The conference starts in just a couple of days so I wanted to send out some important reminders to make the conference flow smoothly for you.
CMGET ITIL Class Attendees
Registration does not open until 4pm Saturday December 6, but your class starts at 8.30am Saturday morning so you will need to go directly to the room prior to registration. The course room is Palace 6 in Bally’s which is directly connected to the Paris hotel. Class should finish by 5pm that day and you can then head to registration. Attendance at this class is by pre-registration only and the instructors have a list of those who are registered so they will be expecting you.
Submit a question to the panels
CMG’08 offers a number of panels where you can go to ask questions. It helps us immensely to get some questions in prior to the panel so the panelists can better tailor the panel to expectations. This year we have panels on DB2, storage, AIX defaults, Linux/Unix Capacity Planning, System Z performance, and building responsive and scalable applications. Additionally we have the Michelson panel which focuses on Visualization. If you would like to submit a question to one of the panels please do so at:
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/panels.html
First Time Attendees
If this is your first time attending a CMG conference then it is a great idea to attend one of the two first time attendee orientation sessions. These will be held on Saturday December 6th and Sunday December 7th and all first time attendees should be receiving an invitation to them. If you have not received an invitation then please contact our headquarters staff at cmghq@cmg.org.
Badge Policy
To gain access to all CMG functions and meals, attendees and guests must wear conference badges and have the appropriate ticket. There will be no exceptions. Additionally, badges are also required to attend sessions and to enter the exhibit hall.
Registration
Registration opens on Saturday December 6th from 4pm to 8pm and then again on Sunday at 7am. Registration hours are included in the final agenda and will also be posted onsite.
Pre-registration is now closed but you can complete the form below and bring it to the conference to register onsite:
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/onsite-registration.pdf
Once you are onsite you will need to come to registration to pick up your packet. In order to do this you should bring your copy of your confirmation letter or email as well as a photo id. You will then receive your registration packet and can then head to collectibles to pick up your attendee bag.
Final Agenda and Handouts
We have now uploaded the final agenda to our web site. The final can be downloaded from:
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/CMG08-Final-Agenda.pdf
As part of our Green initiative CMG no longer provides hardcopy handouts. Instead we have now uploaded the handouts and they are available via the Online agenda at
http://www.cmg.org/cgi-bin/agenda_2008.pl.
Schedule your week
CMG’08 once again provides the facility to pre-schedule your whole week. Once your schedule is created you can print it or download it to your Palm or to Outlook. The scheduler this year has been updated to add several options – there is your personal agenda, a new off the shelf agenda where the scheduler picks sessions based on your interests, and we now offer a trip report option. The trip report option selects the sessions from your agenda and prepares an attendance summary for you to which you can add a summary of the session and what you took away from it. You can do all of this using our online scheduler at:
http://www.cmg.org/cgi-bin/conf_sched.pl
Speakers
Thank you for agreeing to speak. Our authors are critical to our success. Below are a couple of links to remind you of our presentation policies for papers and for posters. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact the Program Chair, Bill Jouris, at cmgpc@cmg.org. Additionally, we do have a dry run room available if you want to do a dry run of your presentation. Ask about it at registration or session control and they can provide you with details. If you would like a mentor to be there during your dry run please contact us this week at mentor@cmg.org
http://www.cmg.org/conference/presentation-policy.html
http://www.cmg.org/conference/poster-session.html
CMGT
CMG-T offers a concentrated program of introductory capacity planning and performance management education, taught throughout the week by industry specialists. The CMG-T curriculum spans the three essential areas that are fundamental for anyone new to the field: the measurement of computer performance, using statistical techniques for data analysis and insights, and modeling and workload forecasting to keep an enterprise on track to meet future business needs. If you are interested in attending these sessions a list of them can be found at:
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/training.html
Volunteer
We are always looking for onsite volunteers. If you plan to attend a session anyway or you are looking to get involved in some way then please consider volunteering to chair a session or to be a room monitor. There are also other onsite jobs that we need a little help with. If you are able to help out then please email us at volunteer@cmg.org
Exhibit Hall
The exhibit hall opens on Tuesday December 9 at 11.30am. This is your chance to visit with our vendor partners to get the latest information about their products and solutions. Exhibit hours and information on our exhibitors are included in the final agenda.
General Session and Keynote
The keynote session for the conference will be at 1.15pm in Concorde A. Our speaker is Steve Sams from IBM who will be speaking on Green IT. The general session and annual business meeting will be held at 5.30pm in Elizabeth D/E and we will walk from there to PARs at Margaritaville. Please try and attend the general session as this will help you orient yourself and will also let you see some of what is involved in running the organization and organizing the conference.
Meals
Breakfast will be served Tuesday through Friday in Vendome B/C and lunch will be served Tuesday through Thursday in Vendome B/C. Friday lunch will be a carry out and can be collected at Napoleons. Hours for meals are on the tickets and meals are only served during those times so please be on time. Additionally we have evening functions called PARs (Performance Analyst Relaxation Sessions). Monday night’s event will be right after the opening session and will involve a short walk to Margaritaville (about a block and a half). Don’t forget your badges and ticket books. Tuesday night is onsite and is a networking wine and cheese reception co-located with our poster sessions. Wednesday and Thursday night are also onsite and are our regular PARs events. Information on meals and PARS can be found at:
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/menus.html
and
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/entertainment.html
General conference information can be found at:
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/
We look forward to seeing you in a few days.
Jaqui Lynch
CMG'08 General Conference Chair