"One of the most successful Syllabus Plus user conferences in recent history, hosted in the best city in the world" was the general consensus from many delegates, where the number of delegates hit the magical 100 mark for the first time in history. Some institutions sent as many as 9 representatives, and representations from over 45 institutions were present at this year's conference, held in Sydney at the end of June 2008.

From Scientia's end, Duncan Corbett (Enterprise Product Manager) gave his usual product update, and presented new features of all Enterprise solutions. This was generally quite well received, and most users were keen to migrate to the new version. Ivan Codd's (Development Manager) presentation covered the future direction of the company, and his plans with GENIE-II and the overall framework. The general feedback is that users are very keen to see what is coming in the future, and excited about the developments coming up in the next few years.

User presentations were wide and varied, and discussed implementation, integration and business process issues at many institutions. Graeme Burton presented many sessions including a favourite "Newbies" section, along with "S+ Tips and Tricks" where Graeme wowed the audience with many features of Syllabus Plus 3.5.1 that were undocumented.

Although the conference ran for three full days, many users spent a week in Sydney, and we had the opportunity to entertain all, including a fabulous brunch session at the Museum of Contemporary Art on Saturday, and evening walking tours (conducted by Cyon) around the Rocks, Harbour Bridge, Opera house. Fortunately, it was a typical Sydney winter with 20-something degree days and not a drop of rain in sight.

It was a milestone for many users and myself as UTS hosted our first ASPRG conference back in 1999, and looking back, we have grown considerably.