Some people think this could be the year of RIAs (Rich Internet Applications).

For a while, the main commercial player for RIAs was Adobe's Flex. We started building an application in Flex back when it first came out, actually before it came out. At the time, we felt held back by HTML. We wanted to give our users the ability to do really complex things that you just couldn't do with HTML and Javascript five years ago. So we gave Flex a try. Too bad it didn't work.

The application we built was slow and we worried it would break as we added more features. Plus the licensing for Flex 1.0 was not very friendly. We scrapped the project and concentrated on plain HTML/CSS and plenty of Javascript. Fortunately we were able to do a lot of really good things with this approach. We have AJAX and rounded corners, all the things a good Web 2.0 product needs. But there are still some areas where a more powerful UI would be helpful.

Flex 3.0 is due out soon and it looks very promising. Adobe has changed the license model and improved performance. They also added some really interesting technology like Adobe AIR which allows Flex applications to live on your desktop, outside the browser.

We have also learned a few things about doing good UI for web applications. We still feel like Web applications should be built with HTML/CSS and Javascript. But there are times when a little extra sugar wouldn't hurt. I don't think you'll see us completely replacing our current UI with an RIA, but you may see specific places where we use the rich capabilities of an RIA platform to improve the user experience.

Flex is by no means the only option we are evaluating. Microsoft's Silverlight, Google's Wet Toolkit, OpenLaszlo and more each provide enough muscle to solve most complex UI problems. I don't know if 2008 is the year of RIAs, but it sure looks a lot more promising than 2003 did.

I sometimes feel WingateWeb Event Console™ doesn’t get the attention it deserves. This persistent event management platform does things Conference can’t—like managing all the smaller events on your calendar.
 
As a consolidated solution, Event Console provides much more than just on-line registration. Because it’s persistent, it helps you develop more meaningful rela­tionships with your customers on a cross-event and multi-event basis.
 
A new addition to Event Console makes the solution more useful than ever for our partners, as it now offers multi-tenant support. With their specific instance of Event Console, each or our partners can launch custom-branded applications for each of their customers. Partner A, for example, can in effect “sub-lease” Event Console to dozens of clients, while still giving each the appropriate branding support. This really is an exciting development, and we look forward to helping our partners realize the benefits of this great feature.

One of the recurring issues I see event managers dealing with is the amount of time devoted to tasks that should be automated. WingateWeb solutions are designed to save time. To illustrate this, here is my list of the top 5 ways our solutions save time:

1. Data can’t transfer from one system to another. Since WingateWeb Conference is an integrated solution, it manages every aspect of your event. No moving sessions from the submissions database to the voting system to the speaker management system, to the scheduling system etc. Our centralized solution saves you time.
2. Mass editing of records. There aren’t many things more discouraging than editing countless session records or attendees one-by-one. That’s why WingateWeb Conference allows bulk editing of your data. Do you have 50 sessions you need to move from one track to another? With Conference, it takes five minutes.
3. Duplicating events numerous times. Setting up a meeting takes time, but with Event Console, it doesn’t have to. Any event that has ever existed in Event Console can be copied. Just point, click, and copy. It’s that easy. There’s no need to create the same event over and over again.
4. Reporting.  Ever spend hours formatting a spreadsheet to get the data you want? WingateWeb ad-hoc reporting allows you to create reports with just the data you need, allowing you to save reports for future use or even set them up to be emailed to anyone on a schedule you define.
5. Disconnected interfaces. With WingateWeb, you and others involved with the event use one username and one password, no matter where you log into WingateWeb Conference. This makes life easy not just for yourself, but also for attendees, speakers, and exhibitors. It saves you time, every time.

The next time you are working on an event at 2 in the morning on a Sunday, remember WingateWeb can do something about it.

We operate in an industry where mergers and acquisitions are common. It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that we’ve taken this step. Starting last summer, we were looking around for an infusion of venture capital. We had come pretty far since reacquiring the company from Media Live. We could see that taking the next step would involve some new arrangements.

During this process, The Active Network got in touch with us…and I guess the rest is history. It was inevitable that someone would consolidate the disparate offerings in our market. We’re glad it was Active, as we couldn’t ask for a better partner. Their goal is to dominate on-line registration in every possible vertical. This is a sea change in our industry, and we want to be a part of it.

For the corporate event space, WingateWeb will continue to focus on the enterprise client, although we see room for Event Console to scale down a bit. Active is giving us plenty of room to move ahead as we see fit. There is no slowing down for us. In fact, we are hoping to add developers as fast as we can. We will also be expanding our sales staff through the year.

Having The Active Network backing us up will mean a lot. With Active’s resources and position of strength in the broader market, we expect to experience dramatic growth in 2008, similar to what we saw in 2007. With our new partners, Thriva and RegOnline, we’ll be able to focus on “co-opetition.” When we can’t meet the needs of a potential client, we can pass them on, keeping it within the company. We’ll also get leads from them. This is how we’ll dominate the corporate event space.

It’s going to be exciting.

As you should have seen, The Active Network has acquired WingateWeb. To a great extent, it will be "business as usual" for WingateWeb.

In fact, we are looking to add a number of software engineers to help handle all the business coming in. If you or someone you know is in the software field, tell them to visit our careers page and apply. It's going to be a very busy and rewarding year. We're moving to Draper, Utah, soon, so don't let our location in Lindon dissuade you.