WMCPA Spring Conference 2023: Full Schedule

8:00am CDT

A Walk into the World of IT - WIT Seminar

Tuesday 08:00 AM to 4:30 PM

8:00am – 9:00am: Registration
09:00am – 10:00am: A Walk into the World of IT – Hands on Part 1
10:00am – 10:15am: Break
10:15am – 11:15am: A Walk into the World of IT – Hands on Part 2
11:15am – 1:00pm: Free Lunch
1:00pm – 2:00pm Keynote: Debbie Saugen
2:00pm – 2:15pm Break
2:15pm – 4:30pm Panel Discussion – Debbie Saugen, Marina
Schwenk, Shelly Petty, Nilofur Khan, Steve Wolk
>

We are delighted to invite your instructors and students to attend our annual Women in IT Day at our Spring Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (WMCPA) Conference.

This will be an all-day event, which will be held on March 14, 2023, starting at 8:00 am to 4:00 pm, and being held at Lake Lawn Resort, 2400 E Geneva St, Delavan, WI 53115.

Event: A Walk into the World of IT

Details: We’ll be walking through a real-world business case from the eyes of the business down to the IT developers who have to make the changes the business requires. We will also look at different disciplines in IT which include, project management, networking, hardware, and full-stack development.

The event will be educational and a networking opportunity for your students and instructors to interact with individuals working in IT.

We look forward to meeting your school and forming a relationship for our future events.

Please RSVP@wmcpa.org and send your questions to secretary@wmcpa.org

Speakers

Nilofur Khan

Sales and Marketing Development Specialist, iTech | A Service Express Company

Nilofur is a Sales and Marketing Development Specialist at iTech Solutions | A Service Express Company. With over 15 years of experience in Healthcare, Management, and Customer Service, she brings many skills to the plate. She is a strong believer in helping others succeed. Nilo attended... Read More →

Debbie Saugen

Owner, Debbie Saugen Consulting, LLC

Debbie Saugen is recognized worldwide as an expert on IBM i backup and recovery, disaster recovery, and high availability. Debbie's IBM career spanned 37 years serving as the Technical Owner of IBM i Backup/Recovery and the IBM i National Lead for IBM Resiliency Services. She continues... Read More →

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Steven Wolk is the Chief Technology Officer for PC Richard & Son, a family owned and operated chain of 66 appliance and electronics superstores located throughout NY, NJ, CT, and PA. Founded in 1909, PC Richard has always been known for honesty, integrity, and reliability throughout... Read More →

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Marina started her career in January 2015 at Everbrite LLC in Greenfield WI after graduating from Gateway Technical College in May of 2014 with an Associate’s degree in IT Software Development. Marina works as a Senior Programmer Analyst at Everbrite and her primary development... Read More →

Rochelle Petty

Application Support, Everbrite

I am a Junior Full Stack Developer at Everbrite LLC. We run our production applications on the IBMi Power Server. Primary languages are CL, RPG, DB2 SQL and Java, and the UI: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Drupple, React, and Sencha.My position is a fast paced job and it includes Help Desk... Read More →

Tuesday March 14, 2023 8:00am - 4:30pm CDT
TBA

9:00am CDT

IBM i Security with a Modern Twist

Gone are the days of managing IBM i Security using green-screen commands! IBM has provided mechanisms to allow us to manage security
using IBM i Services (SQL) and Navigator for i. During this session Carol will describe the fundamentals of security using these modern
interfaces. She will also show how to use Function Usage, Auditing and Authority Collection to help you manage the security on your IBM i
partitions.
Learning objectives:
• The basics of IBM i Security – security-relevant system values, user profiles and permissions using Navigator for i and IBM i Services
• The basics of IBM i Auditing and how to use IBM i table functions as well as how audit entries are manifested in Navigator for i
• Authority Collection: what it is and how you can use it to reduce permissions
• Using Function Usage (Application Administration) to reduce access to IBM i features

Speakers

Carol Woodbury

President, CTO, Co-Founder, DXR Security

With over 25 years experience in the area of IT security, Carol is known world-wide as an expert in the area of computer security. During her career, Carol has architected security solutions for Fortune 100 companies as well as small and medium-sized organizations. Carol is passionate... Read More →

Tuesday March 14, 2023 9:00am - 12:00pm CDT
TBA

Security

12:00pm CDT

LUNCH BUFFET

Tuesday March 14, 2023 12:00pm - 1:00pm CDT
TBA

BREAK

1:00pm CDT

WIT Keynote Speaker | Turning an IT Job Into a Passion - Debbie Saugen's Story

Hear Debbie's journey through a long enjoyable career in IT which resulted in IBM i Backup and Recovery becoming her passion. She will share the challenges and rewards while balancing a career and family. You will learn how IT can be fun and why you should " Never Give Up".

Speakers

Debbie Saugen

Owner, Debbie Saugen Consulting, LLC

Tuesday March 14, 2023 1:00pm - 2:00pm CDT

Keynote

1:00pm CDT

IBM i Security: Tactical Risk Reduction

IBM I security can be a huge hill to conquer. Steve will present a marathon three-hour session to leave no stone unturned, no door
unlocked and help you plan for the future. We will leave the platitudes at the door and get down to the business of locking our
systems down properly and effectively.

Speakers

Steve Pitcher

iTech Solutions | A Service Express Company

Steve has been involved with IBM i since 2001 primarily in the manufacturing and distribution industries. Over that period he’s been a systems administrator, developer, IT Manager and IT Director. He joined iTech Solutions in 2017 in a combined sales/technical role, bringing additional... Read More →

Tuesday March 14, 2023 1:00pm - 4:00pm CDT
TBA

Security

6:00pm CDT

Experts Roundtable | Topic: The Importance of Modernization on Power

Speakers

Brian May

Vice President of Product Management, Profound Logic

Professional IT Leader, Speaker and WriterSpecialties:Team Building, Development and RetentionTechnical SalesSolutions ArchitectureSoftware DevelopmentEnterprise Systems Manufacturing ProcessesApparel IndustryAccounting Principles

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Larry has grown up with computers since his father became a CE in 1967. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Calvin College in 1982 and soon after began working on IBM midrange equipment with the S/34 and S/36. Larry began working on the As/400 at its introduction In 1988.After spending many years as a developer Larry began working on communications, networking, and systems management tasks. Years of... Read More →

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Tim Rowe is the Business Architect responsible for Application Development and Systems Management for the IBM i operating system. His responsibilities include helping to make sure that the IBM i has what is needed to be successful both today and into the future. He sends much of his... Read More →

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Mike Pavlak has been working with IBM midrange solutions since 1992 and IBM Mainframes before that. After years of developing applications using RPG, CL and PHP he managed IT development and IT for power protection manufacturer Tripp Lite. Later Mike was instrumental in developing... Read More →

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Justin Loeber

IBM i Security, Kisco Systems

Justin Loeber is the owner and CEO of Kisco Systems, a developer of IBM i security and compliance software. Kisco's mission is to secure every IBM i by helping educate the IBM i community about security, continuously improving its products and delivering the best value in the market... Read More →

Tuesday March 14, 2023 6:00pm - 9:00pm CDT
TBA

7:30am CDT

BREAKFAST BUFFET

Wednesday March 15, 2023 7:30am - 8:30am CDT
TBA

BREAK

8:30am CDT

Modernize Your ERP with IDF for IBM i

Did you know you can easily modernize your IBM i experience with IDF? In this session,
you will learn how you can easily:

Modernize your green screen RPG applications
Allow your end users to personalize the browser UI by adding or removing columns, changing filters and sorts, and much more
Develop new features
Fit your application into the larger ecosystem with lightweight API’s that automatically come with the application and any enhancements you add

This Java-based, multi-user interface, metadata-driven framework provides you with a tremendous amount of functionality in a low-code or no-code implementation.

Speakers

Phil Joseph

Senior Product Manager, Infor

Phil Joseph's career began with implementing software systems on System/3X at IBM in Indiana. Since then he ahs been an IBM manager and consultant, followed by stints outside IBM as a Product Manager for ERP system in Atlanta. In 2008 he was one of five founders of a mobility company... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Courtyard Hall 2 | Lower Level

8:30am CDT

Unlock the Full Potential of Your IBM i Applications: A Guide to Modernization and Automation

IBM i applications have been successfully serving business operations for decades. Modern technologies are enabling new levels of automation, scalability, resiliency and flexibility. In this session, IBM i business & IT strategy expert Frederic Marceau will discuss what application modernization and transformation is and the various options available to help businesses realize the full potential of their IT, while building on the value of their IBM i applications. Frederic will also explore:
- Modernization approaches and automated solutions
- Code and DB conversion
- Cloud infrastructure and strategies
- DevOps’ principles and tools
- Open-source software

Speakers

Frédéric Marceau

Senior Strategist, Client Advisory, Fresche Solutions

Frederic works with IBM i clients to equip them with the best transformation strategy moving forward. As a Senior Strategist, he is a creative thinker and well versed in a wide array of technologies, methodologies and toolsets.

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Courtyard 1 | Lower Level

8:30am CDT

VS Code and IBM i Workshop

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer | Visual Studio Code fellow, IBM

Liam Allan, an IBM Champion, helps IBM i development teams modernize their applications and bridge the gap between traditional and modern development practices. Founder of Works of Barry, he specializes in DevOps, RPG, ILE, Node.js, PHP, PASE and open source. He also supports the... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Courtyard Hall 3 | Lower Level

8:30am CDT

Give Me An Hour, and I'll Give You A Week!

"Hey, do you have a minute?" We're asked that question many times every day, and while we say yes, the sad answer is... NO! Our lives and our careers are busier than ever. Feel like you're barely keeping your head above water at work? You're not alone. We struggle to keep up with the demands of our careers while retaining some semblance of balance between work and personal time. Come to this session and learn the life hacks you need to supercharge your productivity! By the end of the session you'll have the tools to save over 168 hours - that's one full week - every year! What will you do with all that extra time?

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Chicago Hall | Lower Level

Personal Development

8:30am CDT

Handling JSON with DATA-INTO and DATA-GEN in ILE RPG

Two of the most significant features added to ILE RPG recently are the DATA-INTO and DATA-GEN opcodes. The most common use case is to read and/or create JSON files. Since JSON has become crucial to IBM i businesses, these are must-know features!

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development and Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Scott Klement is a Development and Solutions Architect at Midrange Dynamics. He also volunteers as a member of COMMON's Board of Directors and Strategic Education Team. He is the author of around 1000 articles and a dozen open source projects. Scott's efforts to help out the IBM i... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Geneva Hall 3

RPG, JSON

8:30am CDT

Anatomy of a Password

Have you thought about the passwords you use on your systems? What rules or restrictions do you have in place? But more importantly, why?! Have you ever thought about what those rules actually do to your passwords? Do you think they are making you more secure or less secure? In this presentation, we will cover passwords in depth, in theory, and specific to IBM i. Can your IBM i password be hacked? Come and find out at this inquisitive session! Updated with the latest IBM i 7.5 information.

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Robert Andrews is a Principal Security Consultant (STSM) and the Team Lead for the IBM i Security and Authentication Technology Expert Labs team in Rochester, MN. He is an IBM certified Thought Leader for security and The Open Group certified Distinguished Technical Specialist... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Madison Hall

Security

Level intermediate

8:30am CDT

Boolean - The New Data Type in SQL

In this session you will learn how to define columns in tables and views, but also how to convert data in a character or numeric data type into BOOLEAN. But what if we have to deal with this data type in programming languages such as RPG?

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Birgitta Hauser worked on the IBM i and its predecessors since 1992. She graduated with a business economics diploma, and started programming on the AS/400 in 1992. She worked and works as traditional RPG Programmer but also as Database and Software Engineer, focusing on IBM i application... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Geneva Hall 1

SQL

8:30am CDT

Case Studies of Common Performance Failures

There are many common performance problems that can impact almost any shop. This session will review real-world performance issues, covering the details of the issue, the impact to the business, and the analysis that was done to identify and resolve the problem. The case studies include both application issues and environmental issues. Understanding these common problems can help you prevent them from happening in your shop.

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Dawn May is a leading authority on work management, systems management, performance, and diagnostics, with intimate knowledge of the IBM i operating system developed through her distinguished career with IBM. Today, as an independent consultant, she focuses her skills on helping... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Milwaukee Hall

Systems Management

Audience System Administrator
Level intermediate

8:30am CDT

Tips for Administering IBM Navigator for i

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Wednesday March 15, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Geneva Hall 2

Systems Management

Level beginner

10:15am CDT

How Does RDi Compare with VS Code’s IBM i Extention?

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Charles Guarino believes in the “power” of IBM Power Systems. His career reflects his dedication and interest in bringing the platform and its solutions to others and as a result has been recognized as an IBM Champion.He is a member of COMMON’s Speaker Excellence Hall of Fame... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Geneva Hall 2

10:15am CDT

IBM i Business Resiliency

In this session, you will be introduced to the world of IBM i business continuity and what you need to know to deliver the RTO (Recovery Time Objective) and RPO (Recovery Point Objective) your business needs to stay competitive and operational in today's high demand business environment. From simple physical tape backups to full-blown Active/Active DB2 mirror, and everything in between. Join us as we navigate the waters of IBM i business continuity. -Point in Time backup options - Offsite backup solutions - Hardware and Software based replication options - Attaining Point in Time Backup in 24×7 operations - DB2 Mirror for Active/Active Enterprise-class resiliency

Speakers

Richie Palma

Senior Solution Consultant, iTech Solutions | A Service Express Company

A Tech Solutions Consultant for iTech Solutions Group, IBM Champion for Power, IBM Fresh Face, founder of the “Midrange Meetup” in Grand Rapids, Michigan, on the steering committee for YIP’s (Young i Professionals), and on the board for SEMIUG (South East Michigan IBM i User... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Courtyard Hall 3 | Lower Level

10:15am CDT

Managing IBM i PTFs

In this session we will discuss:

What are PTFs?

Why do I need them?

How do I get them?

Which ones do I need?

In this session we will describe PTFs, Cumultative PTFs, and other PTF Groups. We'll discuss how to find out what you have, how to get them, and how to put them in place. We'll help you determine what PTF strategy is the one for you and your system.
Learning Objectives:

What PTFs, and PTF Groups are and why you need them.

How to get PTFs and load them onto your System i.

The use of Virtual Image Catalogs and Virtual DVD drives to save time and problems in the PTF process.

How to determine which PTFs you need for your system.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Chicago Hall | Lower Level

Audience IBM i System Administrators or developers tasked with Systems Management
Level intermediate

10:15am CDT

Modernization and 21st Century Skills

Speakers

Jim Buck

CEO & Head Instructor, imPower Technologies

Jim Buck’s career in IT has spanned more than 35+ years, primarily in college education, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. Past president (13 years) of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (www.wmcpa.org) and has served on several teams developing IBM... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Courtyard Hall 2 | Lower Level

10:15am CDT

Streaming/Replicating Db2i Data into "The Cloud"

Another part of the company is wanting to leverage a cloud based server for some requirement - advanced analytics, pricing applications, AI/ML project, micro-services, etc. They are coming to IBM i I/T folks to ask how they can get critical data that they need from Db2 for i. This session will answer that question for you, including a couple of approaches using open source Apache Kafka.

Learning Objectives:

1. Learn about Apache Kafka as the glue to stream data
2. Understand different approaches and the advantages/disadvantages of those approaches.
3. Enhance your knowledge of the data streaming into cloud services world

Speakers

John Westcott

Analytics Consultant, Db2 for i, IBM

John Westcott is a member of the Db2 for i Database and Analytics team in IBM’s Technology Services (formerly Lab Services). A consultant with over 35 years’ experience on IBM i, his skills include Business Intelligence, Business Analytics, Database Modernization, SQL and RPG... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Geneva Hall 3

Db2, Cloud

10:15am CDT

Strategic IT – Partnering with the Business and Communicating for Success

What are your career goals? Sure, we're all great with technology, but to continue growing in our careers requires that we do the unthinkable... we actually have to TALK to each other. And even worse... we have to TALK to the business people in our companies! Why? WHY? Why would we possibly want to TALK to PEOPLE? The answer to that question is that today more than ever, technology IS the business. So it makes sense that IT can help or hurt a business more than ever. It's critical that we align our IT efforts, goals, and strategies with those of the business - and all of that requires good communication. Would you like to have a seat at the table, to be taken seriously as a businessperson, and to have a voice in the decisions our companies make? Then this is the interactive workshop for you. Fair warning... this will be an INTERACTIVE workshop. Attendees will be encouraged to speak in front of the group, and will be divided into teams to work together on critical thinking exercises and role play. Yes, you'll be asked to talk, to work in groups, and to role play. If you find that uncomfortable, perfect! Take that first step outside your comfort zone. Enroll, participate, be uncomfortable, and grow... and you may just find yourself listened to with newfound respect and interest by your business. Come to this interactive workshop to partner with your business and communicate for success.

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Milwaukee Hall

Personal Development

10:15am CDT

Programming Standards and Guidelines

We have all unfortunately seen really bad code or really bad practices. Have you ever wanted to take that code and throw it against the wall and start over? This session will give you the steps and guidelines that will help you start the discussion so you and your colleagues can implement standards and guidelines and start the process of cleaning up your code or the code you have inherited.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Courtyard 1 | Lower Level

Programming, General

Level beginner

10:15am CDT

Expand and Simplify RPG Using C-C++ Run-Time Functions

Although RPG has an extensive set of operations and functions that the developer can use, there are many functions provided by the C-C++ run-time that can enhance what the developer can do with RPG. And these are often very easy to use.

Learn how to find documentation for C-C++ functions
Learn how to create prototypes for this type of function
Discover simple useful functions like access() and system()
Explore more complex examples of C-C++ functions

Speakers

VERNON M HAMBERG

Senior IT Developer, Ecolab, Pest Elimination

Vern has worked on IBM midrange systems for over 30 years, beginning with the System/38 and AS/400. At present he is a Senior IT Developer for the Pest Elimination division at Ecolab. He also serves on the COMMON Americas Advisory Council (CAAC) and SET and is one of the SMEs for... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Madison Hall

RPG

10:15am CDT

Tricks with Spool Files using SQL

In the past few releases and TRs IBM has introduced a number of SQL services, views, and table functions that allow anyone to do things to spool files that they would have had to use APIs or complex programming. Become the superstar at your company with the knowledge on how to do all of this with just a few SQL statements.

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Simon Hutchinson has been writing his highly acclaimed IBM i blog, RPGPGM.COM, for over ten years sharing his knowledge, experience, and giving many detailed examples of the latest RPG, SQL, and CL. His work has led him to be recognized by IBM as an IBM Champion for Power and IBM i Community Advocate. He is a subject matter expert for COMMON North America... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Geneva Hall 1

SQL

11:30am CDT

LUNCH BUFFET

Wednesday March 15, 2023 11:30am - 12:45pm CDT
TBA

BREAK

12:45pm CDT

Keynote Speaker | Tim Rowe

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Wednesday March 15, 2023 12:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
TBA

Keynote

2:15pm CDT

Building a Web Based System Management Dashboard

Speakers

Larry Amond

Director of Application Development, Greater Regional Alliance of REALTORS®

Larry began his career working and IBM and NCR mainframes in 1977, and has been working on IBM midrange systems since 1993. He has spent most of his career as an application systems developer and has been developing web site applications on IBM systems since 1999.He is currently Director... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Milwaukee Hall

2:15pm CDT

Data-Centric Thinking: Moving Business Logic into the Database

When talking about application modernization database most think about converting from DDS to DDL and redesigning the database … and yes, this might be the final goal. But there is much more … because we never can touch the database without respect to the application and vice versa. We have to move from an application-centric thinking to a data centric thinking. In short, instead of coding everything in whatever programming language, we should move as much business logic as possible into the database. It may even include foreign data that is provided and accessed by Web-Services.What does that mean? At first, using encapsulated (complex) SQL Statements wrapped in SQL Views or User Defined Table Functions, externalizing Data Access, adding constraints and triggers, Row And Column Access Control (RCAC) …With all these techniques we cannot only reduce our source code to a minimum but also secure our data!

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Chicago Hall | Lower Level

2:15pm CDT

Dimensional Modeling: The Star of the Show?

Dimensional Modeling: The Star of the Show?

Can a data mart or warehouse or even an operational data store elevate your reporting and visualizations? Improve the performance of your reporting? Provide easily accessible information to the business and your users? Find out how even a small effort can yield big results.

Leaning Objectives:

1. Basics concepts of data warehousing.
2. How easy it is to create a functioning data warehouse.
3. How data warehousing improves the businesses agility in making informed intelligent decisions.

Speakers

John Westcott

Analytics Consultant, Db2 for i, IBM

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Geneva Hall 1

2:15pm CDT

Intro to IBM i Services (SQL) for Admins

This session is designed for IBM i system administrators. It covers real-world problems faced by system admins, and how to solve them using SQL (with some help from IBM i Services). Don't be intimidated by SQL. It isn't just for developers! You can copy and paste the examples provided in this session to get started easily. Attend this session and add a suite of new tools to your system admin toolbox!

Speakers

Steve Riedmueller

Certified IBM i Admin - Speaker, Mentor, and Advocate, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

I am a COMMON Certified IBM i Administrator with over 20 years experience on IBM i, as well as a COMMON speaker, N2i mentor, and IBM i advocate. I've been working on the platform since 2001 as a system admin/engineer. I have experience with OS upgrades and patching, system security... Read More →

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Courtyard Hall 3 | Lower Level

2:15pm CDT

Introduction to Merlin and IBM i Developer

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer | Visual Studio Code fellow, IBM

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Madison Hall

2:15pm CDT

Why API?

Speakers

Brian May

Vice President of Product Management, Profound Logic

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Courtyard Hall 2 | Lower Level

2:15pm CDT

Options for Consuming REST APIs from RPG

REST APIs have become a major part of business programming. We live in a world where virtually everything is connected to the Internet, and REST APIs are how they communicate with each other. In this session, you will learn how to call (or "consume") REST APIs from good ol' RPG. In addition to showing you the basics of how APIs work, this session explains how to use several free tools to consume them. The tools will be compared so that you can determine which one would work best for you.

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development and Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Geneva Hall 3

API, RPG

2:15pm CDT

One Order of Refactoring with a Side of RDI

Sloppy code, beautiful code. They both produce the same results, so who cares how it looks? If you have heard this before, or are living with this scenario, this is a MUST ATTEND session. Learn about code refactoring (aka "modernization") and see how to rejuvenate old code into maintainable, flexible and scalable components.

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Geneva Hall 2

Programmer Tools, RDI

Level intermediate

2:15pm CDT

WMCPA Student Competition

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Rochelle Petty

Application Support, Everbrite

Caracal Keithrafferty

IBM i Sales, Kato Integrations

Wednesday March 15, 2023 2:15pm - 5:00pm CDT
Courtyard 1 | Lower Level

3:45pm CDT

Advanced IBM I Services (SQL) for Admins

Speakers

Steve Riedmueller

Certified IBM i Admin - Speaker, Mentor, and Advocate, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Courtyard Hall 3 | Lower Level

3:45pm CDT

API Enabled in Minutes with Profound API

Speakers

Brian May

Vice President of Product Management, Profound Logic

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Courtyard Hall 2 | Lower Level

3:45pm CDT

Look At Your Data From A Different View-Point

Simon will explain how building SQL Views should become a part of your development strategy. He will give examples of the common ways he builds and uses Views to make his own and that of his team easier and simpler. Why do the hard work yourself when something else can do it for you?

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Geneva Hall 1

3:45pm CDT

Worst Practices in System Management

We've all heard stories of things gone wrong, some were just bad, some were horrible, and some were just plain hilarious! The more you know of these things the more likely you can avoid them.

This session will be a user feedback session where the horrible terrible and very bad experieneces of audience members will be added to the speakers experiences and used as educational tools to prevent those problems from killing us.

You know the rule, smart people learn from their mistakes, the truly brilliant learn from someone else's. Come make yourself look brilliant!Learning Objectives:

System Admins have every opportunity to be the goat and no opportunity to be the hero. This session will help avoid some of the goat opportunities.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Chicago Hall | Lower Level

Audience Anyone who runs a System, a Server, a Network, or a DataCenter.
Level beginner

3:45pm CDT

Everything They Never Taught You!

Ok, maybe we're setting the bar a little high by saying EVERYTHING, but did you ever feel like all the people around you seem to just KNOW things, things you don't? Sure, you're a wiz with SQL, and no one codes RPG like you do, but when it comes to people skills, to working in teams, to communicating well, to building your career... Well, they never taught you THAT! Come to this session to learn everything you've been missing out on.

Speakers

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Madison Hall

Personal Development

3:45pm CDT

How to Remain Relevant in a changing IT Environment

Education in today’s IT and Business Environment challenges both the Company and the employee. What skills are needed to provide for today’s (and tomorrow’s) business needs? How does the company and the employee deal with these challenges? How to decide; what to learn, how to learn and when to learn, when planning for future needs. These challenges differ depending on where a person is in their careers path. Jim discusses these challenges and more in this presentation. Great presentation for managers and employees! • The question of being relevant? • How to know… your relevancy • Uh Oh… I’m not relevant (what to do) • Business vs IT Skills – the Balance • The Specialist vs the generalist – Let’s hire a consultant

Learning Objectives:
1. Internalize the need to continue learning in Information Technology 2. Understand how your current skills can be leveraged into new skills 3. Have a better understanding of how to approach today's educational opportunities

Speakers

Jim Buck

CEO & Head Instructor, imPower Technologies

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Milwaukee Hall

Personal Development

Audience Explains to IBM i Professionals why education is important to them and how to efficiently gain needed education
Level all

3:45pm CDT

30 PHP tips on IBM i in 60 Minutes

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Geneva Hall 3

PHP

3:45pm CDT

The Magic of Rest APIs and IBM i

Rest APIs are a key technology in the world of Modern Applications these days. The Integrated Web Services - IWS support provides a rich, robust, secure way to easily create and host Rest APIs. IWS provides a way to point at an existing ILE program or services program and will create a Rest wrapper for that function. Additionally, you can build Rest APIs that wrapper SQL directly. With IBM i 7.5 the IWS support now also has a rich access logging support including the ability to digest with tools such as Splunk!

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Wednesday March 15, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Geneva Hall 2

Program Architecture, IBM i 7.5

Level beginner

5:00pm CDT

Dinner and Sponsor Showcase

Wednesday March 15, 2023 5:00pm - 7:00pm CDT
TBA

7:00pm CDT

Evening Entertainment

Wednesday March 15, 2023 7:00pm - 10:00pm CDT
TBA

7:30am CDT

Breakfast Buffet

Thursday March 16, 2023 7:30am - 8:30am CDT
TBA

BREAK

8:30am CDT

Application Development and The Future

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Geneva Hall 1

8:30am CDT

Building Dashboards and Reports Over IBM i Services

Building Dashboards and Reports over IBM i Services

IBM i Services provide SQL interfaces into IBM i system/object/security information. Wouldn't it be nice to have an easy way to build reports or dashboards, create trending reports or consolidate data from multiple systems into a single view? Of course it would! And that's exactly what this session will show you with Web Query.

Learning Objectives:

1. Create dashboards over IBM i Systems and object metrics in a flash
2. Schedule important reports like "how close are we getting to system or database limits" to regularly monitor and avoid potential catastrophe.
3. Enhance the value of IBM i Services to monitor key performance or object size metrics.

Speakers

John Westcott

Analytics Consultant, Db2 for i, IBM

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Milwaukee Hall

8:30am CDT

Maximizing and Modernizing your IBM i Solution

This session will feature an overview of the Infor investment into the IBM i platform, partnership with IBM, and market response to this shift in strategy. Infor’s Vice President of Compass Americas will share samples of how customers have modernized their IBM i solutions to leverage and maximize the investment they have made in their IBM i based enterprise solutions. This session is relevant to all IBM i users (Infor and non-Infor customers).

Speakers

Jay Allison

Vice President - Compass Products, Infor

Jay is a 25-year veteran in the Enterprise Software market. He started his career in public accounting and then moved into supply chain area with a distributor for Clark Equipment. These two experiences lead Jay to join the Enterprise Software space managing sales organizations. Jay... Read More →

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Geneva Hall 2

8:30am CDT

Real time integrations – APIs, Event Streams and Process Automation

In this session we will discuss the pros and cons of the most popular responsive integration architecture styles - API-led and Event Driven Architecture. We will walk through the differences and recommendations on where to use, as well as a quick look at the leading development tools and platforms. In addition, we will look at a popular Robotic Process Automation (RPA) positioning and tools, and how it compares to "deep" integration approaches such as APIs and Events. Perhaps I can even run live demos for each tool if we have time left but normally it's a less hands-on session.

Speakers

Dmitriy Kuznetsov

VP Integration and Cloud Solutions, Infoview Systems Inc

I am an avid backpacker, biker and cross-country skier. I enjoy traveling, visiting new places, meeting new people and learning about different cultures and ways of life. I recently started doing hot yoga, which is harder than you might think - basically exercising in hot sauna!In... Read More →

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Courtyard Hall 3 | Lower Level

8:30am CDT

IBM and Db2 Services for the Programmer

With the latest Releases and Technology Refreshes IBM added a lot of powerful IBM and Db2 Services to Db2 for i and SQL, for example for work management, security, database, IFS … But did you expect, there are also a lot of Services that can be used by the programmer to make live easier? For example for sending or retrieving data queue entries or writing a message into the joblog or for converting a spool file into a PDF-document and much more. Additionally, there all kinds of Services that help to analyze and manage ILE Objects, such as modules, service programs (with exported procedures), programs and Binding Directories, but also activation groups.

Speakers

Birgitta Hauser

Database and Software Architect, Independent Consultant

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Geneva Hall 3

Db2

8:30am CDT

Simon's Top 10 SQL Favorites

IBM Champion Simon Hutchinson has written a lot about modern Db2 for i and SQL on his blog for the past nine years. In this session he will take you through his top 10 favorites. You will have to attend to learn what these cool SQL tricks and tips are!

Speakers

Simon Hutchinson

Author, RPGPGM.COM

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Chicago Hall | Lower Level

SQL

8:30am CDT

Manage Your IBM i the Navigator Way

This session, primarily presented as a live demo, will show you how you can manage your system via Navigator for i using the Work Management, Configuration and Service, and System tasks. Learn how you can review active jobs, server jobs, prestart jobs, JVMs and more. You can also use Navigator to configure your subsystems and subsystem routing. This session will include all the new and exciting features in Navigator for managing you IBM i. This session will also include common Navigator features such as bookmarks, favorites, connection properties, and much more.

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Madison Hall

Systems Management

8:30am CDT

Managing Startup and Shutdown of your IBM i (Part 1)

In days gone by the IBM Supplied program QSTRUP combined with a couple options on CHGIPLA was good enough for most IBM i shops. It started what seemed to be needed and anything else we stumbled through after each IPL. When it was time to shut down a PWRDWNSYS or ENDSBS command took down whatever was running. We were happy. Today though we often see dozens of subsystems running many web servers, other needed batch jobs and services. We see monitors and queue processing jobs and many writers. For security purposes we should be starting only the TCP servers that we need, not all of them. Likely we should not start IPV6 and start things in sequence as well. Further considerations may be needed in an HA environment. These include not starting jobs until iASPS are available and starting different IP interfaces and services depending on production or backup mode of the server. We may want to handle special startup modes while doing PTFs, backups or other system maintenance. In this session we will work with customizing that startup. We'll discuss staring PASE jobs with QSH, web server jobs and more. We'll discuss prestart jobs and autostart jobs. And finally we will also work with sequencing the shutdown of the system. As part of this we'll discuss some simple ways to know what needs to be shut down and smoothly handling that.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Larry Amond

Director of Application Development, Greater Regional Alliance of REALTORS®

Thursday March 16, 2023 8:30am - 9:45am CDT
Courtyard Hall 2 | Lower Level

Systems Management

Level Advanced

10:15am CDT

Business Continuity and Planning for the Unplanned

Speakers

Richie Palma

Senior Solution Consultant, iTech Solutions | A Service Express Company

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Chicago Hall | Lower Level

10:15am CDT

Free Open-Source IBM i System Dashboards with Grafana

In this session we will explore the open-source analytics and monitoring tool Grafana. Setup a frontend and backend to pull IBM i host details such as CPU, storage utilization, and other performance metrics into a modern operational dashboard for full observability.

Speakers

Steve Riedmueller

Certified IBM i Admin - Speaker, Mentor, and Advocate, John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Madison Hall

10:15am CDT

Python APIs aka Web Services

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Geneva Hall 3

API

10:15am CDT

IBM i True Disaster Recovery Stories

With more than four decades working in Backup and Recovery, Debbie will share her many real life disaster recovery experiences. Come to share any of your experiences and learn how to be recovery ready in the event of a cyber attack or any other of the many disasters that could compromise your data.

Speakers

Debbie Saugen

Owner, Debbie Saugen Consulting, LLC

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Geneva Hall 1

Disaster Recovery

10:15am CDT

Expand and Simplify RPG Using MI Functions

There are many MI functions that can be used in RPG programs. This does not mean that you have to learn how to program in the MI language, instead, you'll see how IBM have exposed some functions for use in high-level languages such as RPG.

Learn how to read the MI documentation
Learn how to prototype MI functions
See some useful MI functions for everyday development

Speakers

VERNON M HAMBERG

Senior IT Developer, Ecolab, Pest Elimination

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Milwaukee Hall

RPG

10:15am CDT

Writing the Cleanest RPGLE

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer | Visual Studio Code fellow, IBM

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Geneva Hall 2

RPG

10:15am CDT

Securing SSH for IBM i

As more IBM i clients start to use SSH, it is important to understand how to properly secure it on the platform. This session will cover recommended ways to harden SSH on your IBM i including authentication with passwords and public/private key pairs. A discussion of the various file transfer options will also be included.

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Courtyard Hall 3 | Lower Level

Security

10:15am CDT

Managing Startup and Shutdown of your IBM i (Part 2)

PART 2

In days gone by the IBM Supplied program QSTRUP combined with a couple options on CHGIPLA was good enough for most IBM i shops. It started what seemed to be needed and anything else we stumbled through after each IPL. When it was time to shut down a PWRDWNSYS or ENDSBS command took down whatever was running. We were happy. Today though we often see dozens of subsytems running many web servers, other needed batch jobs and services. We see monitors and queue processing jobs and many writers. For security purposes we should be starting only the TCP servers that we need, not all of them. Likely we should not start IPV6 and start things in sequence as well. Further considerations may be needed in an HA environment. These include not starting jobs until iASPS are available and starting different IP interfaces and services depending on production or backup mode of the server. We may want to handle special startup modes while doing PTFs, backups or other system maintenance. In this session we will work with customizing that startup. We'll discuss staring PASE jobs with QSH, web server jobs and more. We'll discuss prestart jobs and autostart jobs. And finally we will also work with sequencing the shutdown of the system. As part of this we'll discuss some simple ways to know what needs to be shut down and smoothly handling that.

Learning Objectives:
1) Learn how to control which startup program will run on your IBM i. 2) Examine the various servers to start and how to control them. 2) Learn options for starting different services. 3) Consider ways to control the startup of your server in different operating modes. 4) Understanding an orderly shutdown of your IBM i server.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, Service Express Inc.

Larry Amond

Director of Application Development, Greater Regional Alliance of REALTORS®

Thursday March 16, 2023 10:15am - 11:30am CDT
Courtyard Hall 2 | Lower Level

Systems Management

Level Advanced

11:30am CDT

LUNCH BUFFET

Thursday March 16, 2023 11:30am - 12:45pm CDT
TBA

12:45pm CDT

Keynote Speaker | Charles Guarino

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Thursday March 16, 2023 12:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
TBA

Keynote

2:15pm CDT

A Day in the Life of a System Admin

Speakers

Sarah Jacob

VP of Customer Experience, Agile Technology Architects

Sarah Jacob is the Vice President of Customer Experience at Agile Technology Architects. She is a Subject Matter Expert in Power Systems Administration and a volunteer for COMMON. Sarah specializes in Backup and Recovery planning and recovery testing. Additionally, she acts as primary... Read More →

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Chicago Hall | Lower Level

2:15pm CDT

Bringing legacy to the web based Award-winning modernization with WordPress and PHP on IBM i

2017 Common/IBM Innovation Award winner details how the business needs drove grar.com to modernize its web site using Zend Server and WordPress as a Content Management System (CMS) and dynamic content delivery system for the REALTOR Member and MLS Property searches for its public web site and open source tools like bootstrap to provide responsive design. The grar.com website services the needs of the residents of West Michigan and 3000 REALTOR® members. The website had been outsourced to a firm using a customized CMS which limited the amount of updating that could be done by staff, with most access restricted to the vendor. The content became costly to maintain and updates took too long to be completed. With the highly dynamic content of the membership and real estate databases, the intel servers could not perform to GRAR standards. It needed to be in-house and running on the IBM i.

Speakers

Larry Amond

Director of Application Development, Greater Regional Alliance of REALTORS®

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Courtyard Hall 2 | Lower Level

2:15pm CDT

IBM i security "inside the firewall"

Speakers

Justin Loeber

IBM i Security, Kisco Systems

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Courtyard Hall 3 | Lower Level

2:15pm CDT

IBMi a modern world

Speakers

Richie Palma

Senior Solution Consultant, iTech Solutions | A Service Express Company

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Madison Hall

2:15pm CDT

What is Open AI and Why Should You Care?

Speakers

Mike Pavlak

Solution Architect, Perforce Software

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Geneva Hall 3

2:15pm CDT

Overloading Sub Procedures in RPG

One of the coolest new features in ILE RPG is the ability to overload your prototypes! With overloading, you can accept differing parameter types while keeping the same routine name. Overloading can be used with programs, but the biggest value comes when using it with subprocedures.This session explains the concept of overloading and why it should be used. It provides technical details of how to use RPG's OVERLOAD keyword to implement overloading in RPG.

Speakers

Scott Klement

Development and Solutions Architect, Midrange Dynamics

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Geneva Hall 1

RPG

2:15pm CDT

Using SQL Services in Everyday Life

Speakers

Tim Rowe

Business Architect Application Development & Systems Management for IBM i, IBM

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:30pm CDT
Geneva Hall 2

SQL

2:15pm CDT

Everything You Need to Know About the IBM i Administration Runtime Expert

Business-critical applications must be up and running reliably without failure. When something unexpected occurs, you must identify the cause and correct it quickly. The relentless push to do more with less is only going to intensify while the tolerance for failure keeps dropping. Yet identifying points of failure can be tricky as complexities scale. IBM i offers a product at no additional charge that helps ascertain application and infrastructure health. The IBM Administration Runtime Expert for i (ARE) can be used to define attributes of a healthy environment and use those defined attributes to validate that the environment is as expected. This session will cover everything you need to know about ARE.

Speakers

Dawn May

Owner, Dawn May Consulting, LLC

Thursday March 16, 2023 2:15pm - 3:45pm CDT
Milwaukee Hall

Systems Management

Level intermediate

3:45pm CDT

Git and RPGLE the right way

Speakers

Liam Allan

Advisory Software Engineer | Visual Studio Code fellow, IBM

Thursday March 16, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Geneva Hall 2

3:45pm CDT

Strive for Excellence

We all come from different backgrounds. Some of us might have heard or lived under the mindset of “Failure is not an option” or “You have to keep pushing to reach your goals” and that was the only way we knew to strive for excellence. While this session will help you hit the same goals but, give you tools to avoid the burnout that many of us failed to avoid.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Senior Programmer Analyst, Everbrite

Thursday March 16, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Madison Hall

Personal Development

3:45pm CDT

What's Going On With My Code (Debugging with RDI)

Gain accelerated insight of your code with the latest in debugging technologies.

Speakers

Charles Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Thursday March 16, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Geneva Hall 1

Programmer Tools, RDI

Level intermediate

3:45pm CDT

Advanced Authentication for IBM i

Best practices recommend using more than one factor to secure logins and other critical processes. Using industry standard algorithms, two factor authentication now comes to IBM i. This session covers four of the latest tools to help secure your IBM i! (COMMON Gold medal session)

Speakers

Robert Andrews

Principal Security Consultant, IBM

Thursday March 16, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Geneva Hall 3

Security

3:45pm CDT

Make RUNSQLSTM Even Better Using CL Commands

The RUNSQLSTM command lets you run multiple SQL statements in a single call, like a script. You can do even more now by calling CL commands directly. See how this can expand your options.

Speakers

VERNON M HAMBERG

Senior IT Developer, Ecolab, Pest Elimination

Thursday March 16, 2023 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Milwaukee Hall

SQL