IDUG EMEA 2014 – Day 1
So, that’s another IDUG EMEA conference opening day in the history books – my 16th since I attended my first conference in Barcelona back in 1997. I actually arrived in Prague yesterday morning after a VERY early flight from the UK. That gave me a few hours to re-acquaint myself with the Clarion Congress Hotel (IDUG was at the same hotel 3 years ago) and enjoy my first Staropramen of the week in Prague’s Old Town. There was no time for an extended sightseeing session though, as I wanted to attend the DB2 for z/OS Customer Advisory Council meeting on Sunday afternoon. I really enjoy these sessions, which provide a great opportunity for key DB2 customers and Gold Consultants to provide direct input into IBM’s plans for future releases of DB2. The “Cypress” release of DB2 for z/OS is shaping up nicely, and I’m looking forward to learning more about the exciting new features as they are finalised in the coming months.
Sunday evening was inevitably spent in the vicinity of the hotel bar, catching up with many old IDUG friends and making a few new ones. It was good to see several first-time IDUG attendees around in addition to the usual suspects who make the IDUG pilgrimage every year.
A combination of client work and IDUG Content Committee commitments meant I could only attend a few technical sessions today, but John Campbell’s Migration Planning presentations are always worth attending and the current DB2 11 iteration is no exception. The lunch and coffee breaks seemed to be very busy, and I’m guessing the numbers are well up on last year’s conference. The Triton DB2 Geeks have been busy mingling and giving out invites to this evening’s party, which has become a much-anticipated part of the IDUG social schedule in recent years. This year’s “geometric quiz” is one of the harder competitions we’ve run recently, and I’m looking forward to finding out how many people manage to crack it.
That’s it for today, I’m off to set up for tonight’s party before helping to man the Content Committee stand in tonight’s Exhibition Reception. One of my fellow DB2 Geeks will pick up the story tomorrow, but so far my 16th EMEA conference looks like it’s going to be every bit as valuable and enjoyable as the previous 15 have been.