Edit: Some links no longer work. The links to pictures do, it was fun looking for people from all those years ago.
Originally posted January 18, 2011 on AIXchange
The 2011 schedule for the IBM Systems Technical Conference Series is now out. These worldwide educational events include the IBM Power Systems Technical University, which is set for Oct. 10-14 in Miami, Fla.
I’ve written numerous times about the valuable education available through the IBM Power Systems Technical University events. I figure it’s worth mentioning now because companies typically finalize their annual budgets early in the calendar year — so really, now is the time to make the case to your management about how this educational conference will help you in your job.
If you can’t make time to attend the conference in October, you might also consider the three-day Power Systems Technical Symposium that’s set for April 27-29 in Orlando, Fla.
From the website:
“The IBM Power Systems Technical Symposium is a shorter version of the IBM Power Systems Technical University offered in October. It will focus exclusively on training related to the recent POWER announcements and the potential impact on your data center.”
These conferences are a great place to hear about the technical details behind Power systems, without any marketing fluff. They are technical conferences for technical people. They’re taught by people with real-world experience. The attendees you talk to and network with face the same kinds of challenges that you do. It’s a great place to meet with others in your field.
Besides the technical information, you can usually count on learning about other interesting topics while you’re there.
When I attended the 2010 conference in Las Vegas last October, Steve Squyers was the keynote speaker. Steve is the scientific principal investigator for the Mars Exploration Rover mission, and based on the information he presented that night, I found that space exploration is even more fascinating than I had realized.
I picked up a copy of his book, “Roving Mars,” so that I could learn more. I enjoyed reading what he wrote. I learned a lot from the book, but I also realized that he shared insights with us in his talk that he didn’t cover in his book. I only wish I’d made an audio recording so I could listen to it again. (If anyone has an MP3 of the lecture, please send it my way.)
If you attended the conference, look through these pictures and see if you can find a photo of yourself. I was able to find a shot of the back of my head in one of them.
Many of the speakers flew straight from the event in Las Vegas to the Technical University that was held the following week in Lyon, France, in order to present there as well.
Here’s a set of pictures from France.
I got some behind-the-scenes information from IBM’s Marlin Maddy, who’s in charge of the IBM Technical Conference Series. He told me there were approximately 1,550 attendees in 2010, nearly double the attendance at the 2009 event. There were well over 400 technical sessions, many of which were standing room only.
These venues are selected close to 18 months ahead of time and they had selected the rooms that the speakers would be presenting in for the different topics that were going to be covered in the conference well before actually getting the final attendance numbers, which was why some of the rooms felt so crowded. They did acquire a couple of additional larger rooms to ease the congestion, but it’s difficult to plan for a crowd when you are not sure until the event starts just how many people will be attending. Since attendees only sign up for the conference itself as opposed to specific presentations, it can be hard to plan for the size of the room that will be needed.
Event organizers collect attendee feedback from each of the conference sessions so that they can get our thoughts and criticisms while they are still fresh in our mind, and according to Marlin, overall customer satisfaction with the event was extremely high in 2010.
A large burst of people signed up at the last minute for the 2010 conference, which is unusual as most years they will have a steady stream of people that sign up for conferences They also offered two pre-conference certification classes that had 50 attendees. This was something new, and event organizers felt that it enhanced the value of the conference.
Prizes given away at the 2010 conference included five iPads, five Kindles and five 1TB external drives. Expect more such giveaways this year.
As Marlin put it, “Putting together an event like this takes a great deal of planning and a solid team working together. There are always minor surprises and as a team we just need to adjust to make it all transparent to the customer.”
I thought they did a great job with the event. Let me know what you think in the comments, or send me an e-mail.