IBM i Advocate Ian Jarman To Keynote At RPG & DB2 Summit
September 23, 2013 Dan Burger
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IBM i Advocate Ian Jarman To Keynote At RPG & DB2 Summit
The general managers for the IBM i platform and its earlier iterations the System i, iSeries, and AS/400 have come and gone like clockwork. But one constant at the IBM executive level for as long as I can remember is Ian Jarman. He’s often been called on to be the voice of the platform when well-meaning folks like the gang at IT Jungle want to know why IBM is doing something or doing nothing with the operating system, the database, the hardware, or the marketing. He knows IBM i like a captain knows his ship. If there’s anything he doesn’t know, he knows who to ask and get an answer. “There have been two huge events in the world of IBM i in the past couple of years,” says Jon Paris, an IBM i expert in his own right. “First Watson soundly defeated the best human Jeopardy! players in the world, then this year we all celebrated the 25th anniversary of the birth of the AS/400. So what do these two events have in common besides the IBM Power platform? Ian Jarman!” Paris, one of the partners in System i Developer, a group that has successfully organized the twice annual RPG & DB2 Summit education and training conferences, was particularly happy last week to announce Jarman was presenting a keynote address at the upcoming Summit scheduled for October 15 through 17 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Jarman, who was the IBM i product manager for many years, plans to share some of the stories behind the creation of the 25 vignettes that highlighted the IBM i’s 25th anniversary celebration on the specially created Facebook page. He told IT Jungle in a mid-June interview the IBM i25 celebration, which lasted eight weeks, “exceeded all of our expectations.” Also stemming from his involvement with the i25 anniversary, Jarman will connect 25 years of IBM architectural decisions that shaped the modern IBM i. “Ian has a brilliant, creative mind that can turn complex concepts into memorable bits of information,” says Susan Gantner, also a partner at System i Developer. “He was personally responsible for many of the 25th anniversary vignettes that so cleverly communicated why the i is so versatile, so resilient, and so future-proof. We expect Ian’s keynote to uncover new i Advocate ideas that IBM i professionals can take away and use within their own organizations to communicate the IBM i’s strengths to management.” Several Summit conferences ago, System i Developer incorporated an i Advocate session to go along with the technical training that is the focus of the Summit. That session has been led by IBM’s Mike Cain, as well-prepared and well-spoken defender of the platform as I have heard. At next month’s Summit Mike Pavlak, one of the most traveled of the IBM i evangelists, will lead the session, which is designed to give participants the ammunition and the encouragement to advocate for the platform at the companies where they work. Pavlak is a high-energy, take the ball and run, kind of person, best known for his work with PHP on IBM i training. Anyone who wants to be a better advocate for IBM i–and his or her own career–won’t be short-changed by spending time with Pavlak. Jarman’s presentation should augment the i Advocate efforts as well. For more information on the RPG & DB2 Summit visit the System i Developer website. RELATED STORIES RPG & DB2 Summit Registrations Rise, Signals Progress In IBM i Shops RPG & DB2 Summit Adds Analytics, BI To Agenda New ITG Report Is Reinforcement For The IBM i Advocate
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