page_title: Novell BrainShare
section_title: Structure
hierarchical_section_title: Novell BrainShare / Structure
caption_attribution_description: English: Attendees at the Novell BrainShare '95 conference walking to technical sessions being held in the Francis Armstrong Madsen Building in the David Eccles School of Business portion of the campus of the University of Utah.
context_page_description: Novell BrainShare was a technical computer conference sponsored by Novell. It was held annually in Salt Lake City, Utah, most often in March of each year, and typically lasted for much of a week. For much of the 1990s the conference was held on the campus of the University of Utah, then beginning in 1997 it was held in the Salt Palace Convention Center. During the keynote addresses for the conference, Novell would present its vision of the direction of the computer industry and how its products fit into that direction. There were then many highly technical breakout sessions where Novell technologies were explained in detail and customers and partners could engage Novell engineers regarding them. Typically some 5,000 to 7,000 attendees came to each BrainShare.
context_section_description: BrainShare typically lasted for much of a week, such as Sunday through Friday.
  Each day of BrainShare would start with one or more keynote addresses.  One address during the week would be from Novell's CEO of the time.  Novell's chief scientist, Drew Major, would usually speak as well.
  Often outside guests, such as Marc Andreessen or George Gilder, would give their perspective on the future of the industry or the economy.
  Keynotes would be used to establish the theme of a particular conference, such as "pervasive computing" in 1995, "Smart Global Network" in 1996, or "Rock the Net" in 1997.  Ambitious aims would be established, such as 1996's goal of "one billion devices interconnected by NetWare by the year 2000"
  In some cases keynotes were used to convey humorous themes, such as the propensity of some executives to dress more formally than necessary.
  Technical breakout sessions would follow; typically there were more than 200 of these.  
  As one writer for the Deseret News stated, these were "extremely technical classes and seminars on the intricacies of developing and implementing Novell networks."
  In some cases attendees in these sessions could make enhancement suggestions directly to the developers working on a product.
  Presentation slides for these sessions were made available as printed handouts at the sessions and, in later years, as downloadable files from the Internet.  At least one book on administering NetWare found them a valuable resource.
  Professionals networking among other attendees was always a main attraction of attending BrainShare.
  One Novell vice president said in 1996 that BrainShare "is the mind-meld that lets us share our vision and our newest technologies supporting it."Promotional merchandise was given out during the show, always an attraction to some; some items had an obvious tie-in to the conference's name, such as small foam "brains".
  While some amount of marketing hype was inevitably present during BrainShare, in general the conference kept an emphasis on technical material.
  Often attendees were passionate about Novell products; one writer termed BrainShare an "annual weeklong lovefest".
  Attendees were all kinds of computer professionals, including software architects, software developers, system administrators, IT managers, hardware vendors, systems integrators, consultants, customers, resellers, and service providers. 
  People looked forward to attending BrainShare; one writer termed it his "annual pilgrimage to Salt Lake City".
  Novell's partners would be present at BrainShare.
  During BrainShare '93, for instance, companies participating in the conference include Microsoft, HP, IBM, WordPerfect, Kodak, Object Design, Lotus Software, and HyperDesk.  
  In some cases these included ones that were Novell competitors, such as Microsoft, following Novell founder Ray Noorda's dictum of "coopetition".  Partners were often listed by level of support, such as Platinum Sponsor.
  Networking was set up by Novell to allow attendees to join whatever the latest networking technology was at that time.
  Demonstration rooms, often with names such as the BrainShare Solutions Lab, were constructed for the conference by Novell to allow attendees to see hands-on examples of Novell's latest products and technology.
  Evening activities would often take place in downtown Salt Lake.
  Although Salt Lake was not as glamorous as some other convention city destinations, the Wasatch Range provided a scenic backdrop that many attendees found rewarding.  Once the conference was in the Salt Palace, evening concerts by name acts were given at the official conference party, such as by Huey Lewis and the News in 2003 and Collective Soul in 2008.
  The conference was beneficial to the local economy; for instance,
  BrainShare '95 was said to bring some $4.2 million in revenue to Salt Lake City.
caption: Attendees walking to breakout sessions being held in the university's Francis Armstrong Madsen Building during BrainShare '95
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