Key Highlights

Each day at Forum began with a thought-provoking keynote session. These were some of the highlights:

• Rob Ashe, General Manager of IBM BI and Performance Management, and Les Rechan, Vice President of Worldwide Sales Services and Solutions, shared the IBM Cognos product strategy and described the many ways that the IBM Cognos portfolio of products and solutions can help organizations thrive in a challenging economy.
• Ambuj Goyal, General Manager of IBM Information Management explained how IBM helps to create smarter enterprises with breakthrough BI and performance management innovation.
• Ray Anderson, author, entrepreneur, and one of the world’s most environmentally progressive business leaders, energized the crowd with his keynote speech, “Creating Stronger Businesses in a Greener World.”

More than 140 breakout sessions showcased products, solutions, and proven strategies for boosting business performance. In keeping with this year’s emphasis on practical knowledge and actionable strategies, those sessions that focused on the nuts and bolts of the reporting process were among the most popular. Here’s a partial list of the most heavily attended sessions:

• Creating Simpler Reports with Dynamic Prompt Pages
• Extreme Report Bursting: Performance, Security and Usability
• IBM Cognos 8 BI Report Studio: Advanced Charting Techniques
• Dimensional Functions: Building Blocks to Better Reports
• Flexible Financial Reporting Using Cubes
• Actionable and Real-Time BI
• Interactive Dashboards with IBM Cognos 8 Go! Dashboard and Dr Pepper Group
• IBM Cognos 8 Planning and Near-Real-Time Reporting

Networking is always best done face-to face. And it’s one of the most important reasons that people attend Forum. In 2009, these were some of the most popular networking activities:

• Birds of a Feather lunches gave attendees the chance to share experiences and insights in a small group setting. Only 10 people per table meant that everyone got to join in the discussion.
• Industry lunches were expanded this year to include Communications and Healthcare. Attendees were able to renew old friendships and make new contacts among people who use their IBM Cognos solutions to face the same challenges, day in and day out.
• Even in turbulent times, people need to get away for a few hours to relax. So our Customer Appreciation Event was held at Universal Studios, where “the movies come to life!” People enjoyed rides, 3-D theaters and dinner on a New York street scene.

No trip to Forum would be complete without frequent visits to our on-site resource center, Performance World.

Attendees browsed through more than 50 exhibits in Performance World’s four interactive zones, meeting representatives from our worldwide network of partners and taking advantage of the opportunity to test-drive and compare the latest BI and performance management solutions. Customers also shared their insights and perspectives with us. In the Feedback Zone, they gave us valuable feedback on new features and applications, as well as their reactions to experimental prototypes of the solutions of tomorrow.