It's nearing the end of the year, which means it's time to pause, reflect, consider what you've accomplished in the past 12 months, and then craft a presentation abstract for the 2009 PTC/User World Event so you can tell us all about those ACL tricks and XUI hacks.
Even if you've never presented before, you should submit an abstract. Presenting sounds intimidating, but it's not. It's fun, even. The 2008 Event was my first time presenting at any conference of any kind, and it couldn't have been a better experience. By presenting, I learned more and talked more shop with other Arbortext users than I did during my first PTC/User, when I didn't present.
Of course, I'm not (and Clay before me wasn't) really pitching this purely out of altruism. I want more Adepters to present because it makes PTC/User better, for me. PTC product demonstrations are great, but the real value of the conference comes from the technical presentations of real users doing real Arbortext development. That can only come from us.
There are some past PTC/User and AUGI presenters and attendees - many of which you'd recognize from Adepters - who are ready and willing to help any potential presenters (new and repeat) pick a topic, review abstracts, and later, give feedback on the actual presentations. Later, they'll become friendly faces in the crowd when you finally get on stage. These people were a great help to me last year as I navigated the presentation process for the first time. Contact me or Paul Nagai (-) if you're interested.
Summing up: As Clay said recently, the benefits of presenting at the PTC/USER World Event are:
1) Free admission to the conference
2) Recognition from your peers in the Arbortext user community
3) Increase your professional profile for yourself and your organization
The deadline to submit abstracts is January 6, 2009. Hope to see you in Orlando.
