| The Software 2005 conference is now a wrap. This | | | | offshoring. |
| conference, presented by M.R. Rangaswami and The | | | | There were a couple of unique forums made |
| Sandhill Group, is now an annual event and | | | | available for select startups. including the Launch and |
| attendance increased 35% this year over 2004. It is | | | | the Funding Forum, where startups were given a |
| an ideal opportunity for those in the enterprise | | | | fixed amount of time to present their business plan |
| software industry to see what's new and what's | | | | to investors, who were invited back to the |
| coming, as well as to catch up with old colleagues | | | | conference floor for further discussions if interested. |
| and make new connections. It is also a perfect forum | | | | Mark Cosway, a member of our board of advisors |
| for startups to gain exposure as well as solicit funding | | | | and President of ActStream Technologies, |
| and key partnerships. | | | | participated in Launch, and reported new contacts |
| According to Sandhill, there were 1500 attendees this | | | | with a number of interested investors. |
| year, including 100 press and 100 VCs. Half of those | | | | After taking in this conference, we think that it is |
| in attendance were CEOs. We spotted a number of | | | | safe to say that enterprise software as an industry |
| them, including entrepeneur/CEO (now a VC) Ken | | | | is 'cautiously optimistic'. Venture investments are |
| Ross, Indus CEO Greg Dukat, Composite SW and | | | | picking up, M&A activity is growing, and the |
| entrepeneur Jim Green, former webMethods CEO | | | | overall buzz was a good one, after the last 4-5 years |
| Phillip Merrick, and a host of others. | | | | of doom and gloom. Many of the people that we |
| M.R. has a rolodex that anyone would die for, and he | | | | talked to had taken long sabbaticals after the |
| put it to good use in attracting the top executives | | | | dot-com bust, and are just now getting back in the |
| from major enterprise software and services | | | | game. |
| companies such as Oracle, Intuit, McKinsey and | | | | All in all, the feeling was that it is a good time to be |
| others for keynote addresses. There were also a | | | | in the software and information technology business. |
| number of breakout tracks on the latest trends in | | | | We hope they're right - we certainly feel that way. |
| our industry, including SaaS, open source and | | | | |