Would the summit be worthwhile for a person who has no computer science degree & absolutely no computer programming background?

I currently use Developer Studio to write fairly basic programs which I learned by trial & error. I started off doing more basic cubicle office stuff, but got pigeonholed into this programming gig somehow.

Looking at the past year's Summit documents it looks way over my head & seems geared towards people with a more technical background.

I feel like I'd just be sitting there in a daze for the majority of the day. What do you think?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Kathryn Henning>,

I had the nice opportunity to attend Summit in 2012 and 2013 and really enjoyed it.

Though there are many sessions and presentations which are technical in nature, there are also quite a few sessions more business-oriented, showing things such as:

- Dashboards, visualization and adhoc query tools: Here the emphasis is on showing what's possible with WebFOCUS technology, more so than focusing on how to implement it.
- Trends and successful customer cases showing how IBI consulting in addition to the use of WebFOCUS and iWay technologies managed to implement diverse BI solutions
- There is a lot on emphasis on WebFOCUS 8 and many of the presentation are focused on user-oriented activities such as how to personalize a portal or build reports/dashboards using InfoAssist
- I also recall a very popular presentation that showed how to make the best out of Excel and WebFOCUS, and it's a bit hard to find someone on the business side who doesn't or hasn't used Excel


In my personal opinion, though there are interesting things to be learned from a Summit session, its focus is not so much on "teaching" how to use a particular tool but to make the audience aware of what's available and give ideas as to how it could add special value to their business, techies or not

There are of course some sessions that are very technical in nature (the ones I looked forward to attending actually ) that provide great information to those interested on that topic. I recall excellent presentations given by: Renee Teatro, Noreen Redden, Susannah Jones, Rob Palmer, Tony A, Larry Braun, Art Greenhaus and others whose names I unfortunately can't remember but that made it all worth it.

The key here is to carefully go through the agenda and pick sessions under topics that are more oriented towards business. If you get to go again, I think that you won't regret it.

I have enjoyed Summit each time I have gone. Some presentations are over my head. There are some labs, which are "introduction" to some of the tools like developer studio. I find these a great way to learn the tools.

I also think that seeing what others are doing with webFOCUS and what is possible is valuable.

Just my $0.02.

It is a great way to learn new things the tool can do. As stated the labs have lots of beginner stuff. It is worth going everytime..Study the agenda and pick out what you think you can benefit from. And go see some customer presentations on what other companies are doing.

its too much fun NOT to go. Welcome!

I echo everything our customers said.

I want to reiterate the point of labs on both our Portal and InfoAssist. We are still in the planning stages, but I would guess that you would see at least 3 InfoAssist related labs ranging from basic to advanced (however, even the advanced should be fine for a business user). We are also planning presentations and labs on our upcoming Data Discovery offering geared towards the Business user.

So definitely come. I was actually discussing this with my colleague and last year we both felt there was a shift from the past with many more business users coming.

Hope that helps,
Matthew

I had the opportunity to attend the 2013 Summit and I must say that it was an absolutely incredible experience. I spent most of my time at the hands on labs. While I along with everyone else had three labs with computers reserved for me, I was able to get a computer at many of the other labs. As I am new to the software also, I found the labs were very enlightening, especially when to see how powerful the software is and what it can do with very little coding. I found the instructore were very knowledgeable and there were plenty of people to help out if you needed help.

In addition to the labs, the entertainment was spectacular.

If you have never been to Summit and it is at all possible for you to attend, then I whole heartedly recommend that you get to Summit.

I came away from Summit being so very favorably impressed with Information Builders and their software.

whew.
'bout says it all.
applause.
and from a newbie!
welcome, cc!