Entering the third year of my term on the Vivit Board of Directors, I am very excited by all of the opportunities that we are presented with at this time. Recently appointed by my peers to the President position, I am humbled by the chance to work with such a great group of Board members, chapter leaders, staff, and most importantly, the user community which makes this organization so great.
We recently launched a long awaited Vivit website community which is vibrant, well organized and easy to use. We continue to migrate all of the functionality of the old site and introduce new features so that it makes for a better user experience.
Recently, we held our semiannual face-to-face Board meeting which took place at HP Discover in Las Vegas. The board reviewed overall organizational health and current direction. The stability and health is at the highest point in many years both as an organization and in membership.
We also held a chapter and SIG leader meeting at the conference which provided the perfect opportunity to discuss improving processes, relationships, and tools to serve the entire community even better. We can't thank Vivit chapter and SIG leaders enough for their hard work throughout the year as well as their participation in the Vivit exhibit at HP DISCOVER.
Vivit members also convened for the annual meeting, followed by deep dive round table discussions. We presented the status of the user community in an open forum, Karen Semonson passed the "President” torch to me, and then members shared their knowledge and best-practices on HP Service Management, Functional Testing with BPT/QTP, Performance Testing and Engineering, and Quality Center API.
The Advanced HP Software Implementation Training organized by Jim Murphy, Vice President, was another success. Subject matter experts from the Vivit community provided eight different deep-dive training sessions in the hours leading up to HP DISCOVER.
To top it off, we co-hosted a user community appreciation party for existing and new members. We presented Laura Walker with the 2011 Leader of the Year award for the Americas region.
In my opinion, HP DISCOVER was one of the most exciting events in the past several years. The combination of the various conferences, as well as bringing the hardware and software constituents together, worked out better than I had imagined. Appealing to and surpassing 10,000 attendees was a feat in itself, but the way in which the event was organized, as well as the DISCOVER Zone show floor, lent itself to fantastic collaboration and presentation.
I would also be remiss if I did not mention the phenomenal exclusive musical event. I have no idea how Paul McCartney could be topped, but I am excited to find out next year!
Likely, what I am most excited about is the current state of our local chapters and membership. We have a very active user base which is reflective in the individuals who make up Vivit. The new chapters which have improved the global presence of the organization are key to further success. I am also excited for our next meeting in conjunction with HP DISCOVER in Vienna later this year to see how we build upon the successes of the first part of the year.
Vivit will continue partnering with HP, partners and other user groups while we remain your independent voice of the HP Software User Community, promoting community, education and advocacy. Check out the new website and all is has to offer. Be sure to update your profile.
Michael Collins
President, Board of Directors
