| QW'96 CHAIR'S FINAL COMMENTS... |
The Ninth Annual International Software Quality Week, QW'96, held 21-24 May 1996 in San Francisco, was an especially fine success. This note is a kind of ``Program Chair's Final Report'' to the attendees, and to all others who may be interested.
Over 825 attended the four-day QW'96 event with around 10% from the greater San Francisco Bay area, 40% originating from the elsewhere in the Western USA, 40% from the Eastern USA and 10% from outside the USA. QW'96 attendees came from over 20 countries, coming from as far as Hong Kong and Finland. Delegates from over 375 different companies, ranging in size from consultancies to giant international corporations, attended the event.
QW'96 involved 75 speakers (Keynoters, Tutorial Presenters, Quick-Start Presenters, and regular Speakers) from 11 different countries. QW'96 speakers' backgrounds were about equally divided among industrial researchers, academics, and real-world practitioners.
Quality Week '96 was the first event of its kind to receive sponsorship status from both the IEEE Computer Society (under authorization of the Computer Society Steering Committee) and ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) The QW'96 event was organized by SR/Institute's Executive Director, Ms. Rita Bral.
QW'96's vendor area had 29 exhibiting companies (listed in alphabetic order): Atria Software, AutoTester, Automated Testing Solutions, AZOR, Inc., British Standards Institution, Inc., Bullseye Software, Center for Software Development, Centerline, Clarify, Direct Technology, Eden Systems, Eastern Systems, IEEE Computer Society, I.Q. Company, IntegriSoft, ISA, Microsoft Corporation, Mercury, Performance Awareness, Peritus Software, Pure Software, Rational Software, Segue, Softfront, Software Research, Inc., Software Quality Engineering, Software Engineering Technologies, Software Testing Laboratories, and Teradyne, Inc.
Here is a sampling of comments from attendees...
...A good blend of academic, industry and marketing...
...Presentations provided real world techniques and best practices...
...Plenary sessions were excellent...
...Organization excellent! Keep up the good work! This was the best Quality Week ever!
...A variety of sessions and being allowed to move freely in and out of them...
...Separate tracks aided participants...
...The [QW'96] proceedings will make an excellent reference...
The technical strength of QW'96 is the work of the international Advisory Board, composed 75% from the USA and 25% from outside the USA. They worked tirelessly to review the 185 proposed presentations, and all of us on the Quality Week Team express our real thanks to them for a job well done!
Please allow me this opportunity to express the Quality Week Team's thanks to all the speakers who made the event possible, to the Advisory Board who served so well, and especially to the four Track Chairs (Dr. Boris Beizer, Dr. Bob Birss, Mr. Bill Bently and Mr. Rob Schultz) who kept things on track so admirably during the event.Finally, let me express my personal thanks to all of the QW'96 team -- organizers, Advisory Board members, speakers, and attendees -- for making QW'96 the best and most productive event ever.
Edward Miller
QW'96 General Chair