It’s a crazy but fabulous Friday as I get the final preparations done for SHARE in Tampa next week. As the project manager of zNextGen, I’ve learned that a lot goes into making each conference a success. It takes many dedicated and enthusiastic volunteers, and I am glad to be one of them! I wanted to post an update on how things are going for zNextGen and give a preview of all the exciting events taking place next week for our project.
There is great energy surrounding the zNextGen project, especially as we gear up for our 4th SHARE. Tampa will surely be another notable and beneficial experience, thanks to the hard work of my team to continue to momentum from Baltimore. Since the conference in August, 2006, zNextGen has grown to 200+ members, representing over 88 companies and 6 countries around the world! A large community indeed, but through monthly calls, team calls, emails and our website, we have become quite a cohesive group.
We are looking forward to another successful SHARE in Tampa next week. There are many sessions that have been specifically geared towards benefiting our members, including a trio of z/OS introductory sessions to be given by Bob Rogers on Sunday. We have created another zNextGen certificate track and Grid of Recommended Sessions to help our members take full advantage of all that SHARE has to offer. The zNextGen Opening session on Monday is sure to be exciting, as we have Cheryl Watson lined up as our star keynote speaker. We have networking and social activities planned, including the primary event on Wednesday night sponsored by NEON Enterprise Software, Inc.
If you are attending SHARE next week, be sure to catch me sometime during the week! I will be presenting the following 3 seesions:
- Session 1214: Change That IMS Database – Without an Outage!; Monday @ 3pm, Room 8
- I will be giving an overview of our own Tony Lubrano’s HALO, a product that allows you to convert IMS databases and implement changes without taking databases offline for the entire conversion.
- Session 3100: zNextGen Project Opening and Keynote; Monday @ 4:30pm, Room 25
- This is our opening session, where we have Cheryl Watson lined up as our keynote speaker.
- Session 3101: zNextGen Project Wrap-Up; Thursday @ 3pm, Room 25
- This session will wrap things up in preparation for the next SHARE. We have a free-for-all planned and will review the week in Tampa.
In addition to those sessions, here are others I highly recommend:
- Session 8179: The Incredibly Powerful (but Little-Known) CFC/UPT Instructions; Monday @ 4:30, Room 6
- NESI’s own Tom Harper will show how to design and code CFC and UPT to sort an arbitrary number of records.
- Session 1314: A DB2 for z/OS Performance Tuning Roadmap; Monday @ 3pm, Room 9
- NESI’s own Craig Mullins (check out his blog too!) will discuss DB2 tuning issues and provide performance tips.
- Session 1332: Change Control For DB2 Access Paths; Tuesday @ 4:30, Room 9
- NESI’s own Craig Mullins will discuss the challenges of managing DB2 access paths along with using Bind ImpactExpert to analyze and manage access path changes.
- Sessions 2891-2893: z/OS Basics: A z/OS Walking Tour Through MVS Concepts and Facilities; Sunday @ 1:30, 3 and 4:30, Ballroom C
- Bob Rogers will present on z/OS operating system and hardware basics, using his unique talent for making the complex understandable and the trivial interesting.
- Session 3102: Fulfilling the Challenge: A Perspective on Education; Tuesday @ 8am, Room 25
- Special guest Professor David Douglas from University of Arkansas will discuss the current environment and trends within the Academic-Industry-IBM triangle.
So many good sessions, so little time! And I must mention again that NEON Enterprise Software, Inc. is sponsoring the big zNextGen Networking Event on Wednesday evening @ 7pm @ Shark’s Restaurant and Bar! Free food and drinks for the first 60 people to sign up (see me or any zNextGen team member for details) plus free gifts for all!
I think this will be our best SHARE yet and I encourage you to get more information about the conference and zNextGen from the websites. If you will not be at SHARE, don’t worry, I will definitely post a review when I return and get my head on straight again! J
-Kristine