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FME Worldwide User Conference 2008 Wrap-Up; Technical Presentation Slides Now Available Online

Jaylene Crick
March 19, 20083 min
Were you able to attend this year’s FME Worldwide User Conference? We thoroughly enjoyed being part of the fun as over 150 FME users, partners and Safers interacted, learned, and...

Were you able to attend this year’s FME Worldwide User Conference? We thoroughly enjoyed being part of the fun as over 150 FME users, partners and Safers interacted, learned, and shared their knowledge.

The conference started out with Safe’s co-founders, Dale Lutz and Don Murray, unveiling the upcoming announcement of the latest advancements in spatial data access with the release of FME Desktop 2008 and the newest addition to the FME family, FME Server. Their famous duo performance was a big hit as everyone learned about the new dimensions this latest release brings to spatial ETL (extract, transform and load).

Peter Batty, the keynote speaker, shared some amazing applications of cutting-edge technology in the geospatial realm. It still amazes me that a 3D model of Notre Dame could be pieced together simply from photos posted on Flickr.

Over the two days, FME users and Safe partners had the opportunity to share their knowledge in 28 technical sessions presented by customers from all over the globe. We thoroughly enjoyed hearing about all the interesting projects that FME is being used for – from tracking the success of food programs in Africa to providing real-time data in Google Earth dashboards and improving cartographic charts to enable pilots to safely find runways. If you missed the conference, it’s not too late to get a taste of the information that was shared at these sessions. Check out our FME Worldwide User Conference 2008 Presentations Web Page for the list of presentation slides and videos of the keynote addresses.

FME users also shared their complex data conversion challenges with Safe’s Doctors on Call, comprised of our own Safers from the support, professional services, and even development teams. The Doctor’s Office received a great turnout with many customers solving their FME project challenges thanks to healthy remedies from our doctors.

Back by popular demand, the FME Idol competition challenged four FME experts to a set of mini FME projects. Jeff Konnen of INSER SA took the coveted FME Idol title! Long-time expert Peter Laulund of KMS took an honorary mention for performing the entire contest using only the original command line instead of the FME Workbench interface!

We’ve already begun planning next year’s event, looking for ways to make it even better! Have ideas? — What time of year is best for you to attend? What location would you prefer? Would you like materials for your boss, explaining the benefits of the conference? Are there things you loved or didn’t like as much? Leave us some comments. We’re looking forward to hosting even more FME fans next year!

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