System iNetwork

February 26, 2008

i-Focused Conferences Around the Corner

Speaking of having COMMON on my brain, there are three other in-person conferences coming up that deliver some seriously i-focused education. COMMON may be the big daddy of the System i conferences, but sometimes a shot of focus can energize you more than larger tent-pole events. The RPG & DB2 Summit, RPG World 2008, and the 2008 IT Leaders Forum are coming faster than you might think.

Right around the corner is the RPG and DB2 Summit, where IBM's George Farr first hinted about componentized WDSc last year. The conference is set for March 11-13 in Orlando, and it will again kick off with a George Farr keynote address. Well-known System i experts Paul Tuohy, Jon Paris, Skip Marchesani, and Susan Gantner will provide the foundation for most of the educational sessions.

The gathering will have four concurrent educational tracks, three with an RPG focus and one purely devoted to DB2 and SQL items. Key topics include V6R1, RPG IV, ILE, SQL, DB2, WDSc, and RPG and the Web. IBM's lead developer for the RPG compiler, Barbara Morris, will also be available at the keynote address to provide technical details, and she will lead several technical elective sessions. Special guest instructors in addition to Farr and Morris include System iNEWS Technical Editor Scott Klement and IBM's Tom McKinley.

Coming May 5-7, RPG World 2008 will hit Las Vegas. RPG World boasts 12 sessions per day with three educational tracks, and it's anchored by System i and RPG expert Bob Cozzi, who doesn't really need an introduction since most every RPG programmer has heard of him or has read his books. Either way, Cozzi is also the guy who delivers our System iNetwork Tuesday Tips video podcast.

Running concurrently with RPG World is the Professional Developers Conference, which starts a day earlier on May 4. Overall session topics will include SubProcedures, Subfiles, XML, RPG for Windows, i5/OS Version 6 Enhancements, CL and ILE CL, Embedded SQL, Web Development with RPG IV, Sending E-Mail from RPG IV, and a professional development seminar with Bob Tipton. As you might guess, IBM's George Farr will also be there, presenting on RPG IV and V6R1.

Once summer kicks into high gear, the 2008 IT Leaders Forum will come to Denver July 20-23. In terms of full disclosure, this is a System iNetwork event, which also means you'll get a chance to meet and attend sessions with System iNEWS magazine technical editors Mel Beckman, Paul Conte, and Bob Tipton. In addition, Gartner's John Enck, IBM's Doug Mack and Bob Cancilla, ASNA's Roger Pence, and Synergy Connects' Dave Ellison -- among others -- will deliver sessions designed to tackle the industry's toughest issues.

Gartner's John Enck, by the way, will launch the conference with a presentation called "The Future of Server Technology." For those who are interested in planning for and managing change around server technology -- i5/OS on a blade? Windows, Linux, and virtualization? -- this session will be a primer for the next five years.

Posted by cmaxcer at February 26, 2008 11:38 PM