Correction a COMMON POWERUp18 brochure! :-)
As a long time attendee and long time presenter there are two key things
you want to increase: Knowledge and Contacts.
For Knowledge that breaks into two categories as well. 1) Expanding
current knowledge and 2) Learning completely new things.
Searching the sessions is a great way to start mark those that fit
either of the two categories in areas that are important to you. You may
want to increase SQL skills for example but in the Admin space you have
gaps in your skillset that need to be filled.
Don't be afraid to select multiple sessions. While there don't be afraid
to walk out of a session if you change your mind in order to attend
another. Just do so quietly and without fanfare. No speaker will say a
word. Remember too you can download handouts from any session once you
are registered. Sometimes these will fill in the gaps for you other
times they will pique your interest to attend and gain maximum education
on that topic.
Be certain to attend the expo. Walk through it, check out the vendors,
get an idea of what's there then speak to those who have products of
interest. You'll find that nearly every vendor sends true product
experts who can and will answer questions on the spot. They realize
you're likely not there to write a check but to learn about products and
competitive products as well. Is this VTL better than that one and why.
Get cards from vendors!
Pay attention to the events that are not sessions as well, often these
occur in the evening and provide many opportunities to speak to other
attendees, vendors, and speakers. Ask them in-depth questions or hear
about something that may apply to your system and help your company.
Speakers will be there and are happy to talk. Here too you gain contacts
you can call later and ask about that trick or technique to help you in
the future.
Finally if you are a first time attendee you will get an invitation to
meet a mentor, take that opportunity. The Mentors are people with a
history of many COMMON Conferences and a large base of knowledge. They
have volunteered to take your questions and help guide you through a
huge educational opportunity! Without help tt can be overwhelming indeed
but the knowledge gained is invaluable!
And Welcome!!
- Larry "DrFranken" Bolhuis
p.s. COMMON is the organization, POWERUp18 is the conference. ;-)
www.Frankeni.com
www.iDevCloud.com - Personal Development IBM i timeshare service.
www.iInTheCloud.com - Commercial IBM i Cloud Hosting.
On 4/11/2018 2:01 PM, Justin Taylor wrote:
This morning, our Windows manager dropped a COMMON brochure on my desk and told me he wants me to go. After I fell out of my chair, I began looking at the sessions. I've been in this business for a long time, but I've never been to a conference or any kind of training. I'm hoping to solicit some advice on what sessions to attend.
We're a 2.5 man shop running mostly 5250 apps on a 720. I'm both a dev and the admin. My primary dev role is connecting IBMi with non-5250 clients, originally via Db2 stored procedures (RPG & SQL) and now mostly webservices (DIY RPG CGI & CGIDEV2). I have about a dozen web apps done using CGIDEV2, jQuery, HTML and JS. I know some Java and have a couple of Java utility apps.
I'd like to attend every session, but that's not really possible. So I'd love some help narrowing down the choices.
TIA
midrange.com
