A Look at Upcoming COMMON Events
COMMON is the preeminent organization offering the best educational opportunities for IBM Power Systems professionals. We’ve been busy setting up 2023, so let’s look at what is coming this year.
iHAXLABS
Kicking off the year is a LoopBack Hackathon that is being held in conjunction with Common Europe and is branded as iHAXLABS. This event is geared towards students, IBM i professionals that are relatively new in their careers and developers new to IBM i.
LoopBack, in this case, is not your 127.0.0.1 localhost address. Rather, it is a framework for making REST APIs using Node.js and TypeScript. The first two days of the hackathon involve presentations covering the underlying technology and the components of a LoopBack application. The third day is the hackathon itself where participants create their own REST APIs using newfound LoopBack knowledge.
This online event is scheduled for January 17-19 and anyone can attend; you do not need to be a COMMON or Common Europe member, although you do need to register to attend.
This event is sponsored by NextGen Common Europe and COMMON’s New to i program.
IT Leadership Summit
Up next, on February 16th, is the IT Leadership Summit on Security, to be held at the IBM Innovation Studio in Dallas, TX.
This event is for IT leaders to hear from IBM and industry experts about cybersecurity and Zero Trust. Also scheduled to speak about IBM Power Strategy is Steve Sibley, vice president of IBM Power. See the agenda for more information.
A key component of this event is the opportunity to meet and network with peers, the speakers and IBM executives.
FOCUS
Also scheduled on February 14-15, 2023 is an all-day workshop event called FOCUS. This is also a virtual event, with the sessions presented live and recorded for playback after the event concludes. This event was initially offered in December of 2020 then again last February. The planning for this event is still underway, but more information about the content should be available soon; watch the FOCUS website for updates. FOCUS is free to all COMMON members.
POWERUp2023
POWERUp 2023 is in Denver, CO on April 24-27, which is earlier than typical for a POWERUp conference. POWERUp is the premier in-person event with nearly 300 sessions. The educational content is top notch with industry experts and IBMers presenting the sessions. It is also a great networking opportunity to meet and talk with fellow IBM i professionals. The access to IBMers in unprecedented in the industry – where else can you talk directly to the people that architect the system and write the code!
Information about the event, including speakers and sessions are published on the COMMON web site.
Other Education and Events
In addition to the events reviewed above, COMMON has a wealth of online content, which includes bootcamps on ILE RPG, Security, Systems Administration and more to come in 2023. Simply being a COMMON member gives you access to this content.
There are also free recordings which require you to log into the COMMON web site and register (at no charge) to view the content, but you do not have to be a COMMON member. The IBM iSee video blog is an example.
COMMON also offers content that is free to everyone. Ongoing webinars and POWERCasts, N2i virtual events and The Incredible i Show.
COMMON also has two publications; the “COMMON Knowledge” newsletter, which you must subscribe to, and the “Eye on the i” e-magazine, which is available to everyone.
The value of a COMMON membership has never been greater. Join COMMON today and give yourself an educational boost for your professional career.