I really enjoyed the Smalltalk Conference in Minneapolis, where I was invited to present STIC and to give a presentation with the title "Smalltalk: Yes, we can!"

This conference will be repeated in Cologne in Germany Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009.

I would appreciate seeing many of you there and for many more Smalltalk conferences

Georg Heeg
Executive Director
STIC - Smalltalk Industry Council

I mentioned that there would be various smaller events in the Smalltalk world in lieu of Smalltalk Solutions this year; we now have confirmation of two such events, from Cincom and Instantiations:

• Cincom Smalltalk Seminar Series: First Event in Minneapolis, MN April 29
• VA Smalltalk Summit 2009: Webcast event, April 21

This is the best way to get information from the vendors you care about most.%A0 And don't forget - FISL (Brazil) is looking for Smalltalk speakers, and ESUG 2009 is coming up in August - they are looking for speakers now.

Dear Smalltalk Solutions Fans, dear Smalltalkers in general,

It is at this time each year when your STIC Board Members announce the dates and location for the next Smalltalk Solutions.

After many meetings where we discussed the current economy and what we’re observing with company travel and conference expenses and even conference attendance at other recent events, we have come to the decision to postpone Smalltalk Solutions for 2009. 

We have decided that better use of our energy would be to participate in events that will help to expand the Smalltalk community.  

Some events we have considered are:

• Support of existing events like ESUG
• Barcamps – a few select worldwide
• Other events     

We would like to get your feedback regarding additional events for us to consider and other ways you feel STIC can help the Smalltalk Community to grow.  We would also like to see the community start to participate more in visibility and awareness for Smalltalk either by sharing application information to be promoted on the STIC website, post speaking engagements on the STIC website or any other activities that can help to spread the word about Smalltalk.

Please email me at georg@stic.st.

Thank you.

Georg Heeg
STIC - Smalltalk Industry Council
Executive Director

There's been a fair bit of Smalltalk News since I last posted:

• Smalltalks 2008 was a resoundingly successful build on Smalltalks 2007
  
• Instantiations announced the availability of the first beta of VA 8
• Gemstone released a video showing off GLASS scaffolding
• Cincom has continued to release "Smalltalk Daily" videos
• GNU Smalltalk reached version 3.1
• All video content from StS 2008 has been posted
  
• Video content from ESUG 2008 has been being posted
• SeaBreeze, a GUI Builder for Seaside, got talked up on "Industry Misinterpretations"
  

There's also a lot of daily activity over on the Cincom blogs.  We look forward to another great year of Smalltalk!

ESUG 2008 is over, but we'll have plenty of content ready for you soon. You can visit the photo montage here.

We'll have the audio from the conference here, and the video from the conference here.

STIC is participating in ESUG 2008, which has a record breaking number of attendees this year - 172. We are pleased to see such a high level of interest, and it all started over the weekend at Camp Smalltalk. You can head over to James Robertson's Blog for ongoing updates during the conference. We'll have audio, video, and slide decks afterwards.

Smalltalk Solutions is coming up in June - Registration has been open for awhile now (yes, we are aware that you might be surprised by our efficiency this year :). Interested in sponsoring the show? You can sign up as a sponsor here. Bear in mind that STIC members get a discount - sign up for STIC as an individual member here Participants in the Coding Contest - the finalists attending the conference will be eligible for a discount. You can sign up now, and STIC will reimburse you after the conference. See at in Reno!