Ah yes, the good news and the bad news. The bad news: it’s over already, and I may not see my new and old friends for at least another year. It was a privilege to be in your company, and I wish you all, both Datawatch staff and my fellow conference attendees, the very best.
The good news: it was another successful year for the conference with terrific speakers and trainers who shared their invaluable knowledge and expertise. I’ve definitely come away from it with some new ways to excel with Monarch.
On to the recap; here’s my experience of the final day of the conference.
The morning began as each day traditionally does at the conference with a general session with a special topic presented by a member of the Datawatch staff. Today’s was led by Harvey Gross, but just before Harvey’s presentation Datawatch’s John Kitchen presented the second annual Tom Whiteside award in recognition of someone in the user community who they feel has been an evangelist for the Monarch program. Last year the award was presented to my good friend and contributor to ExcelWithMonarch.com, Mr. Grant Perkins.
Tom was an enthusiastic Monarch user who had attended, and presented at, other conferences and was an active contributor on the online forum. Unfortunately Mr. Whiteside passed away a few years ago.
In fact, though I never met him in person, he made a huge impact on me, and what at the time was a budding interest in Monarch. He’d assisted me personally both on and off the forum via email, and when some issues arose with the forum related to the software used to manage the forum, he insisted on changes which stand to this day.
Then one day, I received an email from his wife informing me that he’d passed away. Initially I was of course shocked and saddened, and it took me a day or two to realize the significance of my receiving an email from Mrs. Whiteside.
Tom had to have been so passionate about assisting others in their quest to succeed with Monarch that it must have been a regular topic of conversation in their home. So much so that I must assume that he mentioned people enough by name, people whom he’d likely never met, that she knew my name, and that I would want to know of his passing.
So it really did impact me pretty dramatically when Mr. Kitchen announced to the group that the recipient of the award for 2008 was… me!
It really is a huge honor, and I’m still in shock. Thank you very much for the acknowledgement of my meager efforts to date. I’m just pleased that Datawatch as a company continues to give me a forum (pardon the pun) to share my ideas with its customers both online and offline, by presenting at its recent conferences.
Anyway, enough about me. This wasn’t ever meant to be about me. It’s about how you can excel with Monarch. To that end…
At the first breakout session of the day, I repeated my presentation as I’d done on Monday for a new group. Thanks for your time and attention, and I hope that you got something positive out of my session that you can take back to your organization to make some positive “changes”.
Right after me, Datawatch’s Mike Urbonas ran a session spotlighting Monarch’s “Nooks and Crannies”, little known but immensely beneficial aspects of Monarch to improve your productivity with the product.
At lunch I met up with Mr. Gareth Horton and we had a quick review of some little tools I’m working on. They’re almost ready to share with you. Soon. Hopefully. 
After lunch Gareth turned the tables on me and was kind enough to give a sneak peak at what he’s been working on for the last while. And while I’d love to share that with you… sorry, can’t do it. 
That day will come, but not yet. Soon. Hopefully. 
Well, it’s been a big day. An unexpectedly huge day. Time to wrap this up and get on a plane to head home.
If you attended the conference, and were able to attend other sessions that I wasn’t able to attend, I’d love to read your comments about what you’d learned and saw at the session. Unfortunately you can’t attend everything, especially when you’re presenting, and I always feel like I missed out on something great.
Drop me an email, or post a comment on the site, to share your impressions of either specific session, or just about the conference in general.
I hope that you share my feeling that the Datawatch 2008 User Conference enhanced your ability to excel with Monarch.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Congrats Sandy on winning the Tom Whiteside award! You deserve it with all the help you provide everyone on the forum and here and even at the conferences.
I remember attending your presentation you gave at the 2005 User Conference and talking to you after the presention. I picked up some good tips from you that I still use every day at work.
I remember Tom Whiteside from the forum when I started using Monarch a few years ago. I was surprised when I heard of his passing when I read it on the forum back then. He always had good tips and a lot of patience for the new users.
Congrats again Sandy on winning the Tom Whiteside award. That puts you in a very exclusive group, Tom, Grant and now you. True Monarch Masters!
Thanks Ralph, that’s really very kind of you. Hopefully we’ll get together once again for UC2009!