Back again...

Hello again!

Apologies for the belated nature of this update - the couple of days I had between Glastonbury and going on hols ended up being far more hectic than anticipated, so the promised information about post-seminar updates went by the wayside, despite timely reminders in the comments of the last post from Sylv3r and Anon (thank you for being my surrogate conscience, BTW!). If it's any compensation, the first week of my holiday had rotten weather, so I have received some kind of punishment for my misdemeanours... Hopefully you'll be pleased to hear that I have at last got some information to pass on, albeit after a lot of you have finished for summer, but better late than never, eh?

Firstly, let's catch up on the small matter of the recordings of sessions. As we said at the time, this was a bit of an experiment for us, trying out different ways of enabling you to catch sessions you missed or wanted to revisit. We've managed to get three done, in a couple of different formats. The 'posh' one is James' CC4 migration session - we know there's a lot of interest in this one, so it got the fancy recording and production treatment. Not only was it recorded on decent equipment, but the Knowledge Team here at RM have turned it into a video with the slides for the session properly synchronised with the audio. It's also been split into a number of smaller chunks, and is available in both MP4 and WMV formats. Given the good standard of the recordings, the session has become the 9th Technical Spotlight up on the support website, so for all the links and details please point your browser at article TEC1010827 - the URL is:
http://www.rm.com/Support/TechnicalArticle.asp?cref=TEC1010827&nav=0

We've also got recordings of my two sessions, but at a somewhat reduced quality, given they were recorded with "low hi-tech" (that is to say, via my mobile with the handsfree kit mic!). As a result the audio quality isn't great, but we felt that it was better to provide them than just ditch them. So no slide synchronisation, no neat editing, and (an undocumented 'feature' of the phone I only found out about after the recordings) they stop very suddenly at exactly 1 hour, which is the most the phone will record. Having listened back to them, I also think they've raised the pitch of my voice a little, and you've got a nice "tapdancing' background noise, as they were recorded at Exeter, which is the only venue without carpets in the presentation rooms. Having got this long list of caveats out of the way, here are the two links in question:
The Other End of the Kaleidoscope: http://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/Downloads/Kaleidoscope.mp3
Infrastructure - Your Network Plunger: http://www.rm.com/_RMVirtual/Media/Downloads/NetworkPlunger.mp3

If you need the slides for the sessions to follow at the same time, remember that these are all available for download here: http://www.rm.com/Support/GeneralDownload.asp?cref=DWN1159961&nav=0. (This document, and the videos of the CC4 session, contain the updates to the slides that James made post-seminars to ensure the information is up-to-date.)

As ever, I'd be very keen to hear any and all feedback about these little experiments of ours - is this something you'd like us to do again in future? If so, what's the most useful format? Are the 'quick and dirty' MP3s sufficient to be helpful, or does it need to have the higher production values of the CC4 session? Fire them back via the comments field on this post and I'll get visibility of them all, and you'll be helping shape what we provide for you at the seminars.

Secondly, although we can't provide a recording of the 'hands on' CC4 sessions, we do have a lot of follow-up information. Mike finished the round with a long list of questions picked up during the round, and having been round RM to find the answers to them, he's posted it all on Communities. Swing your way over and check out the latest information at the following URL - http://communities.rm.com/forums/posts.aspx?postID=58636. (If you don't already have a Communities logon, it's a good opportunity to do so - assuming you already have a standard RM.com logon, it's a matter of seconds to set up your Communities account!).

That pretty much covers the updates for now, but more will be coming over the next couple of months - we're already planning for the Autumn round - so if you have any suggestions (particularly for the type of sessions you'd like to see) then again, please fire away in the comments section below!