The IBM i User Group (i-UG) in the UK sprung into life in February 2024 with their first event of the year at sunny Rochdale. I say sunny, being from the south of the UK, ‘sun’ and ‘the North of the UK’ are not words that go together!
The i-UG chairman, Mike Ryan kicked of the day with a big mention for the vendors and sponsors of these events. These events would be few and far between without them.
Steve Cast took over giving a marketing overview with a pointer to the Common US education that is available to all i-UG members.
Then Steve Bradshaw (Brad), the loudest of the lot, gave an update on IBMs new subscription model. If you understand this new model, please let us all know with an article for PowerWire!
Colin Spotford, the money man, let us know that this user group, in one name or another (where have we heard that before??), has been holding a user group event in this location for 31 years. Great respect to the guys to continually organise these events. Well done to all!
Quantum Computing
After all these introductions, it was time for IBM to take the stage.
The title of their presentation was Quantum Computing. Many people have tried to explain Quantum to me personally, and I’ve still no idea at the end. To be honest, the presenter did a great job of explaining, but I’m glad I will be at the London event where all the topics will be presented once again. I will really need that!
IIOT
Orange Solutions, local to Manchester, gave their presentation on IIOT. For those not familiar with the abbreviation IIOT, IIOT is the term for Internet of Things for Industry.
They showcased what they are doing, on a very large scale, using Node-RED with many different industries. All very interesting.
Their website shows an image of the Royal Navy’s R08 flagship aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth. Well, that’s got me hooked, I stood up and saluted when I first saw it. Once Navy, always Navy, as they say on the adverts.
Unlease Your Data
The afternoon session started with the 3 amigos, from the i-UG committee, Steve, Steve and Mike. Their presentation was titled ‘Unleash your Data – Seamless IBM i Data Movement’ and demo’ed how easy it is to grab data from wherever and store it on your IBM i. The demo’s went very smoothly and did not seem to suffer the curse of ‘Death by Demo’. Three different ways of getting data and without any programming, well only a couple of lines from non-programmers, it was all very smooth.
Programmers Options
Then onto the last session of a very eventful day. Our editor, Andy Youens, gave a talk about his Oppo (Navy talk for friend) being a very fed-up programmer who wanted another programming language to keep him busy before he retires. He was very fed-up with Primary files, secondary files, matched records etc., etc. So, Andy laid out the programming languages that are freely available on our IBM i. That certainly gave him food for thought!
All in all, an excellent day out in the North of England and I think we can all say, we are looking forward to the next event, in an even sunnier, London (My hometown).
Future Events
Future events of 2024 for the i-UG are scheduled at the following dates and places.
The next event is on the 14 March 2024. This South Event will be held at IBMs new York Road offices in Waterloo London.
The very popular two-day summer event will be held in Northampton Town centre at the Mercure Hotel on the 18 & 19 June 2024.
And to round of the 2024’s events, it is back to the Midlands Mount Hotel on the 7th November.
I’m sure these events will all be very well attended and be very popular. Get registering!
You will find all these events in the PowerWire calendar, on our main page of our website.
If you have any events planned that you wish us to place on our calendar, let us know, we are here to help.
And finally …
We had to include this photo, Andy Youens owning up to cracking another Navy joke!
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