04
Mon, Nov
1 New Articles

OCEAN Technical Conference Attendance Wows Organizers

Channel News
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times
More than 260 people show up for the southern California conference designed to help users keep skills current with changing technology.

More than 260 people attended the OCEAN User Group Technical Conference this week, a significant increase in attendance over last year and the second highest on record, a welcome infusion of energy into the southern California IBM i community.

More than 30 vendors participated, and many came from across the country to set up small booths at the show that focused on modernization and the need for users to keep their skills up to date with changing technology.

Consultant Bob Tipton's lunchtime keynote, "Keeping the Edge through Innovation," struck a chord with users who also flocked to presentations by Bob Cozzi, Scott Klement, and Jeff Olen on Web development, integration, and PHP as the means to achieve future of modernization techniques on the i platform.

"People couldn't say enough nice things about the show, and the (OCEAN) board is positively ecstatic about the results," said Bob Langieri, OCEAN president. "Every vendor I spoke with said it is one of the best shows they have been to so far."

OCEAN board members knew they were facing a tough year when reports from other shows, including COMMON, showed attendance was way down, typically by about 40 percent. The board rolled the dice and decided to drastically reduce the price to attendees: $120, which covered not only a slate of 35 sessions with some top-name speakers, but a hot lunch at the Hyatt Regency, Irvine.

Vendor support was sterling, and there were only two unsold table-tops by the time the show opened early Monday, July 20, including the traditional book store sponsored by MC Press. A reception Sunday night drew about 50 speakers and vendors who networked for hours before moving on to another get-together hosted by S4i.

Langieri noted that, while there are some 4,000 IBM i affiliated users in the southern California area, fewer than 10 percent decided to invest in learning new skills by attending the cutting edge sessions at the conference. "Some people get it, and others don't," said Langieri who has been a longtime proponent of learning new skills as a way to maintain your relevancy to employers in a tight job market.

Past President Carole Comeau noted the conference's "extremely upbeat" tone and the fact that some people paid their own way or took a vacation day from work if their employers were unwilling, or unable, to pay for their registrations. One company, however, decided to send five people to the conference, she said, because the department's supervisor recognized the incredible educational value it represented given the reduced price.

Users did have fun along with learning some new tricks, and a few lucky ones walked away with a netbook, iPods, and a home theater system after the conference's end-of-day drawing. One fortunate prize winner will receive a $1,000 worth of training from Zend.

While IBM sent six people to the show as speakers, there were few high-level executives present to make any announcements on leak news of future developments. Last year IBM's Jeff Howard and George Farr kept the crowd enthralled with discussions of Power Systems marketing and new pricing for WDSc.

"We like to alternate years between IBM keynoters and independents like Bob Tipton," said Margaret Matthews, OCEAN board member responsible for setting up the stable of speakers. "People love Bob Tipton, who was outstanding and got nothing but positive reviews," said Matthews. "People felt his talk really applied to them."

For the most part, the speakers from IBM presented on AIX topics, but the conference was attended mostly by the loyal i community, and the Board has yet to find a way to attract the UNIX/AIX crowd who live and work in the region. Doug Mack, product marketing manager for Power Systems and DB2 Web Query spoke on that product and sat on a panel hosted by Key Information Systems and the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising dealing with the Smart i business intelligence appliance based on the iSeries and DB2 Web Query.

Despite its success in terms of attendance, the conference's reduced rates put its purpose of funding OCEAN's monthly speaker expenses in doubt, and organizers are hoping that 2010 comes through with the economic turnaround climate that conference organizers will need to make the extraordinary effort of holding one of these conferences an economically viable undertaking.

Chris Smith

Chris Smith was the Senior News Editor at MC Press Online from 2007 to 2012 and was responsible for the news content on the company's Web site. Chris has been writing about the IBM midrange industry since 1992 when he signed on with Duke Communications as West Coast Editor of News 3X/400. With a bachelor's from the University of California at Berkeley, where he majored in English and minored in Journalism, and a master's in Journalism from the University of Colorado, Boulder, Chris later studied computer programming and AS/400 operations at Long Beach City College. An award-winning writer with two Maggie Awards, four business books, and a collection of poetry to his credit, Chris began his newspaper career as a reporter in northern California, later worked as night city editor for the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and went on to edit a national cable television trade magazine. He was Communications Manager for McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, Calif., before it merged with Boeing, and oversaw implementation of the company's first IBM desktop publishing system there. An editor for MC Press Online since 2007, Chris has authored some 300 articles on a broad range of topics surrounding the IBM midrange platform that have appeared in the company's eight industry-leading newsletters. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

BLOG COMMENTS POWERED BY DISQUS

LATEST COMMENTS

Support MC Press Online

$

Book Reviews

Resource Center

  • SB Profound WC 5536 Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application. You can find Part 1 here. In Part 2 of our free Node.js Webinar Series, Brian May teaches you the different tooling options available for writing code, debugging, and using Git for version control. Brian will briefly discuss the different tools available, and demonstrate his preferred setup for Node development on IBM i or any platform. Attend this webinar to learn:

  • SB Profound WP 5539More than ever, there is a demand for IT to deliver innovation. Your IBM i has been an essential part of your business operations for years. However, your organization may struggle to maintain the current system and implement new projects. The thousands of customers we've worked with and surveyed state that expectations regarding the digital footprint and vision of the company are not aligned with the current IT environment.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT Generic IBM announced the E1080 servers using the latest Power10 processor in September 2021. The most powerful processor from IBM to date, Power10 is designed to handle the demands of doing business in today’s high-tech atmosphere, including running cloud applications, supporting big data, and managing AI workloads. But what does Power10 mean for your data center? In this recorded webinar, IBMers Dan Sundt and Dylan Boday join IBM Power Champion Tom Huntington for a discussion on why Power10 technology is the right strategic investment if you run IBM i, AIX, or Linux. In this action-packed hour, Tom will share trends from the IBM i and AIX user communities while Dan and Dylan dive into the tech specs for key hardware, including:

  • Magic MarkTRY the one package that solves all your document design and printing challenges on all your platforms. Produce bar code labels, electronic forms, ad hoc reports, and RFID tags – without programming! MarkMagic is the only document design and print solution that combines report writing, WYSIWYG label and forms design, and conditional printing in one integrated product. Make sure your data survives when catastrophe hits. Request your trial now!  Request Now.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericForms of ransomware has been around for over 30 years, and with more and more organizations suffering attacks each year, it continues to endure. What has made ransomware such a durable threat and what is the best way to combat it? In order to prevent ransomware, organizations must first understand how it works.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericIT security is a top priority for businesses around the world, but most IBM i pros don’t know where to begin—and most cybersecurity experts don’t know IBM i. In this session, Robin Tatam explores the business impact of lax IBM i security, the top vulnerabilities putting IBM i at risk, and the steps you can take to protect your organization. If you’re looking to avoid unexpected downtime or corrupted data, you don’t want to miss this session.

  • SB HelpSystems ROBOT GenericCan you trust all of your users all of the time? A typical end user receives 16 malicious emails each month, but only 17 percent of these phishing campaigns are reported to IT. Once an attack is underway, most organizations won’t discover the breach until six months later. A staggering amount of damage can occur in that time. Despite these risks, 93 percent of organizations are leaving their IBM i systems vulnerable to cybercrime. In this on-demand webinar, IBM i security experts Robin Tatam and Sandi Moore will reveal:

  • FORTRA Disaster protection is vital to every business. Yet, it often consists of patched together procedures that are prone to error. From automatic backups to data encryption to media management, Robot automates the routine (yet often complex) tasks of iSeries backup and recovery, saving you time and money and making the process safer and more reliable. Automate your backups with the Robot Backup and Recovery Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAManaging messages on your IBM i can be more than a full-time job if you have to do it manually. Messages need a response and resources must be monitored—often over multiple systems and across platforms. How can you be sure you won’t miss important system events? Automate your message center with the Robot Message Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAThe thought of printing, distributing, and storing iSeries reports manually may reduce you to tears. Paper and labor costs associated with report generation can spiral out of control. Mountains of paper threaten to swamp your files. Robot automates report bursting, distribution, bundling, and archiving, and offers secure, selective online report viewing. Manage your reports with the Robot Report Management Solution. Key features include:

  • FORTRAFor over 30 years, Robot has been a leader in systems management for IBM i. With batch job creation and scheduling at its core, the Robot Job Scheduling Solution reduces the opportunity for human error and helps you maintain service levels, automating even the biggest, most complex runbooks. Manage your job schedule with the Robot Job Scheduling Solution. Key features include:

  • LANSA Business users want new applications now. Market and regulatory pressures require faster application updates and delivery into production. Your IBM i developers may be approaching retirement, and you see no sure way to fill their positions with experienced developers. In addition, you may be caught between maintaining your existing applications and the uncertainty of moving to something new.

  • LANSAWhen it comes to creating your business applications, there are hundreds of coding platforms and programming languages to choose from. These options range from very complex traditional programming languages to Low-Code platforms where sometimes no traditional coding experience is needed. Download our whitepaper, The Power of Writing Code in a Low-Code Solution, and:

  • LANSASupply Chain is becoming increasingly complex and unpredictable. From raw materials for manufacturing to food supply chains, the journey from source to production to delivery to consumers is marred with inefficiencies, manual processes, shortages, recalls, counterfeits, and scandals. In this webinar, we discuss how:

  • The MC Resource Centers bring you the widest selection of white papers, trial software, and on-demand webcasts for you to choose from. >> Review the list of White Papers, Trial Software or On-Demand Webcast at the MC Press Resource Center. >> Add the items to yru Cart and complet he checkout process and submit

  • Profound Logic Have you been wondering about Node.js? Our free Node.js Webinar Series takes you from total beginner to creating a fully-functional IBM i Node.js business application.

  • SB Profound WC 5536Join us for this hour-long webcast that will explore:

  • Fortra IT managers hoping to find new IBM i talent are discovering that the pool of experienced RPG programmers and operators or administrators with intimate knowledge of the operating system and the applications that run on it is small. This begs the question: How will you manage the platform that supports such a big part of your business? This guide offers strategies and software suggestions to help you plan IT staffing and resources and smooth the transition after your AS/400 talent retires. Read on to learn: