Great DB2 Learning Opportunities in Prague this November

Greetings, folks. I know that an unusually long time has passed since I lasted posted an entry to this blog -- my apologies for that. I was out of commission during the second half of July and into early August, dealing with a medical issue. I'm much better now, and things are getting back to normal. I'm still on medical leave (until October 3), but I plan on posting several blog entries between now and then).

This first-in-a-month post is of the For Your Information variety. Many of you may already know that the International DB2 Users Group (IDUG) will be holding its 2011 DB2 Tech Conference EMEA (Europe/Middle East/Africa) on November 13-18 Prague, Czech Republic (one of my all-time favorite cities: modern conference and hotel facilities convenient to the subway, which can take you in minutes to the historic -- and large and beautiful -- city center). Attend the conference, and you'll learn a ton about DB2, whether you're new to the DBMS or you've been working with it for 20 years. In this blog entry, I want to let you know about two opportunities to pick up even more DB2 knowledge during IDUG EMEA week:

The one-day seminars offered on November 18

Most of the sessions comprising the agenda of the 2011 IDUG DB2 Tech Conference EMEA are 60 minutes in duration -- enough time for a high-level overview of a broad topic or an in-depth drill-down into a specific DB2 feature or function. Want to have breadth together with depth? If so, the one-day seminars are for you. This year's one-day seminar line-up, like those of previous IDUG EMEA conferences, features a who's who of top-shelf DB2 experts known for both their great technical expertise and their outstanding teaching skills. Check it out:

• DB2 10 for z/OS -- In Depth, delivered by Phil Grainger of Cogito and Grainger Database Solutions
• DB2 Intermediate and Advanced SQL, taught by Dan Luksetich of Yevich Lawson & Associates
• I Didn't Know DB2 did THAT!, presented by Bonnie Baker of Bonnie Baker Corporation
• Optimizing DB2 for z/OS System Performance Using DB2 Statistics Trace, presented by John Campbell of IBM's DB2 for z/OS development organization
• Rocket Science: DB2 for Linux/Unix/Windows Performance Analysis and Tuning Workshop, taught by Scott Hayes of DBI

You can register for one of these one-day seminars when you register for the 2011 DB2 Tech Conference EMEA (online registration is available). Seminar sign-up involves a fee that is in addition to the conference registration fee, but I will tell you that you won't find a better value in terms of in-depth DB2 technical knowledge gained relative to euros spent.


A free DB2 10 for z/OS Migration Planning Workshop on November 13

IBM will be providing a complimentary DB2 10 for z/OS Migration Planning Workshop on the Sunday of IDUG EMEA Conference week. This will be a great opportunity for you to pick up valuable information on migrating to the latest version of DB2 for z/OS, which delivers significant performance enhancements and lots of great new features (among my favorites are temporal data support, implicit data type casting, and the ability to store a time zone together with a timestamp in a DB2 table column). Register online for this seminar and enjoy learning about DB2 10 migration from IBM experts and leading DB2 consultants.


There you have it: two ways to get more DB2 knowledge in one of the world's most beautiful cities. Take advantage of these offerings and go to Prague. It will be a treat for the left and right sides of your brain.