I know no specifics of this situation, but let me pitch in a little info here.
The organizational structure of COMMON Europe is very different from COMMON (US). Common Europe is a congress of individual country users group. There's representation on the board from each of the country user groups. So the reference to " change of IBM policy towards European umbrella user groups" may indicate that IBM has decided to spend more on the national user groups. Many of these national users groups have their own conference each year.
This may have to do with the economic situation in Europe. Germany is doing quite well, thank you, while Spain, and Portugal, and maybe even Italy are suffering. I can see IBM making a decision to spend more of their marketing dollars in Germany.
Pure speculation on my part.
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of rob@xxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, May 22, 2013 9:39 AM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: RE: COMMON Europe
Read the article. It said the expo was sold out but the number of delegates actually going was very low.
http://www.itjungle.com/tfh/tfh052013-story03.html
Is European travel (for Europeans) more expensive than North American travel is for Americans? I would think that everything so tightly packed together would make it easier. But perhaps that's countered by you can't swing a cat without crossing some country's boarders and perhaps that adds an expense. Maybe the location, while nice, was expensive. COMMON America has been battling this occasionally.
Are European's more inclined to not travel and rely more upon other methods of getting educated?
Or is the economy really tanked over there?
Let's not blame IBM for all of this. If IBM refused to send a team to your local user group when the only people attending it were your board of directors would that be a sign that IBM is dropping support for a broad product line or just an economic decision? After all, if it was your marketing money for your company and it cost just as much to physically market to some kid with a banjo on a bridge in some backwater rural area than it was to target electric or printed media reaching a much larger audience wouldn't you rather you get more bang for your buck?
Rob Berendt
--
IBM Certified System Administrator - IBM i 6.1 Group Dekko Dept 1600 Mail to: 2505 Dekko Drive
Garrett, IN 46738
Ship to: Dock 108
6928N 400E
Kendallville, IN 46755
http://www.dekko.com
From: Richard Schoen <richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: "midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx" <midrange-l@xxxxxxxxxxxx>,
Date: 05/22/2013 10:23 AM
Subject: RE: COMMON Europe
Sent by: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
You never know if it's budget related, market related or politically
motivated.
In any case a bummer for the EU folks.
Regards,
Richard Schoen
RJS Software Systems Inc.
Where Information Meets Innovation
Document Management, Workflow, Report Delivery, Forms and Business
Intelligence
Email: richard@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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http://www.rjssoftware.com
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Toll Free: (888) RJSSOFT
-----Original Message-----
message: 7
date: Wed, 22 May 2013 14:16:04 +0000
from: Paul Fenstermacher <PFenstermacher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
subject: COMMON Europe
There's a small story buried in the IT Jungle e-mail on Monday about
COMMON Europe cancelling the June conference. Included is this verbiage:
* IBM has traditionally been our major sponsor, as our events are
aimed primarily at users of the POWER platform. However in 2013 there has
been a change of IBM policy towards European umbrella user groups and this
support has been vastly reduced.
At short notice, the availability of several key speakers from the U.S.
has been withdrawn. This would have forced us to dramatically change the
structure and the quality of an agenda which has taken many months to
compile. In the short time remaining, we feel this simply would not be
feasible.
Later in the article is this information:
"four key speakers (who were not identified) from the United States and
who were presumably from IBM were withdrawn, and that messed up the
agenda."
Most of us can probably guess who those four might be but this doesn't
seem like a good thing for the Power platform. Trevor, Allison, Pete,
Jim, Dr., Dawn, Jon, Susan, anyone care to shed some light??
Paul Fenstermacher | Sys/NW Admin,Sr | Corporate Systems - POWER Systems
Administration | Jack Henry & Associates, Inc.(r)
663 West Highway 60 | Monett, MO 65708 | Ph. 417.235.6652 | x177389 |
pfenstermacher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx<mailto:pfenstermacher@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
midrange.com
