JVM); WebSphere Portal; SOA & ESB; Web 2.0; and Emerging Technology, catering for a variety of roles, e.g. Administrators, Architects, Developers, Testers, Managers, Support staff, etc.

The session topics will include the usual mix of product strategy/updates, best practice/skills guidance, technology introductions and potentially some customer experience sessions (to be confirmed). Agenda highlights are very likely to include:-

• Early view of a major WebSphere platform announcement.
• WAS Consumability, Availability & Serviceability update.
• WebSphere Testing practices as recommended by IBM.
• Monty Jython's Scripting Circus: Introduction to Jython for WAS Admin.
• Diagnostic Tooling Framework for Java (DTFJ): A new breed of PD Tools.
• Java5 Reliability, Availability & Serviceability (RAS): A practical approach.
• What's Hot in IBM's Virtual Machine for the Java Platform (Java5/6).
• IBM Java 5 Garbage Collection: From Theory to Practice.
• Evolving Technology: Mashups & QEDWiki.
• Evolving Technology: Digital Communities & Community Development.
• WSRR Update & Integration Considerations.
• Connecting Enterprise Applications to WebSphere ESB.
• Leveraging WebSphere capabilities to deliver Collaborative Working solutions.
• Customer experience session - mobile working using WebSphere Portal.
• Iterative approach to delivering Portal solutions - IBM recommendations.
• WebSphere XD session.
• Web 2.0 and WebSphere (tbc).
• IBM Datapower session (tbc).
• SOA experiences sessions (tbc).

If there are topics you'd like to see us include this time around or in future, then drop me a line & I'll see what we can do with the help of our IBM colleagues (even at this short notice).

I hope to see as many of you as possible on 11th (and hopefully some of you on 10th). If you have any questions in the meantime, please don't hesitate to contact me via my email address - chairman -at- websphereusergroup.org.uk.

AS WE'RE LATE PUBLICISING THE EVENT AND TO HELP US ENSURE MAXIMUM PUBLICITY, PLEASE FORWARD THIS EMAIL ONTO YOUR COLLEAGUES, CUSTOMERS OR PEERS & SHARE YOUR POSITIVE WUG EXPERIENCES - IT REALLY DOES HELP & WE GENUINELY DO APPRECIATE IT.

Kind Regards, Rick.
(Chairman, WUG UK)