[vc_row][vc_column][us_single_image image=”2647″][vc_column_text]In this crazy world in which we find ourselves, it is easy to lose track of familiar milestones – for example, the annual SHARE Winter conference. If you haven’t been keeping abreast of developments in SHARE, there are a lot of things about this year’s Winter SHARE that you should be aware of:
- It starts today! And it will run until March 24th.
- It is virtual. So, no travel costs, and no 4-hour flights sitting beside someone that looks like they might glow in the dark!
- It is SO CHEAP. Attendance for the entire event costs only $299 for SHARE members, or $399 for non-members. When you sign up, there is a drop-down list to see if your company is already a SHARE member company.
- All sessions are being recorded, so even if you are not available for some session that would be perfect for your current project, you can listen to the recording whenever suits you. Unfortunately the recordings can’t be downloaded, but they are available online until June 30.
- This is a great opportunity for techies outside the Americas. If you haven’t attended a SHARE conference before because of the cost, this is a fantastic chance to try it out, with zero travel expenses and minimal registration costs. And because all sessions are recorded, you can ‘attend’ any session during your working day, no matter where you live.
You can find the agenda here. Unlike a traditional SHARE, where 10 or more tracks run in parallel for the entire week, this time there are only ever two sessions running at the same time, and most topics are packed into just one or two days. z/OS, for example, has two sets of sessions running in parallel tomorrow (Wednesday, March 3rd) and Thursday. Most of the CICS sessions are running serially, on March 16th and 17th. Security is on March 23rd. And so on – check the agenda to see which sessions would be of interest to you or your colleagues. And in case you missed it, IBM formally previewed z/OS 2.5 today, so we are hoping to hear a lot more about this new release over tomorrow and Thursday.
Cheryl and I will be presenting our Watson & Walker zRoadshow on this Thursday, March 4th, at 4pm Eastern time. This session was awarded the SHARE Best of the Best Sessions award the last time we had a face-to-face SHARE, in Fort Worth. That gives Cheryl and me a high bar to live up to, but we have all new material and we hope that attendees will find it both informative and entertaining.
We are all looking forward to a return to normal, and a return to face-to-face conferences and all the networking opportunities that are at the heart of SHARE. But until that happens, Virtual SHARE is a great way to keep up with what is happening in our industry. You should also look out for our analysis of the new z/OS features in the next issue of the Tuning Letter, due to be published around the end of April.
We hope that we will ‘see’ you at our session on Thursday, and that you enjoy the conference.
Stay Tuned!
Frank Kyne [vc_row][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row]