This week Jerry and I have been at AMR's Supply Chain conference in Phoenix, Arizona.  This was my first time to Phoenix and even in May I can appreicate the hot, hot, hot weather.  IntelliCorp is a vendor client of AMR and this is the first time either of us has been to the Supply Chain conference.  The conference theme was about the 'content economy' and the 'monetization of intellectual property'.

Being in the software business I think it fair to say that we're well aware of what IP is. Reading today that an estimate for the UK government puts the number of consumers using illegal file sharing in the UK at 7m shows that many do not recognize or respect the value of IP.

Michael Eisner presented the keynote.  His central theme was one of 'creativity in a financial box'.  This theme was supported by numerous anecdotes from his time as CEO of Disney including a great story about Raiders of the Lost Ark (one of my favourite films).  If you've seen the film you'll remember that to convey Indy's journey by boat plane around the World, a map with a moving line and plane-engine sound effects was used.  Side-note: interesting to see how endearing this idea has been.  In the latest iLife package, Apple have added this as a feature in their iMovie application.  Anyway, Michael's point was that the sequence was (as we would say in England) 'cheap as chips' to produce and yet showed great creativity.

For me the show was as much about one-to-one analyst briefings as it was a chance to listen directly to business users and imagine ways that we can communicate the value of LiveCompare, LiveModel and DataWorks better to this audience.  We know business can benefit as much as IT from our products.  Proof of this was presented at the recent SAP Experience Day.  A business user talked about how they use the information produced by LiveCompare to drive improvements across the multiple plants that use SAP daily.  You don't have to improve individual transaction use by much to reap huge benefits.  Improvements to processes go even further.

Saturday gave me the chance to explore and on the advice that "God created the Grand Canyon but He lives in Sedona" I took a trip to 'Red Rock Country'.

It's breathtakingly beautiful and while the scale is clearly enormous, it's not anything like as overwhelming as the Grand Canyon.  I for one found it easier to appreciate its magnificence.

I was also able to take in a walk on the Camelback Mountain trail.  I got as far as the 'Saddle' before calling it a day.  I learned that better shoes and an earlier start are the order of the day. I met a lovely 72-year old lady who climbs the trail 5 times a week. With a view like this I can see why.