Washington D.C. Wrap-up

USERblue in Washington, D.C. Delivers Exceptional Education
From August 10-13, more than 250 UNIX systems specialists from around the world attended USERblue in Washington, D.C. USERblue participants took full advantage of technical knowledge, ready-to-implement tips and techniques, and the latest product information - including information about the future of AIX.

Over the course of the three-day event, attendees enjoyed access to more than 65 hours of technical education covering: architecture and infrastructure, system administration, Linux, performance tuning and capacity planning, and distributed storage. They also benefited from several hands-on lab session, admission to the SHARE Technology Exchange products and services expo, discounted professional certification testing (one test was included in the registration fee), and several opportunities to network with speakers and fellow attendees.

Three other co-located user events were held in Washington, D.C. and sponsored by SHARE Inc., an IBM users group: the Application Development & Integration Symposium for application developers, IT architects, and designers; the Enterprise Systems Management Symposium for data center staff, network management specialists, and IT security analysts; and SHARE in Washington, D.C. for IT professionals of IBM enterprise computing environments. USERblue full-week attendees who registered for the Premium Registration option were able to attend educational sessions at all four events for a nominal additional registration fee.

USERblue attendees also had access to a SHARE-sponsored IBM Business Issues Workshop Wednesday and Thursday, designed to simplify the process of doing business with IBM. Attendees learned the latest about a variety of topics, including procurement, technical support, maintenance, contract negotiations, invoicing, consulting Business Partners versus IBM proper, and much more about how to deal with the non-technical aspects of IBM Corporation.

Two high-profile general sessions complemented the attendee experience. The first, Dr. Paul M. Horn, IBM senior vice president and director of research, delivered an enlightening keynote presentation to all co-located SHARE User Conferences attendees on Monday, August 11. Dr. Horn discussed the Global Technology Outlook (GTO), IBM's projection of the future of information technology, focusing on four technology trends: achieving IT faster, cheaper, better; modular systems; living in an on-demand world; and data explosion. He stressed the fact that service needs will continue to evolve and that is where new IT ideas will come into play to continue to change the IT industry. "This is the beginning of the golden age of IT. What an exciting business this is to be in," stated Dr. Horn.

USERblue closing keynote speaker, Karl Fruend, IBM vice president of product marketing for pSeries, gave a brief update on the future of the IBM UNIX environment, which includes virtualization, and then opened the floor to a Q & A session. Several USERblue attendees took advantage of this opportunity to get their questions answered.

New for this meeting, the conference proceedings were posted to the event Web site prior to the event. Members were notified via e-mail when the proceedings were posted and how to access them. With wireless access provided by Excalibur Integrated Systems, attendees were able to view the proceedings on their laptops during the presentations and follow along with the speakers in real-time.