This year's TechWave was a marked improvement over the last few years. Overall I'd have to say that 1994 and 1995 were the best Sybase Tools conferences ever. Since then their value to me has declined, though they were still worth the time and money. The two areas in which I've been disappointed in past years were the technical sessions and Sybase's inability to communicate their vision. TechWave 2000 contrasted sharply.

Sessions
Most markedly, in 1997 and 1998, rather than having a good mix of beginner to advanced topics, I found the sessions to be too basic, though undoubtedly they were valuable for beginner- and intermediate-level developers. As a senior-level consultant and PB developer, I had difficulty finding sessions that challenged me. Not so at TechWave 2000. Most developer sessions were non-PowerBuilder and focused on EAServer, J2EE, Java, e-commerce and other new technologies. The sessions on PowerBuilder were mostly about distributed architectures and integration with EAServer. I had no trouble filling my schedule with interesting and educational sessions. Ironically, the only complaints I heard were that there weren't enough introductory PowerBuilder topics.

Future Directions
As I stated in my conference reviews for 1998 and 1999, Sybase either didn't have a focused vision or was unable to convey it. It turns out they did have a vision, so the problem lay in their use of the conference to convey that vision to their customers and to the press. This year contrasted sharply with the past few conferences. John Chen, CEO of Sybase, and other top managers took the opportunity to clearly state their vision.

One of the questions to Chen during the press Q&A was whether Sybase still saw itself as a database company. Chen said, "Sybase is proud to be a database company but it is also much more." He then went on to describe the breadth of Sybase's offerings and indicated that database revenues are declining as a percentage of overall revenues. The answer was well thought out and gave current ASE customers the feeling that Sybase isn't going to turn away from them, and also got the point across that Sybase is no longer a database company.

Raj Nathan, vice president of the Internet Applications Division, ex-pounded later by saying that Sybase recognizes those areas in which it has failed and either accepts its market position or gets out of that market. This is true of ASE, holding only 3% of the overall large database market. It may not be a winner in the broader market, but it's the foundation of many of Sybase's enterprise solutions and a winner in the vertical markets they dominate. Sybase will continue to exploit its opportunities in those areas.

Nathan said that the tools market no longer exists. Instead, companies are looking for solutions that include database, application server and development tools. Few full solutions are available, so many companies settle for solutions that contain only a page server and an integrated development tool. Few are as broad or as good as Sybase's solutions. Though the trend away from client/server seems to bode poorly for PowerBuilder, Nathan told of Sybase's commitment to continue adding n-tier features to PowerBuilder, but indicated they won't be adding many new client/server features. To confirm that commitment, Sybase announced the PB8 beta and that they're taking requests and suggestions for PB9.

Venue
I think Disney World is the most popular venue of all the past Sybase conferences. It's certainly my first choice. The proximity of the sessions and conference events to the hotel rooms, restaurants and amusement parks is a big plus. Next year TechWave will be held at the San Diego Convention Center, August 12–16.

Special Events
This year's Wednesday night special event was held at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Sybase rented the whole park and put on a superb party. In addition to this event, special events were sponsored each night by a different Sybase division.

Vendor Hall
The quantity and quality of vendors seems to be improving. Though my focus was primarily on development tools and application servers, the hall represented Sybase's entire product line. This is one of the best opportunities of the year for companies to gain visibility with Sybase's customers. On the flip side, Sybase customers often find services and third-party products that are seemingly invisible the rest of the year.

Press Releases/Announcements
The large number of press releases and announcements made at the conference supported Sybase's commitment to increase their domination in the telecommunications, health care and financial markets, and to have a leading distributed architecture solution and enterprise portal. For more information on these topics see the Sybase news column and visit www.sybase.com.

Summary
With over 200 technical sessions, hands-on access to PB8 and other Sybase tools, direct access to Sybase managers and developers, free tech support and exceptional networking opportunities among the 3,000-plus attendees, TechWave 2000 was well worth the time and money.