Conference Feedback

Finally got all those feedback forms entered and analysed.

In most areas the results were either 4’s or 5’s (out of 5) so that is very encouraging. Basically the presenters and the content were very well received. As this is the core reason for attending its great that the attendees were so pleased.

The main areas for improvement were around pre-conference admin and information. Part of the issue here was the last minute nature of the event - we only had about 6 weeks from confirmed date/venue till event. As we are already planning for next year, this stuff should be much better organised.

Thanks a lot to all those who took the time to fill out the forms, they will help us make the event even better next time.

As usual leave any other feedback or suggestions for 2008 somewhere on this site and we will find them and consider them.

If you didn’t come this time, but are considering 2008, then you’ll be pleased to hear this years delegates rated the event so highly. We hope (and plan) to do even better next year so watch this space for dates and venues.

cheers

Simon

Conference Report Day 3

The Saturday session was targeted at developers.
Again the day went well and the feedback was very positive.

The first session was on the future of VBA
The session started old-Skool when I demoed recording XLM macros in Excel 5 on Windows 3.11. The XLM life story is probably our best guide to what may happen to VBA. The future of VBA is a concern for many developers, not just from a career point of view but also from a maintainability of current projects POV. We discussed what people thought might be key influencing factors and timescales.

The second session was a led discussion around programmability
We looked at VSTA in Infopath, VSTO in Visual Studio 2008 and discussed how these might impact our projects. We also had a candid discussion about security. This was an extremely useful session for getting a feel for the consensus view on some of these topics. Rather than being a one way ‘I think this’ presentation everyone chipped in with what they thought, what they had seen etc.

The afternoon started off with a look at xlls.
These are the recommended technology for writing Excel add-ins. They have some major benefits over VBA based xla’s (speed mainly), and some significant drawbacks (they are harder to write (well)). I walked through a demo VBA version I had built to explain the concepts and then went though the code of some xlls I have written. I also demoed some of the commercial tools in the area that take away all the C API pain. My performance demo was 266ms for a set of VBA functions down to 13 ms for the xll equivalent. (as a matter of interest the XLM version was 26ms, and whilst a bit more ugly than VBA, its not that much harder to write.)

The second session was a led discussion around data and Excel alternatives
We had a good chat about the ways people are using external data in Excel. And some great insight into some of the issues with certain providers. Essbase got a mention as a couple of us work with it regularly. We also had a look at OpenOffice Calc, and a discussion of where that was at in relation to Excel in enterprises. We also had a chat about Office 2007, with some of the attendees part way through roll-outs or pilots. Almost inevitably we touched on corporate culture, which so often seems to get ignored, but can have a dramatic effect on the work we do and the way we do it.

We also found time to discuss next year and what people would like to see and do.

Finally a few of us retired to the pub to watch the footie, have a drink and eventually go for a (delicious) curry.

Overall an excellent event I reckon, I’m already looking forward to next year. Hope to see you there.
Simon

Conference resources

If you attended the 2007 UK Excel User Conference you should have received an email from me detailing where you can access the supporting slides, documents, workbooks and code for all the sessions we ran.

If you didn’t get the email give me a shout and I’ll send it on. You can also leave a comment here if that’s easier. Break up your email address though if you don’t want to get spammed to oblivion.

If you didn’t attend then you missed out, but don’t worry there will be another event in September 2008 where you can make amends. In the meantime if there is something you would really like included next time around leave a comment on the 2008 suggestions page.

The future of VBA

I have been preparing for the Future of VBA session that kicks off the Excel developer conference on Sat 1 Dec.

Somewhat coincidentally Dick over on DDOE has recently done a couple of posts in this very area.

http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2007/11/09/vba-for-beginners/

http://www.dailydoseofexcel.com/archives/2007/11/10/the-decline-of-vba/

It’s reassuring to see there are a few people with the same concerns.

The Saturday session will look briefly at the history of VBA and its predecessor XLM and trace that through some of the very latest thinking in language design both within Microsoft and outside. That will of course involve .net, VSTO and VSTA.

It will be an open session so if you have any comments or questions bring them along and chip in.

Some of the key questions people involved with VBA have revolve around where is the language going, what are the timescales and implications so on. Whilst definitive answers to many of these questions are hard come by (I suspect some are still in discussion at Microsoft) we will attempt to give some usable guidance.

Another common question in the forums is what should I be doing now to prepare for VBAs future direction? We’ll take a look at that too, with advice for all of the difference sectors of the VBA user/developer community.

A few events I have attended recently have touched on this future of VBA hot potato, this session will be the first (public) one dedicated to this topic, that I have been involved with. I’m looking forward to hearing what other devs think is coming up, and how we might handle it.

Hope to see you there

cheers

Simon

psst - wanna save a few quid??

Today and tomorrow are great days for booking your place at the Excel User and Developer conference.

On Wednesday the early bird discount ends and prices revert to the normal price which is about 10% more.

Get over to :

http://www.exceluserconference.com/UKEUC.html

And book your place ASAP to beat the price rise.

Still not sure you want to invest a few hundred pounds in some of the best Excel training around?

Check out the schedule and contact one of the organisers if you have any questions. My contact details are here:

http://www.codematic.net/Codematic-general/contact-us.htm (email will work best)

Cheers

Simon

Excel versions

A few people have asked about which version of Excel will be used at the conference.

There is no conference preference, each presenter will use whatever they like. For some that is likely to be 2003, for others 2007, and maybe even a bit of 2000 and/or 2002. (And a bit of Excel 5 on Saturday)

Nick is doing a couple of sessions that are specific to 2007 for which I’d be impressed if he tried to use anything but 2007.

My stuff on pivot tables and VBA etc will be 2003 as that is the version I use for client work.

Any other questions just ask

cheers

Simon

Welcome to the UK Excel User Conference blog

Title says it all really.

The conference is coming up in a few weeks and we’ll use this blog to keep everyone up to date with any changes and developments.

Its shaping up to be a great event with some excellent speakers presenting extremely useful content.

And don’t forget the chance to socialise and network with fellow Excel users and some of the most prolific newsgroup and forum contributors in the country.

At the very first event in Dallas Forth Worth, one delegate had travelled all the way from Australia to get an answer to one specific question (something about copying button faces as I remember). Anyway he got his answer, in fact I think he got 2 or 3 usable answers, and some source code.

Be sure to bring any questions that are bugging you to the Cambridge event, and you can expect the same great help.

We hope to see you there.

Cheers

Simon