Forums

We arrange forums for the IT managers, operations managers and senior administrators of medium-to-large design practices on a regular basis. Each forum focuses on a specific area of interest in the technical or operational running of design firms. The intention is to stimulate ideas and the exchange of knowledge and experience.

The forums are informal, and provide a rich setting in which the participants can meet others who are engaged in IT operations and management. Recent attendees have included staff members of Gensler, 3DReid, Hamiltons, Allies and Morrison, Wilkinson Eyre and Hopkins Architects.

The next forum is on 27 January 2009.

July 2007 Forum attendees
Attendees at the July 2007 Forum

February 2009 Forum : Hamiltons

This forum for IT Managers will be hosted by James Tansley, IT Director, at Hamiltons' offices in London W2 6ET. James has offered to review their IT infrastructure (including UPS, switching, NetApp and VMWare setup) and their Disaster Recovery arrangements.
Email to attend.

January 2009 Forum : Virtualisation Comparison

The next IT Managers' forum will consist of a practical, hands-on comparison betwen VMWare, Xen and Parallels virtualisation technologies. There will be a particular focus on migrating services between servers quickly. The forum is presently scheduled for 27 January 2009 from 4-6pm.
Email to attend.

November 2008 Forum : Operations for Design Companies

This forum was held at the Saatchi & Saatchi Agency on Charlotte Street on 18 November 2008. » more

October 2008 Forum : Disaster Recovery

We held this forum, which was attended by a group of nine IT Managers, at our offices in W1. The discussion of Disaster Recovery was structured around a web-based questionnaire that most attendees and some other respondents had filled in prior to the event. » more

August 2008 Forum : Jestico & Whiles IT Services and Management Review

Darren Carroll,the IT Manager at Jestico & Whiles, where we held the forum, discussed their specific systems and their approach to IT operations. » more

March 2008 Forum : Service Level Agreements

Mark Adams, the Technical Manager at CLW, chaired a discussion on using Service Level Agreements to help control IT processes. » more

December 2007 Forum : Virtualisation

James Tansley from Hamiltons Architects gave an excellent address on their move to VMWare ESX technology and NetApp storage. » more

September 2007 Forum : Backup

This forum involved a general discussion of backup approaches and technologies. » more

July 2007 Forum : IT Services Evaluation and Management

Paul Cash, the MD of Partners in IT, gave a talk about his company's approach to dealing with continual change and innovation in IT. » more

May 2007 Forum : Email archiving, storage and document retrieval

Will Yandell of Union Square made a presentation, which was followed by a discussion of document management. » more