Here’s a news flash! The epicenter of advanced information technology is moving this weekend from Silicon Valley to the US capital! Intelligence is about to break loose in Washington! Active Enterprise Intelligence, that is – as Teradata’s customers and our solutions and partners take center stage. The Teradata fan base from all over the planet is converging on DC!

On Sunday it officially begins – our 24th annual Teradata PARTNERS User Group Conference & Expo, through Thursday, October 22, 2009, at the Gaylord National Resort and Conference Center in Washington, DC. Most of us know that the conference is organized by Teradata customers, and is the world's largest annual data warehousing and enterprise analytics educational conference and exposition.

The conference theme is “Accelerating Insight” – and every educational session plus the networking opportunities at the event will help attendees better manage a decision-making process that is increasing in velocity and complexity. We’ll have participants from hundreds of organizations around the globe in dozens of industries, showcasing new solutions and best practices from Teradata and a record-breaking number of partners.

The conference has more than 200 sessions – that cover all aspects of active enterprise data warehousing and business intelligence. They’ll be led by Teradata customers, industry analysts, consultants, academics from the Teradata University Network, as well as Teradata’s internal experts.

Mike Koehler, our president and CEO, will speak during the Monday general session as will James Vollmer, our conference host from Enterprise Holdings, followed by Don Tapscott, professor at the University of Toronto, consultant and author of Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

I like the sound of that because it echoes this fact: COLLABORATION WITH TERADATA CHANGES EVERYTHING! Okay, I haven’t written a book with this title yet – but it could happen. Teradata’s active enterprise intelligence has positively transformed hundreds of organizations, thousands of groups and millions of users – and will keep doing it for many years!

Whether you are a Teradata customer or a Teradata prospect, I hope you are on your way soon to the Teradata PARTNERS Conference. That’s where you’ll learn more about some of the most agile enterprises on the planet, all leveraging Teradata. This experience could just make you a fan, spark your business vision, and have you saying “Teradata changes everything!”

Look forwarding to seeing you at the conference!

Darryl