September, 2008
by Bill Jouris, CMG '08 Program Chair
CMG'08 will be held in Las Vegas, Nevada, at the Paris Las Vegas hotel complex December 7th - 12th, 2008. The Conference Home Page is:
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/
The deadline for Early Bird Registration (October 10, 2008) is fast approaching. Now is the time to get out there
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/reg.html and get your registration done. Hey, it's all about saving money - just what most of us do for a living already.
While you're at it, you might as well get your Hotel Registration done, too. CMG has arranged for very attractive hotel rates with the Paris Las Vegas, so register early to take advantage of the very reasonable room rate of only $127 per night plus taxes! The number of rooms at this rate is limited, so you will want to book now while rooms at the special CMG'08 conference rate are still available.
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/hotel.html
The Editorial Review of the papers accepted for CMG'08 has finished, bringing the process of putting the program together almost to an end. I say "almost" because we still have a few days left before the deadline for Late Breaking Paper submissions. But compared to the large number of original submissions, even the tight deadlines to review and edit those seems relatively relaxed, at least to me.
I want to especially thank everyone who submitted papers this year, and all of the volunteers who refereed and edited them. We not only couldn't put together a great program year after year without you, we couldn't put the conference together without you. Thank you all!
So, how do you find out what great things are in store? The online preliminary agenda is now available. In addition to letting you see what is available, it allows you to custom build your agenda for the conference so that you can make the best use of your time at CMG'08. You can access the agenda at:
http://www.cmg.org/agenda/
While you're there check out the newest feature: Off-the-Shelf schedules for various topics that will provide you a preselected set of sessions for your chosen topics. This is a great way to show your boss all the sessions related to your (or their) areas of interest!
We are also very happy to announce CMG Extended Training. This is new in 2008 and requires advance registration. CMG-ET runs Saturday thru Monday at the start of CMG week - thus allowing you to attend a Conference plus a class, for just one travel expense. Unless your manager has a serious budget surplus (and I have yet to encounter one that does), they have to love that! For detailed information, see
http://www.cmg.org/cmgnews/items/CMG-announces-Extended-Training-at-CMG-08.html
But briefly the offerings are:
ISEB Practitioner Certificate in IT Service Management: Specializing in Capacity Management
A training course culminating in the ISEB examination to earn an ITIL® Practitioner's Certificate in Capacity Management
For registration and more information
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/itil-course.html
Nalini Elkins' TCP/IP Performance Management, Security, Tuning, and Troubleshooting on z/OS
This intensive seminar is designed to provide the attendee with an understanding of the performance management of their TCP/IP network, socket applications, and TCP/IP stack.
For registration and more information
http://www.cmg.org/conference/cmg2008/tcpip-course.html
Now that we have the agenda set we are looking for volunteers on-site to assist with session monitoring and chairing. This is a great way to get involved so please consider volunteering. For more information or to register to volunteer go to: http://www.cmg.org/volunteer
As I noted above, our volunteers are what make this great conference possible.
Bill Jouris
Program Chair
CMG ‘08