COMMON to Kick Off First of Two Fall NAViGATE Shows
September 11, 2024 Alex Woodie
What’s better than having one fall COMMON conference to learn new IBM i skills and meet with other midrange folks? The answer, of course, is to hold two NAViGATE shows – one in sizzling Florida next week, followed by a second event in November in the cooler climate of Toronto, Ontario.
The IBM i community will converge on the Gulf Coast of Florida next week for NAViGATE 2024 Bonita Springs, which is being held at the Hyatt Regency Coconut Point from Monday September 16 through Wednesday September 18.
Hundreds of attendees are expected at the fall COMMON conference next week, which will feature around 120 sessions over three days. NAViGATE 2024 Bonita Springs currently has 34 speakers slated to speak, including folks like IBM i Business Architect for Application Development Tim Rowe of IBM, RPG expert Charles Guarino from Central Park Data Systems, IBM Business Architect for open source Jesse Gorzinski of IBM, programming expert Mike Pavlak of Perforce Software, and programming expert Alan Seiden of Seiden Group.
The conference will also feature an expo with more than 30 vendors hawking IBM i wares, including ARCAD Software, Eradani, Fortra, Kisco, Midrange Dynamics North America, New Generation Software, ProData Computer Services, Profound Logic, RVI, Remain Software, Rocket Software, Shield Advanced Solutions, SEA, TL Ashford, and others.
Early Bird registration for NAViGATE 2024 Bonita Springs is long past, but you can still register to attend the event. The event costs $995 for COMMON members or $1,295 for non-members, plus the daily rate for the hotel.
The weather is expected to be in the low 90s with scattered thunderstorms in South Florida next week. The state so far has dodged all tropical systems, although a storm that’s expected to become a hurricane is forecast to flow out of the Gulf of Mexico and hit Texas and Louisiana next week.
COMMON attendees shouldn’t have to worry about tropical systems in early November, when the second NAViGATE conference takes place in Toronto, Ontario from November 4 to 6 at the Westin Harbour Castle. In fact, attendees for this show will want to bring a coat, as the temperatures are typically in the 30s and 40s (F) that time of year.
COMMON currently has 103 sessions scheduled for NAViGATE Toronto 2024, providing a wide range of educational and training sessions on a variety of IBM i topics. There are more 30 speakers on the docket, including educator Jim Buck from imPower Technologies, security pro Robert Andrews Bowers from IBM, the programmer Scott Klement from MDNA Dynamics, security pro Justin Loeber from Kisco, and programmer Ann Wilkerson from IBM.
NAViGATE Toronto 2024 also has an expo with more than 20 vendors currently slated to attend (although there could be more by show time).
The good news is you can still qualify for early bird registration, which is $895 for COMMON members and $1,195 for non-members, if you register before October 4. After that, the prices go up $100 each for early bird registration. You can register for NAViGATE Toronto 2024 here.
Earlier this year, COMMON recorded an uptick in attendance at its POWERUp 2024 annual meeting in Fort Worth, Texas. The group was shooting for 1,000 attendees but welcomed 1,100 through the doors, indicating strong demand for IBM i skills and education. POWERUp returns to the Disneyland Hotel in Anaheim, California, next May.
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