International Association of Software Architects Announces IT Architect Regional Conference for...

Dr Yan Zhao, Director, Enterprise and Solutions Architecture At CGI Federal to Keynote Second Conference in New Series

AUSTIN, Texas -- The International Association of Software Architects (IASA), a 5,000-member association focused on defining and supporting the professional duties of

IT architects, today announced the second in a series of IT Architect Regional Conferences (ITARC). The Washington D.C. event will take place on October 8-9, 2007 at the Omni Shoreham Hotel. It is billed as the premier IT architect educational event for the region during which speakers will address topical issues and challenges faced by IT architects in today's business environment.

Co-sponsored by the International Association of Software Architects (IASA) and the IASA Washington chapter, this event is part of a series of regional conferences taking place throughout the U.S. to provide high-level, professional education and training for the fast-growing and ever-changing IT architecture community.

The speaker lineup for Washington includes Dr. Yan Zhao, director, enterprise and solutions architecture for CGI Federal, who will address the missing, weak, or disjointed elements in today's enterprise architecture practice. Dr. Zhao will explain how SOA can compensate through the Service-Oriented Enterprise Architecture (ESOA) model.

Steve Wolf, Senior Enterprise Architect responsible for the Core Transactional Systems Architecture and Planning at Marriott International and the Marriott SOA Evangelist, will discuss an SOA framework and Maturity Model adopted at Marriott and contrasts the framework with other Frameworks and Maturity Models.

Steve Craggs, European director of the Integration Consortium and also managing director of Lustratus Research, will take a slightly irreverent look at SOA in a presentation called "SOA Is Rubbish."

Other speakers include Richard Burke, chair of the Federal Chief Architects Council and Denise Cook, method architect at IBM Rational.

"Our events have been very well received by the IT Architect community across the U.S. Participant feedback suggests we have achieved our goal of providing a number of highly respected experts on our speaker platforms at an affordable delegate fee. We remain focused on providing a forum that offers valuable education, networking and general information sharing opportunities and believe Washington will be another of our success stories," said IASA founder Paul Preiss.

The pricing ($350 for IASA members, $500 for non-members until September 10) has been deliberately set to encourage team attendance, including professionals such as chief architects, software architects, infrastructure architects, business and information architects, developers, and aspiring architects. For further information and to book a place visit http://www.iasahome.org/web/itarc/capitalarea .

Conference sponsors include Microsoft, IBM, Sun, and DataDirect. The conferences are part of IASA's ongoing commitment to developing the Architect profession in the U.S., and follow successful events in Europe and Asia.

IASA is a vendor agnostic, non-profit association focused on defining and supporting the professional duties of IT architects.

About IASA

The International Association of Software Architects is the premier association focused on the IT architecture profession through the advancement of best practices and education. Established in 2002, IASA delivers programs and services to IT architects of all levels around the world. A non-profit business association, IASA is dedicated to the advancement and sharing of issues related to software architecture in the enterprise, product, education and government sectors.

The association is committed to improving the quality of the IT architecture industry by developing and delivering standards, education programs and developing accreditation programs and services that optimize the development of the architecture profession. IASA membership consists of approximately 5,000 members located in more than 40 countries.