I have just returned from a visit to the US including spending a day at Bentley Systems and going to the ACADIA Conference.

As a practical guy I find the process of software development deeply intriguing. The kinds of things that seem totally obvious to us poor users appears somewhat through the looking glass when seen from the developer.

The GC developers have been fairly quiet but the message is that they have been digging foundations, deep foundations. As a result the new GC will not seem revolutionary, but we have all to acknowledge this is fairly early days.

The road to Barcelona has been very long. SG has had telephone conference every week since September to organise this event and we are hugely relieved we are beginning to see the end of the road.

We have finally sorted all the applications and the acceptances are going out as we speak.

The event has all the hallmarks of another SG new approach. It is the first time we are getting the tutors to set the agenda in the clusters (as opposed to helping attendees with their own projects). This time we do hope very much that the attendees not only get to know each other online, but actively collaborate on-line prior to the event.

So please join in!