Do you attend COMMON?

While I have been in the System i community for a good long while, I have not always made it to COMMON. I was lucky a few years back and found an employer who knew the importance of COMMON and the annual convention (At the time it was twice a year) and sent me at least once a year.

So here we are at the end of a Year, and at the end of a Quarter too and I am wondering if your budgeting to send your best and brightest System i people to COMMON?

While I will let it be known I am a Subject Matter Expert (SME - pronounced - smeee) for the Linux on System i education and have presented before in spring 2007, I have only recently started to present. I will be doing I think 4 sessions in 2008 and am looking forward to it.

If your a manager and you think that COMMON is a waste of time then I would beg you to really look at the value of the entire event. Where on earth other than COMMON can you meet with some of the brightest and smartest people in the System i community? Where can you ask questions of IBMers and IT pros and get answers for free most any time of day. It’s not about the convention, and it’s not about the sponsors, it’s all about the community, the relationships and the gathering that is COMMON.

If you can’t go to COMMON you can join iSociety and hang out there.

Please if your a System i shop and you depend on that system think about supporting the group that has IBM’s ears and for once in a long while IBM is listening to the community I call home, COMMON.