[GRID-ANNOUNCE] Important OGF22 Information

[John Ehrig]

OGF22, taking place February 25-29 in Cambridge, Massachusetts will
feature a wide variety of new and exciting content.  Please see the
below important information and deadlines for this event.
1. Registration
2. Preliminary Program
3. Hotel Information
4. Student Scholarships
5. Group Chair Scheduling
6. Sponsorships

1. REGISTRATION
Advanced registration for OGF22 will close January 11.  Register now to
save!
http://www.ogf.org/OGF22/registration.php

2. PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
* Keynote Sessions
Charlie Catlett will make the Tuesday (2/26) morning keynote address.
Charlie founded the Global Grid Forum (predecessor to OGF) and is
currently the CIO of Argonne National Laboratory, Director of Argonne's
Computing and Information Systems Division, and a Senior Fellow at the
Argonne/University of Chicago Computation Institute.  As CIO of Argonne,
Charlie will bring unique perspectives on operating a world-class data
center while providing leading-edge technology solutions to
computational scientists. Other keynote speakers are in being lined up.
Watch for further announcements as their availability is confirmed.

* OGF Chartered Groups And BoFs - Monday, February 25 through Friday,
February 29
Activities are scheduled throughout the entire week where many of OGF's
chartered groups will meet to make further progress on their work. In
addition, the latest hot topic in distributed computing - "Cloud
Systems" and how it may or may not impact Grids will be tackled in a
special BoF session.

* OGF Specification Adoption Track and Demonstration Session - Monday,
February 25 and Tuesday, February 26
Many OGF working groups have recently demonstrated interoperability of
their specifications. These significant accomplishments illustrate how
much of the work of OGF is shifting from developing specifications to
seeing specifications being used and adopted into products.  This
multi-session track will feature contributions from developers and users
showcasing their work implementing OGF specifications.  In addition,
live demonstrations will take place during the welcome reception on
Monday evening.

* Workshops
OGF22 will feature a number of interesting workshops that will address a
variety of important topics in Grid:
a) Enterprise Adoption Workshop - Tuesday, February 26
This full day workshop - "Enabling the Next Generation IT
Infrastructure" will focus on putting Grid in the context of the
distributed computing infrastructure, including virtualization,
service-oriented architecture, web services and next-generation
networks.  Emphasis will be on solving business problems and meeting
business needs, with a focus on Applications On-boarding and Managing
Infrastructure.  Presentations and case studies are expected from
representatives from the 451 Group, VMware, Intel, SAS, Platform
Computing, DataSynapse and others that will show a variety of areas that
can be addressed by Grid in practical and achievable ways.
b) Financial Services Workshop - Wednesday, February 27
The financial services industry is one of the early adopters, and
successful users, of Grid technology.  As the technology matures, new
(and old) issues emerge like expanding grids to support transactional
workloads, data management and movement, and putting policies in place
for charging and tracking usage.  Presentations and case studies that
describe the emerging issues the financial services industry is now
facing in Grid will be featured in this half day workshop.
c) Pharma/Life Sciences Workshop - Wednesday, February 27
The pharmaceutical industry and life sciences in general have begun to
depend on in silico experiments as critical elements in the path to
discovery. This has enabled exploration that is only limited by their
ability to access sufficient computing resources and to store and manage
the resultant mountain of data. Presentations and case studies from
those that have turned to Grid-based solutions to meet these needs will
be featured in this half day workshop. 
d) Data Management Workshop - Thursday, February 28
This full day workshop, co-hosted by OGF and the Storage Networking
Industry Association (SNIA), will address data management challenges
with a focus on file system and data movement.  We will also explore
potential synergies and common areas between OGF and SNIA.

* Other Community Content - Monday, February 25 through Thursday,
February 28
Sessions from the greater Grid community covering numerous topics and a
variety of subjects will also be presented.   These include workshops,
tutorials, BoFs and presentations on marketing, education in
emerging/developing countries, Grid Identity Providers, GridWay, and
other topics. 

3. HOTEL INFORMATION
OGF has secured a block of sleeping rooms at the Hyatt Regency Cambridge
(meeting location) at a special rate of $129 for single or double
occupancy. Reservations must be made on or before February 8, 2008, to
receive the discounted rate.  Reservations can be made by calling the
hotel directly (be sure to reference 'OGF22') or online via
http://ogf.org/OGF22/lodging.php.

4. STUDENT SCHOLARSHIPS
A limited number of student scholarships are available for qualifying
students.  Hosted by OGF and CoreGRID, the OGF22 student scholarship
program provides a unique opportunity for students to participate in OGF
program sessions and group sessions as well as network with
distinguished community participants and leaders.  Application details
and eligibility requirements can be found at
http://ogf.org/OGF22/students.php.  

5.  GROUP CHAIR SCHEDULING
OGF Group Chair session scheduling will remain open until January 11.
Session scheduling and document details along with a link to the online
session request site can be accessed via
http://ogf.org/OGF22/chairinfo.php.

6. SPONSORSHIP OPPORTUNITIES
Sponsorship opportunities for OGF22 include Display Tables, Welcome
Reception, Chair Appreciation Night, OGF Co-branded Promotional Item,
Wireless, Lunches and Breaks, and Badge Lanyard.  By sponsoring OGF22
your organization will gain greater visibility and recognition as a Grid
thought leader in our global community.  This will be our only OGF event
in the USA for all of 2008, so please strongly consider sponsoring if
you are interested in reaching this audience. The sponsorship prospectus
provides additional information http://www.ogf.org/OGF22/sponsor.php 
 
See you in Cambridge! Register today
http://www.ogf.org/OGF22/registration.php

Regards,

John Ehrig
Open Grid Forum
Enterprise and Marketing Program Manager
925 275-6677
www.ogf.org