All,

I would just like to report to the IBO community that the Firebird
Conference in Luxembourg was a great success. There were over 60 people in
attendance and the sessions I attended were all very good. It's amazing what
is being done with Firebird and what is coming in the future. Things are
looking very good. The IB Objects session was well attended and it felt like
some useful things were learned even by some of the long-time customers. If
anyone is interested, the entire session was recorded. I can see about
getting permission to put it up on YouTube or to post an MP3 download of it
on a file sharing site. Send me a private email.

I think most of the fun we had was getting a personal contact with all the
people we rub cyber shoulders with every day. Hopefully in the future there
will be more people to come and attend.

I would like to stress the importance of everyone who uses Firebird to
consider being a member of the foundation. Your opinions truly matter and
your financial contributions are an investment in Firebird's success. All of
those who develop Firebird are awesome people. I really enjoyed getting
acquainted with them personally. I wish for them to have the means to be
compensated financially for their efforts in Firebird. It could be a
significant and justified temptation for them to get hired away from their
efforts. The best way we can keep their brilliance and talent solely
dedicated to Firebird is to give it the resources to secure their interests.


I am working on an idea to give a discount to all those who are members of
the Firebird Foundation so if you have some ideas please let me know. I
would like to be a strong supporter of Firebird as best I can so I am
looking for ways to accomplish this.

Kind regards,
Jason Wharton
www.ibobjects.com