Brisbane Product Launch Review

<p>It?s been about 7 years since my last trip to Brisbane and the changes were readily apparent. Brisbane is a thriving and busy city and a big turnout was expected for all the product launch sessions. It?s good to see the local contractors, integrators, electricians and builders didn?t disappoint.</p> <p>The launch was held at the Cremorne Theatre, situated in Brisbane?s South Bank, surrounded by attractive public areas, caf??s and performance facilities. Greeting everyone was local Clipsal people as well as the ?travelling road show? usual suspects from CIS Adelaide.</p> <p>&nbsp;<img border="0" src="http://www.viewpointsa.com/tamika/Theater.jpg" width="320" height="240">&nbsp; <img border="0" src="http://www.viewpointsa.com/tamika/Southbank.jpg" width="320" height="240"></p> <p><img border="0" src="http://www.viewpointsa.com/tamika/Tamikaposter.jpg" align="left" width="200" height="459">

</p> <p>The scene was set for a fun and entertaining launch with a decidedly informal and interactive evening. The launch began with nice canap?s and plenty of beer. After everyone was accounted for we all filed into the theatre for a very brief presentation by Simon Wehr, Clipsal Integrated Systems marketing manager, followed by a viewing of Tamika - Agent in Time. A short, fun and entertaining movie created by Clipsal that set the scene and tone for the product launch.</p> <p>After the movie complete everyone filed out to view the new products, eat and drink more, as well as meet Tamika, the heroine of the day ,and ummm? the future, in person.</p> <p><img border="0" src="http://www.viewpointsa.com/tamika/Tamika.jpg" align="right" width="400" height="641">&nbsp;

</p> <p></p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <p>Being a stranger in town, I was subjected to strict security measures and only after a through search by Tamika did I have a chance to meet the clients.</p> <p><img border="0" src="http://www.viewpointsa.com/tamika/Security.jpg" width="300" height="236"></p> <p>&nbsp;

</p> <p>Umm? oh yes ? the product launch.</p> <p>As a software developer working hard to create the products its not often I get a chance to meet with customers, so this was an opportunity I wanted to exploit by talking to as many different customers as possible.

</p> <p>I received excellent feedback from experienced and new C-Bus users alike. Many people new me from the forums and I recognised a few of the names myself. It?s very beneficial to meet users face to face and to have the opportunity to discuss experiences with the new Toolkit software and how best the software can evolve to meet their needs.</p> <p align="center"><img border="0" src="http://www.viewpointsa.com/tamika/Launch1.jpg" align="left" width="400" height="300"><img border="0" src="http://www.viewpointsa.com/tamika/Spiro.jpg" align="right" width="200" height="626"></p> <p>I attended three launches during my trip, Wednesday night, Thursday morning and Thursday night. During the day Thursday I went on site to a commercial development nearing completion with a large C-Bus installation and spent several hours with the C-Bus installer to work though some issues and experience commissioning first hand.&nbsp;

</p> <p>This was a great opportunity and between the pair of us managed to nut out some great feature ideas for Toolkit to help manage that awkward process of commissioning partially completed installations.

</p> <p>I also took the opportunity to fire up an unreleased internal build of C-Gate to test against the 13 CNI networks (there were more networks, but this was all that was on line). It was great to see all networks come online and scan flawlessly. Everyone has been working hard to make this the best software release ever from CIS and I felt guilty gallivanting around the county while the rest of the team is firmly head down, bum up, working hard.

</p> <p>The trip was a great source of fun, information and an excellent opportunity to liaise with customers and other Clipsal employees. A thoroughly worthwhile trip and something I would certainly like more opportunity to do.

</p> <p>If you have been debating going to upcoming launches around Australia, make sure you do take the opportunity, as each venue will have engineering staff in attendance who would love the opportunity to shake hands and talk C-Bus.

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