Information For Speakers

Please Consider Speaking at COOUG!

We are a Hartford-based group, right in the heart of the insurance capital of the world, and home to thousands of legacy systems and hundreds of millions of lines of COBOL code. We're also surrounded by technology companies involving aircraft, submarines, large engines, medical systems and specialty manufacturing. And we're home to a growing number of software start-ups and consulting companies to support these industries.

Object Technology is a great opportunity for this market! COOUG delivers an audience of management and technical professionals (see About COOUG) hungry for information on all aspects of this technology. We're going on our tenth year and our mailing list continues to grow.

Speaking at COOUG is an opportunity for you to share your expertise with others, and to gain a little recognition for yourself and your company. If you have an idea for a talk at COOUG please give us a call!

Presentation Rules

Presentations should be primarily educational in nature, and may not focus on the promotion of vendor products and/or services.

(Vendor proposals for presentations on topics of common interest to the Users Group should be sent to the Program Committee.)

The exact topic and scope of any presentation must be agreed upon in advance by the Program Committee.

Topics can be either managerial or technical in nature and should be geared to an agreed upon audience level, either introductory, intermediate, or advanced. Our recurring audience is beyond "Objects 101". You should avoid spending any of your presentation time on "intro to objects" material unless the session is specifically aimed at such an audience.

COOUG generally meets the second Tuesday of the month.  Doors open at 5:30 for registration and networking, with introductions at about 6:00 and the speaker at about 6:10. Presentations should follow the usual group format of approximately 60 minutes of speaking followed by a 15-20 minute question and answer period. Extended questions and/or dialogue should not take place during the presentation.

Your Obligation

Presenters are required to supply handouts or an abstract of their presentation to the Program Committee for review four weeks in advance of the meeting at which they are scheduled to speak. A speaker "bio" and a publicity photo are also requested at that time.

Presenters who fail to comply with these requirements may be asked to end their presentations immediately, at the discretion of the meeting chairperson.

Product Demos

Pre-arranged demos of vendor products will be permitted during designated times, and in a designated area, at the Users Group meetings.

All product demos must be scheduled in advance through the Users Group Program Committee, and should not exceed two at any given meeting.

Vendor Literature/Giveaways

Tables are also available at Users Group meetings for the display of vendor product promotional material, demo disks, brochures, job listings, and complimentary trade magazines.

Please send corrections and ideas to cooug@aol·com