The RPG & DB2 Summit - Spring 2010

We're back from the March 2010 RPG & DB2 Summit, exhausted but excited by the positive energy there. Nearly every one of the over 125 System i professionals in snowy(!) Fort Worth went above and beyond to learn, to teach, to share and to connect with each other. Our mutual interest in efficient i development pulled us together like old friends.

One attendee expressed the mood perfectly. "If you don't have a family before the conference," she wrote, "you will have one by the time you leave."

We started on Monday with half-day seminars . . . and so much discussion that some of them ran over. Kudos to Skip's SQL group, all of whom reconvened at the end of a long day to squeeze every bit of juice from the topic.

(Pssst! Skip, do you know where Jon's camera is?) Well . . . while we hunt for it, take a peek at the photo gallery.

An enthusiastic Trevor Perry used his naturally quirky, insightful humor to inspire us to stir our passion for development back into life during his Keynote on Tuesday. His final advice? "Mentoring is the best way to learn, and the best way to increase the passion for your career. Go, make a difference."

After several hours of "stirring our passion" in class, everyone relaxed with a drink (thanks, Krengeltech!), hors d'oeuvres and casual conversation with each other, IBM i vendors and speakers. Then came dinner, and the prizes flowed. Between the banquet raffle and the vendor prizes, attendees walked away with an iPod Touch, a Flip Video camcorder, cash awards, gift certificates, a free e-learning course, books and lots of other fun stuff.

Hey . . . has anyone seen Jon's camera?

Sessions kept everyone busy during the day. Based on attendance, the most popular topics were RPG Tricks and Techniques, Top 10 Things RPGers Must Know, RPG and the IFS, Navigator for Programmers, An RPGer's Adventures in Webland and Externalizing Database Processing. Merrikay from MCPress even had to restock the bookstore. This crowd likes to learn!

Ummm . . . Jon lost his camera again. Anyone? (Hey, Bente, thanks for having your colleagues hand deliver the CD of the photos you took while attending the Spring 2009 Summit. Apparently we needed your photography skills this time, too!)

Many thanks to all of our Alumni, RPG & DB2 Summit media sponsors, IBM Systems Magazine, System i Network and MC Press Online, our vendor sponsors, and guest speakers Scott Klement, Kent Milligan, Mike Cain, Aaron Bartell, Alison Butterill and Trevor Perry. Each one is part of the secret recipe that made this Summit such a pleasure to organize and run.

As a testament to the honesty of RPG/DB2ers, Jon did return home with his camera. Remember those mitten clips we used as kids? We bought "camera clips" for Jon, so next time you see him, don't make fun of the yarn hanging from his sleeves.

Stay tuned for details on the next Summit, and sign up for email alerts to get info as it's released.