The showcase was also intended as a concrete demonstration of the breadth and liveliness of open source in the region: giving those companies who perhaps aren't involved with open source to hear about the potential benefits from people already using it. And finally, as the OpenAdvantage project (in its current form) draws to a close at the end of September, we thought it would be a good finale for the work we've been doing.

The event was held at the New Technology Institute (NTi), Birmingham, on the morning of the 20th June 2007. Around 50 attendees made it, and it was good to see many familiar faces. The line-up of 13 speakers was put together on a first-come, first-served basis, so we were very pleased at the breadth of topics we ended up with. Given the number of speakers, each was limited to 10 minutes of speaking time, strictly enforced by a clockwork chicken: even with the time limit, only a couple of speakers were caught out by the alarm. The talks themselves covered a wide range of interests and approaches, giving an excellent taste for the liveliness of open source in the region:

• Richard Johnson (PixelPlanet Ltd.) explained how his company uses Plone to build corporate websites. As well as describing the benefits of open source, he briefly talked about the challenges in getting customers and employees to feel happy with it.
• Ian Moore explained how Friends of the Earth (Birmingham) has installed Edubuntu as a thin client solution throughout their offices, enabling them to recycle hardware and save money. It was also interesting to hear about the synergies between the ethics of free software and environmental action groups like FOE.
• Jake Stride (Senokian) talked about his company's Enterprise Groupware System, an open source CRM/ERP/CMS/ecommerce solution.
• Claire Wozencroft (C2B2) discussed iPoint, an enterprise portal system developed by C2B2 and released under an open source licence. She explained how C2B2 made the decision to open source their own software in an attempt to gather a community around it, potentially accelerating its development and growth.
• William Giddings gave a feel for programming with Tcl/Tk, a mature language with open source implementations.
• Richard Zybert (Zybert Computing) presented his company's Z1 Gem Server, a small business server complete with features such as file sharing, automated backup, firewall, mail server and web presence. He also set up a demonstration machine in the room which attracted quite a crowd.
• Reuben Pearse (Presence Systems Ltd.) explained how his company benefits from the low cost, simplicity, freedom, security and reliability of open source solutions.
• John W. Beeston gave an interesting talk about how he has benefitted from using Plone to run his business sites, as it gives him increased ownership of the solution.
• Peter King (SiteDesign) talked about the cost benefits of deploying Linux desktops and servers inside a small business, particularly with the imminent arrival of Dell machines installed with Ubuntu Linux.
• James Bulman (Blue Voice) gave an entertaining account of the ease and flexibility of using Asterisk to set up telephone systems, as compared to using proprietary systems.
• Kat Goodwin (PalePurple) explained how her company uses open source to build bespoke applications, highlighting the benefits to customers, such as faster and more efficient development cycles, more involvement in the development process, and ability to use commodity hosting and support.
• Barbie (Birmingham Perl Mongers) talked about the Labyrinth project, a Perl framework for developing dynamic websites.
• Richard Nicholas (Browne Jacobson LLP) gave an insight into how open source is viewed by local companies, in the context of agreeing software contracts.

All in all, we felt that the event was a success, and the feedback from the audience was very good. The short talk format worked exceedingly well, meaning we could get a lot of material into a half day event. There was also plenty of opportunity for attendees and presenters to mingle with like-minded business people, seeing some of the solutions from the presentations, and perhaps making new contacts or partnerships. We're hopeful that the event will play at least a small part in accelerating the take-up of open source in the region.

We'd also like to thank all the presenters particularly, for giving their time freely to share their experiences; and also to thank the attendees for making the event such a success.

Presentations from the event

A zip file of presentations is available. Please note that two of the speakers did not use electronic presentations.