Re: A user/admin asks if COMMON is worth it

It has been several years since I have gone.
COMMON is the most intense educational experience I have ever had.
It is like going to University on steroids.
Every waking moment, there are choices for learning.

The seminars, alternative ways of accomplishing things, demonstrations of
competing solutions, debate over proposed improvements to the systems, lab
for those of us needing hands on something, talk frankly with developers,
make suggestions to IBM reps how IBM could be improved, sign up sheets to
discuss something important to us ... then whichever special interests get
the most signups, a room & time is set aside for us ... dozens such group
gatherings every nite.

I always asked for some vacation time immediately after COMMON or any
technical education, and I would spend those days going over my notes,
correlating how best to apply what I had learned, back at the office,
because if you don't have opportunities to apply your learning, then pretty
soon it is as if you had not gone. Under such circumstances you better off
going to a single IBM class in a narrow focus topics over 1-2 days, then no
more classes for 6 months.

I went on economy plan, meaning AUTO drive or AMTRAK, then stay at Bed &
Breakfast an hour or so away from the conference ... this was commute time
lost ... valuable time. Staying at the hotel conference site is
expensive ... $ 500.00 a nite vs. $ 50.00 at B+B. There's downtown
parking. Meals at the conference site are also extremely expensive compared
to suburban, plus the lines. Think carrying enough boxed lunches etc. in
suitcase to last you a week, assuming there's a refrigerator at your lodging.

On Thu, 29 Jan 2009 13:29:02 -0700, Dave Odom wrote

This came from an application admin/system admin on a vendor's
forum. What should I tell her? The vendor, of course, has their
own yearly big confab but this person actually looks like they might
like to look into the real world. What say you all?

I would like to have some feedback from anyone who has attended the
COMMON conference. Is it worth attending if someone wants to learn
more about iSeries operations/programming/administration? I went to
the website to see what type of sessions were being offered for the
COMMON Annual Conference and Exposition in April, but couldn't find
descriptions or even a list of any of the sessions being offered.

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