Social Networking added to Event and Conference Management
Way back in 1998, Tom Karren and a handful of fellow engineers set out to deliver a hosted application service built on Web technologies. The result was WingateWeb, an event and conference reservation and management system. Today WingateWeb’s offering is used by Fortune 500 and big name tech companies like Cisco, Intel, Microsoft and Novell to manage small sales conferences, large user events or even industry-wide conferences with thousands of attendees.
Social networking is becoming a key requirement for event planners and attendees and is offered in WingateWeb’s EventLink. For those of us who have registered for an event, we all know the challenge of finding the right session, managing a calendar (probably in a different timezone), hooking up with peers at networking events, and selling management on the benefits of attending. WingateWeb makes it easier for companies to deliver high-quality events with their end-to-end management system.
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Working with the Budget Billionaire – Ron Heinz Recalls Ray Noorda

From Fishbowl Flicker to Super Hero – Darl McBride Remembers Ray Noorda
Darl McBride, CEO of SCO Group (Nasdaq: SCOX), has stories o’plenty to share on the life and working relationship with Ray Noorda. McBride shares stories on Noorda’s management style where he’d “walk around flicking the fishbowl.” Perhaps one of the great nuggets in this podcast is where McBride talks about Noorda’s visit to Manhattan to pick up the Financial Times CEO of the Year award.
Technorati Tags: Darl McBride, Novell, Podcasting, Ray Norda, SCO, Software
The Birth of Personal Computer Networking — Drew Major Reflects on Ray Noorda
Technology leader Drew Major–one of the founders of Novell, Inc.–reflects on working with Ray Noorda, who passed away on 9 October 2006. Major recalls personal experiences including Novell’s beginnings, its dance with bankruptcy, the appointment of Noorda as president, and Noorda’s single-handed funding of a company that went from 17 people to over 12,000 at its zenith. Major recalls Noorda’s first meeting with Bill Gates of Microsoft, his coining of the term ‘coopetition,’ and the down-to-earth, ‘aw-shucks’ humility of “the Father of Network Computing.”
Ty Mattingly’s Thoughts on Ray Noorda
Ty Mattingly worked as Ray Noorda’s “body guard, right-hand man, and travel companion” for over two years. His close working relationship provided a unique view into Noorda’s thought process on management, competition, and investing in growth opportunities.
Mattingly spent a few minutes with us to reminisce about Ray Noorda and his impact on Mattingly’s management and investment stratgies. He also shared a great story about competiting with the hard-working Noorda for “first-to-the-office” honors.
David Bradford on Ray Noorda
We caught up with David Bradford for a quick conversation on the life of Ray Noorda. Bradford was the General Council at Novell and spent over 8 years working closely with Ray Noorda. Bradford tells stories of Noorda’s concern for fairness in software industry. Additionally, Bradford shares personal stories of learning that Noorda never asked for a raise in his life and how this impacted his thinking on rewards based on hard work.
Ray Noorda Tribute Podcast
Special thanks to Drew Major (cofounder of Novell), Ron Heinz (former direct report and currently managing director of Canopy Ventures), Ty Mattingly (former Executive Staff and right-hand assistant), Darl McBride (Ray Noorda’s shadow for a year and currently CEO of SCO Group, Ransom Love (former CEO of Caldera), and David Bradford (former General Council for Novell). Each of these busy executives cleared their calendars to share their memories and create a Tribute to Ray Noorda: Technology Legend, Mentor, Colleague, Friend.
Common themes throughout the interviews included:
- Hard worker
- Competitor / Coopetition Ray Noorda is recognized for inventing the term)
- Partnering and channel developer
- Frugal
- Drive
- Mentor
- Visionary
Fun stories include:
- The night Ron Heinz shares a room at Days Inn with a billionaire
- Ty Mattingly beating Ray into work by arriving at 5:30am
- Darl McBride’s visit to Manhattan where Ray received CEO of the Year Award from the Financial Times, but he didn’t take a tux
If you have a great story about working with Ray Noorda, feel free to post a comment.
Check out the mash-up podcast that highlights stories from each interview on PodTech.net. We’ll also be posting each interview.
Technorati Tags: Novell, Ray Norda, Utah, PodTech, Linux
Ray Noorda’s Lasting Legacy on the Silicon Desert
Ray Noorda
Born: June 19, 1924, in Ogden, Utah
Died: October 9, 2006, in Orem, Utah
Education: Ogden High School, Ogden, Utah, Weber State College in Ogden, Utah. Graduated University of Utah, 1949, BS, cum laude, in Electrical Engineering
Few people in technology have had the impact of Ray Noorda, especially when you consider the few truly large, public, non-Silicon Valley tech businesses. Sure Novell (NASDAQ:NOVL) has had it’s challenges over the past years, but it continues to employ thousands of people and support world-wide operations. Not many tech companies can claim that.
Ray Noorda’s Dutch immigrant parents and his own depression era experience helped form the core foundation that set Mr. Norda apart from the Ferrari-driving, dotcom-era execs. The stories of “Ray’s old pickup” are famous. His management leadership came from GE and personal experience with incubating and growing technology solutions that solved business and customer needs.
Utah Governor Jon M. Huntsman, Jr., said,
“Ray was one of the innovators of the Utah Miracle. He launched what would become Utah’s technology sector. He has left behind a monumental legacy and we are all in his debt. He will be deeply missed.”
- from Canopy Ventures
Today, Mr. Nooda’s legacy for growing technology companies lives on through the Canopy Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm based in Utah. Canopy has investments in more than 100 companies and extensive philanthropic activities.
Rocky Mountain Voices salutes the contribution and legacy Ray Noorda provided to many of us who got our start in technology because of Novell. We produced a special podcast to honor this legacy with interviews from Ty Mattingly, David Bradford, Darl McBride, Ron Heinz, Ransom Love, and Drew Major.
Podcast tribute is posted at PodTech.net.
A great tribute to Mr. Noorda is available at http://www.canopy.com/raynoorda.


