RPG & DB2 Summit Set for October in Minneapolis

August 4, 2009 Dan Burger

For the past year or more, the murder rate of IT budget items has increased at an alarming rate, with a catastrophic effect of driving down the attendance at almost every educational and technical conference you can name. However, recent signs that the recession may be lifting and an increased attention on investing in the IT skills of in-house personnel may be putting more people in conference seats once again.

This is the hope of the System i Developer RPG & DB2 Summit, a semi-annual event now in its third year. The schedule and location for the fall training conference was recently announced as taking place October12 through 15 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The curriculum focuses exclusively on topics of interest to RPG and DB2 development professionals.

“We’ve received inquiries from several people whose budgets were frozen earlier in the year, but who are now able to schedule training,” says Susan Gantner, who along with Jon Paris, Paul Tuohy, and Skip Marchesani are the partners in System i Developer. “It’s important to us to make sure that developers in this situation get the training they need,” Gantner says.

Joining that foursome of IBM System i programming experts are RPG & DB2 Summit veteran trainers Scott Klement, Barbara Morris, Mike Cain, Kent Milligan, Bruce Vining, and Aaron Bartell.

The three-day conference agenda (October 13-15) covers practical, in-depth, use-it-today tips and techniques on topics ranging from RPG IV and SQL, to modernizing program architecture and user interfaces. There are also optional Headstart Seminars–each a half-day session–that focus on topics that include SQL, PHP, subprocedures and service programs, and HTML/Javascript/CSS for RPG developers. The Headstart Seminars are scheduled for October 12, before the regular sessions. A partial listing of the sessions that includes more specific topic details can be found at this link.

Discounted Summit-only registration rates priced at $995 ($895 for Summit alumni) are available through August 31. The rate includes breakfast and lunch each conference day plus a welcome banquet on the first night. The Headstart Seminars are priced separately from the three-day Summit: $215 for one seminar, or $295 for two.

The host hotel for this event is the Sofitel in Minneapolis. Lodging is $99 per night, which includes complimentary Internet access, parking, and shuttle service from the airport.

For more information on attending the RPG & DB2 Summit, visit www.systemideveloper.com.