As we move (slightly reluctantly) towards the end of the summer, we can turn our attention to the various learning opportunities IBM developers have, both in the UK, online and in US.
Upcoming IBM i learning opportunities
IBM i technical workshops
If you purchased a new Power system with IBM i within the past three years, then there is an added reason to take note of some of these events because when the systems were shipped, some included a free-of-charge education voucher courtesy of IBM.
Designed to enable users to get started on the IBM i and to take full advantage of the many benefits of the system.
Follow the link to register and redeem your IBM vouchers for Power Systems.
You could, for instance, attend the IBM i Performance Analysis workshop which takes place over three days, from 25th-27th September 2018 in London, where you’ll be able to: “learn the science and art of performance analysis, methodology and problem solving on IBM i”.
i-UG events
i-UG is the only independent user group in the UK dedicated solely to the IBM i and POWER platforms. The final i-UG event takes place at The Mount Hotel, Wolverhampton on Thursday 8th November 2018, starting at 9:15 am and finishing at 3:30 pm. Koen Decorte from Belgium headlines the event with a keynote entitled ‘Beyond modernisation’. Attendees can then elect to attend a session on Python on IBM i or one focusing on customer service on the IBM i. Following a spot of lunch, there’s another two elective sessions, one presented by Andy Youens looking at managing Open Source on the IBM i and the other from distributor Arrow ECS on Power 9. Steve Bradshaw closes the event with a presentation ‘Client Access is Dead….Long Live ACS’.
Register for the Wolverhampton event.
Looking into next year, the first event takes place in Rochdale on 21st February 2019, with the same agenda repeated on 7 March at IBM’s Southbank offices in Central London. Details will follow closer to the date.
Proximity is a vendor member of i-UG. Although not at these particular events, we do regularly present at other i-UG events around the country, including i-UG’s annual two-day International i-Power Conference, which takes place in June.
Online webinars
Our partners, Fresche Solutions, run a host of IBM i related technical webinars throughout the year covering subjects such IBM i development and modernisation and IBM i analysis and productivity. The next webinar scheduled is on 12th September 2018, entitled ‘Let’s Get Digital: IT Strategies for the 21st Century’.
IBM’s Partner, CIO and Cloud Advisor, Arnab Bag, and Fresche’s Transformation and Digitization Expert, Chris Koppe discuss how IBM i application development and modernisation enables organisations to lay the foundation for digital transformation – and drive innovation. They’ll examine ways to develop strategies that will take advantage of existing IT architecture and focus on the vitally important user experience.
Recently, Fresche ran two, four-part webinar series which are well worth checking out. One looks at IBM i application understanding with X-Analysis Advisor and the other IBM i Green Screen UI Development and Modernisation.
Events a little further afield
There are a number of events that might interest IBM i developers, including:
IBM i at the RPG and DB2 Summit takes place in Chicago from 2nd-4th October 2018 and is organised by System i Developer. Attendees can learn about the latest in IBM i application modernization, web services and mobile apps – all leveraging IBM i data and business logic. Sessions covering everything from open source, DB2, mobile application development using Phone Gap, Python, PHP, SQL and RPG are led by the great and good from the IBM i community, including:
- Paul Tuohy
- Mike Pavlak
- Jon Paris
- Susan Gantner
- Scott Forstie
- Alan Seiden
In mid-October, the focus switches to Pittsburgh Pennsylvania when the COMMON Fall Conference and Expo takes centre stage from 15th-17th October. Again, there’s a huge array of workshops and technical subjects to choose from. Check out the session planner.
Unfortunately, developers with a specific interest in PHP on the IBM i will have to choose between the Fall Conference and Expo and ZendCon and OpenEnterprise which takes place on the same days, but this case Las Vegas, Nevada. As well as IBM i related sessions, you can learn more about things such as building RESTful web APIs, Docker, Jenkins, domain-driven design, MongoDB and many more.
Need even more help with your IBM i?
Still need some help with your IBM i? From additional IBM i staff resources on an ad-hoc or contract basis, help with starting or completing an IBM i development project, or managing an entire IBM i application, you can learn more about our IBM i services.
Posted by Paul on 23rd August 2018.