imPower Technologies Archives

Keep The IBM i Youth Movement Going With More Training, Better Tools

June 9, 2025 Alex Woodie

Nobody is going to mistake an IBM i conference for a college campus anytime soon. But if the recent POWERUp 2025 conference at Disneyland was any indication, there is a definite trend toward younger professionals working on the platform. While the IBM i youth movement is real, companies will benefit from some simple ways to attract and retain these new IBM i professionals.

IBM is still working to get IBM i content back into four-year universities through the Power Skills Academy, which has been a struggle. Colleges are reluctant to invest in building a curriculum based on technologies that they …
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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, …
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Kisco Names Two IBM i Fellowship Winners, Expands Program

August 7, 2024 Alex Woodie

Kisco Systems last month unveiled the next batch of recipients for its unique IBM i fellowship program. The individuals, who hail from Oklahoma and Georgia, will receive IBM i training from imPower Technologies and attend COMMON conferences in Florida and California at Kisco’s expense. The company also announced that it will expand the fellowship to three recipients next year.

Justin Loeber, who purchased Kisco Systems from his father Richard in 2021, started the Richard C. Loeber Fellowship for Careers in IBM i last year as a way to incentivize the development of IBM i skills outside of the university setting. …
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Where Do RPG Programmers Come From? And Other IBM i Questions

July 10, 2024 Alex Woodie

The IBM i community has faced a skills crunch off and on for the past decade or longer, as Baby Boomers retire and IBM i shops struggle to find replacements. One big reason for the hiring gap is that the old ways of finding new RPG programmers and other IBM i professionals no longer work like they used to, according to IBM i educator Jim Buck.

“What they did for years was they just stole from the guys down the road,” said Buck, who is the president and CEO of IBM i training company imPower Technologies. ‘“I’ll go to …
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IBM i Community Reacts to IBM i 7.5

May 11, 2022 Alex Woodie

With the first new version of IBM i in over three years, IBM has certainly captured the attention of the IBM i community. But what do users think of the new release? What’s catching their eyes? We queried a few members of the community to find out.

IBM Merlin, a new licensed product that stands for Modernization Engine for Lifecycle Integration, appeared to capture the bulk of the initial attention around the launch of IBM i 7.5.

Consisting of VS Code IDE, DevOps and CI/CD software from Git and Jenkins, and IBM i-native tools from ARCAD Software — all …
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Keep The IBM i Youth Movement Going With More Training, Better Tools

COMMON to Kick Off First of Two Fall NAViGATE Shows

Kisco Names Two IBM i Fellowship Winners, Expands Program

Where Do RPG Programmers Come From? And Other IBM i Questions

IBM i Community Reacts to IBM i 7.5

Content archive

Recent Posts

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