With 2024, Elevate returns to its previous post-COVID form. A two-day free online event with a call for papers and multiple technical session tracks running concurrently on the second day. This year they ran the Chat Café as 4 separate Zoom sessions running concurrently… more on that later.
Elevate 2023 was a bit different than the last three Elevates (2020, 2021 and 2022). It was still online and free like the last three. However, this one was one day only and only had a single track. Nonetheless, I thought it went well. In fact, based on the content of the chat it seems like the participants were more excited about the new (2022 R2) and planned (2025) features than they have been for some time.
Intro
Elevate 2022 was an online only and free conference just like the year prior. One major difference this year is that there wasn't a call for papers. Instead, I believe Appeon reached out to a number of the regular presenters from prior years and asked them to present at this years event.
Registration
Handled through the Appeon website again. One of the things I asked for last year was the ability to check off multiple sessions and have the site create a multi-event calendar import file. And I'm happy to say this year I got my wish! I also asked for a calendar view of the sessions so I could pick and choose between sessions running concurrently, and I got that as well.
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Intro
As with Elevate 2020, it was online (and free) again in 2021. Given the way that COVID mutates, they're currently planning on doing Elevate 2022 virtual as well.
Registration
Once again, the registration was done through the Appeon website. I'm still waiting for the option to select several sessions and get a single ICS file for all the sessions. Minor inconvenience. It occurred to me this year that I'd also like to be able to see all the available sessions in a calendar format to help me pick and choose between sessions that are running concurrently. Also not a biggie, just a convenience.
Well, this year's conference was definitely different. As a result of COVID Elevate 2020 was entirely online. In other words, no breakfasts, lunches, evening events, happy hour, etc. so they won't be part of the review this year.
Summary
I thought it went quite well, particularly given it was Appeon's first attempt at doing an entirely online conference.
Registration
Registration was done entirely through the Appeon website. The course catalog allowed you to see the session schedule and select those you wanted to attend. You could then download a calendar invite that you could use in your own calendar to remind you which sessions you wanted to attend and when they started. I had some issues with that when the catalog was first released, notified Appeon, and they had the website corrected by the next morning. About the only thing I would ask they add is the ability to select several sessions and then be able to download a single calendar invite file that contained all the sessions. Instead. I had to download separate invites and import them one by one into my Google Calendar.
The event was held at the same location as last year, except that last year it was a Sheraton and this year it's called Philadelphia Marriott Old City, (Marriott bought out Sheraton in 2016 and has been upgrading the old Sheraton hotels since.) The event ran from Oct 28th to 30th. This is the third year Appeon did it themselves, and they really seem to have worked out all the kinks. It was an excellent conference.
Registration
As with last year, you could check in for the event on the evening the day before the event started, which I did. The only real downside this year is that the badges didn’t have the person's name printed on them. It does have a QR code on the front which can be used to access the session catalog, and the back has a map showing how to get to Monday night's special event. I suppose that made check-in much easier as they didn't have to search for a particular person's badge. However, I would have liked to have an option to include a name. Perhaps a white strip at the bottom where we could write it in with a Sharpie or a clear plastic envelope or some other means of attaching a business card. A number of us did find a solution for that on our own.
Breakfast
Same as last year, biscuits with egg and sausage, fruit and coffee. Better that most conference breakfasts. At least it worked for me. I took a couple of them and then just ate the egg and sausage.
Summary
This was the second time that Appeon had hosted a PowerBuilder user conference on their own, and once again I thought it went extremely well, even better than the prior year. As with the prior year, attendance was good and quite diverse.
Facility
The conference was held in the Sheraton Philadelphia Society Hill Hotel. As it is a hotel and in a popular area with a number of other hotels nearby, there was no need for Appeon to provide transportation to and from the conference location as was required last year.
The meeting area was divided into four sections as highlighted in orange below: A&B (A1, A2 and B all combined), C, D and E (E1 and E2 combined). The keynotes were given in A&B and sessions were running concurrently in A&B, C, D and E. Breakfasts were provided in the Ballroom Foyer and lunches in the Hamilton Room.
