CO-LaN analysis of the above figures: the difference between priorities and satisfactions is not significant even if satisfaction is slightly over priorities on all topics. The conference contents matched the expectations of most participants. Every topic is rated in the middle range with “Meet other developers” running ahead: the conference is more targeted at developers than at users of CAPE-OPEN technology. Indeed the user community was under represented at the 4th CAPE-OPEN European Conference. This appears also in the fact that “Meet potential customers” has a rather low score. The “Test interoperability” item gets a rather high satisfaction rate meaning that the workshops went well. The last three topics are getting similar ratings, in the middle range.
Participants to the 4th CAPE-OPEN European Conference backed massively the same format for the 5th CAPE-OPEN European Conference: 26 out of 38 answers asked for the same arrangement of sessions and content.
Consequences: the CO-LaN Management Board has already decided to make the 5th CAPE-OPEN European Conference a two-day event (April 3-4, 2008 to be confirmed in the UK). The Showcase sessions will happen in the mornings and the Workshops in the afternoons. Separate SIG Meetings will be organized in parallel to the Workshop in the first afternoon with two batches of meetings in order for participants of two different SIGs to participate in both meetings.
Regarding content, the Management Board will seek to strengthen the user appeal of the Showcase, now that CAPE-OPEN is well established, while still retaining interest for developers. For example, the industrial members of CO-LaN will discuss the benefits drawn from CAPE-OPEN and the emphasis of the other presentations will shift more towards novel applications of CAPE-OPEN technology.