Seattle Technical Forum Event Announcement.

Your can stop reading if you are not interested in technical events around Seattle area.
Sea-Tech Forum and UrbanQ will co-host a special event about Cloud Computing.
Please feel free to forward this event announcement to your friends, team, company and organization.

Note: We will start early this time.
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Event Details
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What: Cloud Computing Revealed (Session One)
When: Wed, Nov 16th, 2011 5:30 PM -- 9:00 PM
Where: Bellevue City Hall
Event style: Talks, Q&A and interactive discussion
Admission: Registration required
RSVP: http://www.meetup.com/Sea-Tech-Forum/events/15861685/
Parking: Free (but limited)
Food: Light snacks/drink provided at hallway (no food/drink allowed in the conference room)
Gifts: Swags from our sponsors are available, including major door prize(s)

We are expecting 130+ people from local companies, organizations and start-ups, not necessarily technical people, but also marketing professionals, PM, recruiters, investors...

Besides the 7 senior speakers, there will be 30+ VIP guests from Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Facebook, Zynga, AT&T, T-Mobile, SGI, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, Hulu, Oracle, SAP, CA, UW, WTIA, EMC, Expedia, Zillow, SEOmoz, Bungie, Intel, Dice, IBM..  

Come on time and print out the confirmation page to guarantee a seat.

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Tentative Event Agenda, Speakers and Topics
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5:30pm - 6:20pm, Snack & social (come early and meet interesting tech guru and investors, besides food)
6:20pm - 6:30pm, Introduction

6:30pm - 7:00pm, Talk
Title:SGI – High Performance Computing in the Cloud
Speaker: Dr Eng Lim Goh, Senior VP and CTO of SGI
Abstract: Dr. Goh will provide an overview of SGI’s role in the compute and storage market, with particular emphasis on the unique innovations in Cloud Computing and High Performance Computing (HPC) in the Cloud.
Bio: Dr. Eng Lim Goh joined SGI in 1989, becoming a chief engineer in 1998 and then chief technology officer in 2001. He oversees technical computing programs with the goal to develop the next generation computer architecture for the new many-core era. In 2005, InfoWorld named Dr. Goh one of the World's 25 Most Influential CTOs. That same year he was also included in the HPCwire list of "15 People to Watch." In 2007, he was named "Champions 2.0" of the industry by BioIT World magazine, and received the HPC Community Recognition Award from HPCwire. Dr. Goh is a frequent industry speaker and he continues to discuss, in different forums, innovative technologies and their applications. A Shell Cambridge University Scholar, Dr. Goh completed his Ph.D. research and dissertation on parallel architectures and computer graphics, and holds a first-class honors degree in mechanical engineering from Birmingham University in the U.K.

7:00pm - 7:25pm, Talk Title: Cloud Computing Opportunities and Challenges
Speaker:  Lijiang Fang,  Principal Architect, Microsoft
Abstract: In this talk, I will discuss the benefits cloud computing offers, the new opportunities cloud computing opens up, and the challenges in cloud computing. The talk is based on published materials that I had read in the last couple years.
Bio: Lijiang is a Principal Architect at Microsoft based in Bellevue, WA, where he leads a team that works on the highly scalable and fully automated software infrastructure that powers more than 100,000 servers across datacenters around the globe for Microsoft Online Services (e.g. bing.com, msn.com). Prior to his current role, he was on an ex-pat assignment in China for more than two years. He was a Principal Development Manager at Microsoft China R&D leading Microsoft's engineering effort on healthcare, mobile, and embedded systems in China. Lijiang started his career at Microsoft’s Redmond headquarter in 1993. Before he moved to China, he had been a SDE, Senior SDE, Principal Dev Lead, and Principal Dev Manager working on various products including SQL Server, Exchange Server, and Office. Lijiang has 8 awarded US patents and 11 US patents pending. Lijiang received his master’s and bachelor’s degrees in Computer Science from the University of Waterloo. Prior to Waterloo, he studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

7:25pm - 7:50pm, Talk Title: Differences Between Cloud Virtualization--A look into Private and Public Cloud
Speaker: Edwin (Ed) Kimm, VP and Partner, WowRack
Abstract: Why and when to choose public vs private while giving a business and technical viewpoint of each.
Bio: Ed has been involved in the telco and hosting industry since 1999 and has seen his share of the ups and downs of the IT industry. Prior to his professional tenure at Wow Technologies, Inc., Ed was the managing director of business development and sales for Compass Communications (sold to FiberCloud, Inc.) with a hand in several other web startups during that time. Ed encourages the value of company-wide growth in the ability to create quality relationships with key strategic partners while understanding the unique, individual needs of every customer. Along with sales, Ed is also spearheading the marketing effort for WowRack's advertising of their new product lines and has been a key evangelist in the company’s growing name brand recognition. Ed is a rabid sports fan and enjoys tennis, basketball, softball, ping-pong (easier on the knees), reading up on the latest trends in business technology, coaches youth tennis, and singing at weddings in his spare time.

7:50pm - 8:15pm, Talk Title: Challenges in the Personal Cloud Market
Speaker: Peter Kellogg-Smith, Managing Partner, Planning Innovations
Abstract: This talk will provide an overview of the emerging personal cloud market, identify challenges for new entrants and suggest strategies for overcoming these challenges.
Bio:  Peter is an accomplished product management professional with over two decades of experience delivering award-winning products in publishing, digital TV, consumer electronics and the personal cloud. At Adobe, he launched InDesign the market leader in digital publishing. At Digeo, he delivered the Emmy Award Winning Moxi Media Center to over 500k cable subscribers. More recently, as Vice President of Emerging Products at RealNetworks, Peter launched CES award winning Unifi, a personal cloud media service.

8:15pm - 8:40pm, Talk Title: International Government Collaboration in Cloud Computing
Speaker: Bob Marcus, CTO of ET-Strategies
Abstract: Governments across the world have launched major Cloud initiatives. In the United States, there has been a large-scale effort headed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to develop a Cloud Technology Roadmap to be released on November 2. This talk will report on the status of the NIST and US government Cloud programs. It will also include a survey of Cloud activities in Asia and Europe based on talks at the recent International Cloud Symposium. Opportunities for international collaboration and information exchanges will be presented including an upcoming March Conference in Virginia.
Bio: Bob Marcus has been active for many years in distributed applications and standards including object, middleware, Web, Grid, and Cloud technologies. He has worked with NIST, DMTF, SNIA, OGF, OMG, Open Group, OCC, NCOIC, and the TM Forum to organize major Cloud Workshops and coordination activities such as Cloud-Standards.org. He is currently the leader of the Cloud Standards Customer Council’s Government Cloud Working Group. His previous experience includes Director of Technology Transformation and Deployment at General Motors, CTO of Rogue Wave Software, VP of Technical Strategy at the MCC Research Consortium, Director of Object Technology at American Management Systems, Senior Research Engineer at SRI, Coordinator of Object Technology at Boeing, Advanced Technology Software Engineer at HP, and  Professor of CS at City University of New York.  In 2003, he published a book on “Great Global Grid: Emerging Technology Strategies”.

8:40pm - 9:00pm, Q&A to all speakers, and interactive free discussion
9:00pm, Door prize draw
9:00pm - 9:30pm, Social

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Intro of Sea-Tech Forum
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Seattle Technical Forum is a loosely coupled Seattle-wide discussion forum for technology (esp. IT, web, mobile, game, telecom ...). The forum is a platform for professionals to:
· Collaborate with other professionals
· Share ideas
· Foster creative brainstorming
· Promote your company, products, and technical events

Its members cover all major IT companies in the Seattle area and many start-ups and organizations.
Please join our discussion group at: http://groups.google.com/group/seattle-tech-forum & meetup at: http://www.meetup.com/Sea-Tech-Forum/ for event updates and, of course, lively discussion.
We also allow members to pre-register for events with a lowered registration fee.

Also feel free to join our Facebook group and Linkedin group too:
  fb: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_161613450548153
  linkedin: http://www.linkedin.com/e/g1vxqt-ghfjupxt-h/vgh/3710277/

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Intro of UrbanQ
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UrbanQ’s technology helps brands create inspiring mobile experiences by personalizing recommendations for nearby consumers. The UrbanQ platform captivates consumers with engaging, personal, and social mobile apps and sites. For marketers, UrbanQ drives sales, boosts loyalty, extends reach, and provides valuable insights into mobile consumer behavior.