In thanking everyone for joining in the conversation at DIALOG 08, Jean-François Abramatic, ILOG’s Chief Product Officer was reminded of the second World Wide Web Conference that he attended in Chicago in 1994.

In the closing session of that event, the attendees were invited to debate the question of whether or not a physical conference was actually needed any more. After all, we now had the Web and email, so did we really need to travel hundreds or thousands of miles to a conference to meet each other in person?

After much debate, for and against the idea, the conclusion was that yes, face to face meetings like this were still an absolute necessity. The main argument put forward at the time? There is no such thing as a virtual beer…

So here we are, 14 years later. We’ve done a lot to leverage the web for this conference, both via our DIABLOG event blog and the DIALOG 08 website, and will continue to do so. Watch out for presentation slides and video footage of all track and keynote sessions that will be posted to the DIALOG website in the next few weeks.

Despite that, the value and enjoyment generated by this face-to-face meeting in Palm Springs is undeniable. Early feedback from our customers, prospects, partners, users, staff and executives has been overwhelmingly positive and plans are already underway to create an even bigger and better experience for DIALOG 09 (unless, of course, we decide to hold the conference in Second Life next year - where, incidentally, virtual beer has now been available for quite some time…) Watch this space!

This year’s DIALOG conference happened to coincide with the 80th Annual Academy Awards ceremony, so in true Hollywood style, I would like to take this opportunity to thank…

• Bruno for his Gallic charm and his faith in the whole DIALOG team,
• Pierre, for his good humor, his inspiration, … and his faith in my golf car driving abilities,
• Jessica, for her great blog input and for sharing her cookie with me,
• MC Joe, for keeping things moving,
• Aimee (aka Herbie), for her seemingly endless supply of USB keys and team spirit,
• Julie F, for her boundless energy and enthusiasm,
• Julie J, for her skills as a movie director (next stop Hollywood),
• Felicia, for her 9+ months of dedication,
• Rosemary, for her professional approach to customer service, and her calmness under pressure,
• Kevin, for just getting the job done,
• Cheryl, for her awesome xylophone skills - and for just being plain awesome,
  Check it out: here
• Nyrie, for her exec travel coordination talents, and for giving me a ride back from the airport,
• Monika, for her boundless devotion to the cause, her effortless charm and sophistication,
• Irv, for teaching me everything I’ve always wanted to know about mixed integer programming but had been too afraid to ask,
• Susan, for trusting in the blog initiative, even if I did get a bit ahead of the curve once or twice,
• Daryl, for taking time out from his vacation to drive to Palm Springs and blog from the trenches with me (I love you, man!)
• Martha, for her commitment to our customers and partners and her great input to the blog,
• James T, for lunch (even if I did have to bring my own),
• Jean-François for the free beer (even if it was just virtual),
• Allen, for the $2 bill,

Not forgetting everyone else in the back office, off-stage, on stage, or back at the office, who contributed above and beyond the call of duty. Also, thanks to the guys and girls from BrainSonic for their wall-to-wall video coverage of the event, and for the staff and management of the Westin Mission Hills Resort and Spa for accommodating our every need. It has been a great pleasure to work with such a talented and dedicated group of professionals on what has been a truly genuine team effort.

I join with the whole DIALOG team and everyone at ILOG in also thanking all the customers, prospects, partners, sponsors, journalists, and of course all our speakers, for being part of the conversation and making DIALOG 08 such a successful event.

As we look forward to next year’s event, we hope that you too will join the conversation and share your comments and feedback about DIALOG 08 here on the blog. Tell us what you enjoyed about this year’s event, what we could have done better, and what you would like to see more of at DIALOG 09.

The Dialog goes on…!

Tags: beer, DIALOG 09, thank you

Posted by Stuart Culshaw in Dialog 08, Dialog day 3. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.