I watch Microsoft executive Donald Farmer cast a line in the rolling Rogue River and I know I'm back in southern Oregon at the Pacific Northwest BI Summit, courtesy of my friend Scott Humphrey. Scott is President and CEO of Humphrey Strategic Communications, and the consigliore of the only event that marries the best of BI industry analysis with northwest-style recreation. (I'll get to the tequila in a minute.)

In addition to the standard roster of experts--Colin White, Claudia Imhoff, William McKnight, and yours truly--the Summit convenes luminary vendors who participate in the forward-thinking dialog, spend one-on-one time with the experts and each other, and get some jetboat spray in the bargain. And did I mention the tequila?

This year, the recidivism rate was high as vendors returned to catch up on the news and share their successes. Karen Steele from Xactly; Steve Smythe from IBM CognosNow!; Jeff Dandridge from Infocentricity; Scott Davis of Eyeris; Kim Dossey from Teradata; and Kim Stanick from Paraccel. And don't forget the aforementioned Donald Farmer from Microsoft, who not only casts an elegant line, but comes up with some poetic one-liners. (On software as a service: Is it 'on premise' or 'on promise?')

There were some new players at the event as well: Paul Clark from SAP/Business Objects; Dan Soceanu from DataFlux; Nan Froisland from Pivotlink; Rich Ghiossi from HP; and Composite Software's Bob Eve. They were seasoned and masterfully held their own (the same could be said about the tequila, but later...) and they all fit right in.

One of the highlights was our field trip to Wildlife Images Rehabilitation and Education center, which treats sick and injured wildlife with the aim of re-introducing its residents back into their native habitats. We met birds of prey, wild cats, and a bear with an unrivaled predilection for surf and turf (photo courtesy of Kim Dossey):

A special shout-out to Kym Wootton and Mary Jo Nott from BeyeNetwork, who kept the podcasts nice and toasty and didn't back down on either the drinking or the poker. Nice job, ladies!

Now about the tequila: I had the Herradura Tequila Seleccion Suprema (since you asked: robust agave with a medium burn) shipped ahead. Shawn Rogers contributed the Harradura Anejo and Cabo Wabo and we had a Mexican version of a degustation. Saying hasta la vista to the Rogue for another year was tough, but the memories (and a little hair of the dog) will no doubt hold me over.

Technorati tag: Pacific Northwest BI Summit, business intelligence conference, Scott Humphrey