AMANDA users from all over North America came together in Waterloo - Ontario June 6th to June 10th to share best practices with each other and hear first hand where AMANDA is headed in the future. Since 1997, CSDC has hosted CTAC, an annual user conference for the thousands of government employees throughout North America who use AMANDA daily to deliver citizen-centric services and improve operational efficiency.

Our host this year was the City of Waterloo, one of the first CSDC clients to upgrade fully to the browser based AMANDA 5. The success of this year's event is a reflection of the support received from Ralph Kaminski, Director of Building Standards for the City of Waterloo. Not only did Ralph welcome us to his city, he and his staff shared with conference attendees how they are using AMANDA to serve the citizens of this very technologically savvy community.

During the City of Waterloo site visit, Ralph and his team provided attendees with a behind-the-scenes look at the city’s soon to be launched AMANDA Public Portal implementation. Outside City Hall, attendees had a chance to see one of the City’s Inspection vehicles, including the truck-mounted laptops being used to access AMANDA while conducting mobile inspections in the field.

Attendees participated in a variety of Technical and Application sessions that offered a unique opportunity to hear from CSDC staff on a range of topics, all in one location. These sessions provided both valuable knowledge to help them optimize and improve their current AMANDA implementations and a look at some of the new and exciting things that will be coming to AMANDA down the road.

Just as important, if not more so, was the opportunity for attendees to learn proven strategies from peers. Representatives from leading communities like Jefferson County, CO; the Province of New Brunswick; Volusia County, FL; Burlington, ON; and our hosts, Waterloo, among others, shared with other attendees how they are using AMANDA to improve operations across the government enterprise.

One of the highlights at CTAC each year is the presentation of the Innovation Awards. First awarded in 2003, the Innovation Award is presented to CSDC clients that use AMANDA in innovative ways to help improve the way they do business. This year, the award was taken home by the City of Windsor for their development of an Automatic Documentation Generator.

Whether it was the CSDC sessions, the client lead Business Sessions, the User Group meetings, or just networking at one of the social events, CTAC 2010 once again proved to be a great opportunity to speak with peers and CSDC staff about common challenges, share innovative solutions and ideas, and see some good friends.

By all accounts, CTAC 2010 was a great success and we look forward to seeing everyone next year at CTAC 2011 in Arlington, TX.