I’m sat in the departure lounge, steadying my nerves after the taxi ride across town. My driver had that fluid yet aggressive style of driving common to city taxi drivers across the globe, coupled with a fondness for Phil Collins easy-listening. I was going to suggest AC/DC might be more appropriate but I didn’t want to distract him any further.
It’s been a vintage IDUG this year; the technical content is always superb and this year was no exception. Highlights for me were the sessions on Query Performance and Optimization by John Hornibrook and the Advanced Diagnostics and BLU acceleration sessions from David Kalmuk. I’m also going to recommend, to both clients and colleagues alike, that they download Steve Rees’ session on “Getting Top Performance from DB2 pureScale” as it could serve as a step-by-step checklist for how to find and identify bottlenecks in a pureScale implementation. Maybe it’s unfair of me to single out just a few sessions as they’re all worthwhile; technical detail, user experience, analysis and R&D sessions alike. But there are over 100 available sessions (not including keynotes and seminars) and you can physically attend a maximum of 19. Some are bound to stick out more than others, but I’m taking home rafts of notes and action points from all the presentations I attended.
Beyond the presentations themselves it’s great to hook up with the wider DB2 community; to see faces you haven’t seen since last year and to meet new ones. I’ve been able to put a face to the name for a number of people with whom I‘ve been exchanging views on technical issues for months. I’ve also met techies and users who have given me a fascinating insight into how DB2 is being used in different industries, in Belgium, Italy, Sweden, New Zealand and all points in between. I’ve gained insights into how some of the bleeding-edge technology of DB2 is being rolled out and used in anger in different industries, right around the world.
And, of course, I was able to offer my thoughts on all of this in my presentation this morning. I’m a relative IDUG ‘newbie’ so I tend to get the slot where people are wheeling their luggage in and looking at their watches to see when they have to leave for the airport. As was I. But, plug adapter and laptop in hand, I ran to my session room and was gratified to find a pretty full house even at this late stage in proceedings. I’d like to once again thank my audience for their attention and interest at the end of what has been a very busy, but hugely informative week at IDUG. A safe trip home for you all, but check to see if your taxi driver has Phil Collins on the CD player.
See you all in Dublin next year!