Attendance at the recent COMMON conference exceeded that of either of the previous two years, and the number of exhibiting vendors was up by 11 percent over 2010, according to figures released this week by the user group.

A combined total of 1,221 people registered for the 2011 COMMON Conference and Exhibition, in Minneapolis, according to COMMON. Not all of these were paid registrants, as they included members of the media and speakers, who earned part or all of their registration fees conducting sessions or covering the show. Speakers accounted for 117 people among the total, which included 14 who were new to the role of presenting before a group. There were 100 fewer registered attendees last year in Orlando, which hosted 1,121 registrants. In 2009, only 958 people registered for the COMMON conference in Reno, Nev.

The total number of exhibiting companies this year was considerably higher than for last year—80 companies chose to purchase booth space this year, whereas only 72 showed up in Orlando for the 2010 event. This year's exhibitor list was nearly back up to that of the Reno exhibition two years ago, which drew 81 vendors.

None of the past three years' shows since 2008 when IBM merged the System i and System p have come close to the 1,800 registered attendees in Nashville, where 92 vendors displayed their products that year.

COMMON and IBM Awards

Attendees at the Opening Session this year gave a warm round of applause to the people and companies who were awarded special recognition by COMMON and IBM. Following are the 2011 awards and their recipients.

COMMON Education Foundation: Al Barsa Memorial Scholarship

• Mike Pavlak, Zend Technologies

Mike Pavlak, solution consultant with Zend Technologies, holds his keepsake commemorating his being awarded the 2011 Al Barsa Memorial Scholarship by the COMMON Education Foundation for industry service far beyond job requirements.

COMMON Education Foundation: Scholarship Recipients

• Jim Buck–Gateway Technical College (Wisconsin) (check out the new book from MC Press by Buck and Jerry Fottral, Mastering IBM i)
• Char Parker–Muskegon Community College (Michigan)
• Gary Schmidt–Washburn University (Kansas)
• Ted Tucker–Metropolitan Community College (Nebraska)

CEF-VMS (Volunteer Memorial Scholarship) Recipient

• Herb Kronholm–Mid-State Technical College (Wisconsin)

COMMON/IBM Power Systems Innovation Award

• Finalist: Landstar System, Inc., Jacksonville, Fla.
  • Contact Person: Ken Perry, Project Manager
• Winner: Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), Los Angeles
  • Contact Person: Roxanne Reynolds-Lair, CIO

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..