I visit many events every year. My favourite event was and still is IBM Power TechU, which doesn’t exist anymore. End of October (I forgot the dates again!) I will go to IBM TechXchange in Las Vegas. If you go there too, we can meet in Las Vegas! But every visit must be carefully planned. Or maybe it is many years in Germany changed me so much that I want to plan everything?
Here are my tips and my thoughts regarding IBM TechXchange.
Starting planing
I start my planing by visiting the site of the conference and reading information about it. If you are similar to me and forget the web site of IBM TechXchange, my tip #1 - it is easily “googable”. Just enter IBM TechXchange 2024 and the first link is what you need.
If I am on the site, the first thing I am interested in, is when and where. OK, the price is relevant too but I assume you’ve got your budget approval for the IBM TechXchange?
The answer to my questions is on the first page:
It helps me to understand when I should come and where I should book a hotel.
My first option is always:
come one day earlier before the conference begins
leave one day later after the conference ends
book the same hotel where the conference takes place
Flight
Unfortunately it is not always the best option. For me going from Frankfurt, Germany, to Las Vegas, USA, I have to carefully choose flights. The flight will take several hours there and back again. I have my own budget constraints, what I can take and how much time I have in my buffer.
This time I flight to Las Vegas on Sunday, October 20th, but the flight comes to Las Vegas so late that I will unfortunately miss all IBM Champions activities on Sunday.
The flight back with the same company is possible only on Thursday and that’s why I am flying back already on Thursday, October 24th. Fortunately enough it is on evening and I can visit all sessions till the last. I couldn’t choose the flight on Friday, because I have another flight on Friday to Stockholm, Sweden, and must be in the airport before the next flight. Because of different timezones and time to flight and that I will fly eastwards, I will come from Las Vegas on Friday German time and only 3 hours before my next flight.
Hotel
Even if I usually prefer to book the same hotel where the conference takes place, this time I will not do it. I looked at the prices of Mandalay Bay and I don’t know - is this last year’s inflation or such premium hotel, but I decided to choose another hotel.
Usually each conference has some pool of hotels you can choose from. I highly recommend to choose an hotel from the pool. The organizers can get bigger discounts for you as you could do it on your own and they made (I hope) some thoughts about how to get from the hotel to the conference place.
If you book on your own, check your path from the hotel to the conference. Will you go by foot? Will you take taxi or use public transportation? Is public transportation available at the place?
I remember one conference in Rome, I visited. The conference hotel was fully booked as I got my budget approval and I had to choose another hotel. There was no possibility to get from my hotel to the conference by public transportation and I had to take taxi every morning. The taxi drive took 30-35 minutes in one direction. It was not the best experience for me.
This time I need 10 minutes by foot from my hotel to the conference. I hope it will be a pleasant morning walk.
Special activities
You booked your hotel, you booked your flight. It is time to plan special activities. If you think the time on the conference is only to hear some speakers, you are wrong. OK, of course you must visit my session and hear to me :-) But we will talk later about it.
First let’s take a look at the agenda. The most interesting parts are called “Breakfast” and “Lunch”. OK, I am joking, but don’t forget about these parts!
The second most intersting part is called “Pitstop”. AM Pitstop before noon and PM Pitstop afternoon. It should be … something to eat again :-)
We have Volunteer Hub every day. Just in case you want to help.
We have Labs and Certification Tests every day.
On Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday we have Sandbox 2.0.
Finally the list of the most important sessions to visit:
Monday, 6PM - IBM TechXchange Conference 2024 Opening Night! Block Party @ Sandbox 2.0
Tuesday, 6PM - Beachbox Poolside Party
Wednesday, 6PM - Pizza & Beer Nigh @ Sandbox 2.0
Thursday, 3PM - Closing ceremony
The only question I have to my American friends. Do you really go sleep so early? All evening events are till 9PM. I think they should finish at least at midnight. Better next morning ;-)
Sandbox 2.0
I think this is the place to visit on IBM TechXchange. The last year’s Sandbox was great experience and place to meet and to network with others. I know IBM did a lot to make it even better and more attractive for visitors.
I hope we will have IBM Champions Lounge this year again. You can come and ask your questions about IBM Champions program.
The Sandbox 2.0 is open all time and you can visit it after lunch - I think this is the most popular time. Or may be at some other point in time.
Want to win me in ping-pong or table kicker? Invite me and you will definitely win :-)
Labs and Certification Tests
This might be the most important part of the conference. Every presentation you will visit is pure theory. Even the best speaker can’t give you full understanding of the technology. It is better one time to do it with your own hands as one thousand times to hear about it. That’s why places on labs are always booked. It is really difficult to get a place on a lab if you decide in the last minute.
Plan your labs before the visit!
Go to the Session Catalog. On the left side in “Filters” choose “Activity Type” and then “Instructor-Led Lab”. Then choose “Tech Tracks” and finally “Power”.
I got the list of 18 labs. Not all of them are correctly assigned to IBM Power, but there are several you may want to visit based on your experience. Look at the catalog and schedule the labs!
Not only labs but certifications must be planned carefully too. If you are at TechXchange, you can plan some time to get certified. For example, the newest AIX 7.3 Administrator Specialty. Usually the price for a certification at the conference is lower. Another advantage - it is usually easier to get a place during the conference as in some certification center. You don’t need to drive many miles or kilometers to the next certification center. You go to the certification room and ask if there is a free place. Don’t forget to prepare for your certification!
Networking
I was once at one conference. It was the first time I visited the conference. I talked to my friend who was many times there and he told me, that he visits the conference every year but not because of wonderful technical presentations, but because of networking. Meet other people, ask questions, may be help people to answer their questions.
I can’t count how many wonderful people I met at conferences.
Yes, you should plan your networking. Don’t be in your box, get out of it and talk to other people. The best starting place for networking is your lunch time. Or breakfast. Or “Pitstops”. Take a seat at some table where you don’t know anybody and ask them for their names and what they do.
Tell some stories from your life and ask for advice! This is usually the best ice-breaker in each communication. You probably already saw the picture below:
These are IBM Champion Ralph Belfiore and me at IBM TechXchange 2023 in Las Vegas. We didn’t know each other and met occasionally in the Las Vegas airport. Ralph saw my backpack with “IBM Champion” label and came to me to say hi. We were in the same plane flying together from Frankfurt, Germany, to Las Vegas and then back. But if he wouldn’t come, I wouldn’t meet him and I would miss a lot, I must say! Ralph is big security expert on QRadar with a long history working with IBM products. He lives ca. 150 km away from me but only his “hi” in the airport helped us to meet.
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Sessions
Of course you come to IBM TechXchange to get the latest news and to learn something new! The best way to do it is to visit break-out sessions. There are many of them! Just visit sessions catalog and filter to “Power”.
Do you want to know what’s happenning to OpenPower? Visit “Open computing built on OpenPOWER” on Monday, 3:30pm, with James Kulina, Executive Director of OpenPOWER Foundation, and Tim Pearson from Raptor Engineering.
Want to understand how people use IBM Power AI features? Visit “AI Use-cases on IBM Power10 in the WWT ATC” on Tuesday, 1:30pm with IBM Champion, author of several IBM Redbooks and certifications Kevin Gee.
Or maybe you want to ask your questions about IBM Power future? Rebecca Gott, IBM Power CTO, will answer to your questions in Sandbox, on Tuesday, 3pm.
I can’t mention all sessions which will be there. Of course I mention my own session on Wednesday, at 11:30am in Mandalay Bay J, Level 2. You’re welcome to join me!
In the same room there will be another session just before my session. If you are interested in AIX patch management, this is the session you should visit too.
IBM Champion Christian Sonnemanns will talk about AIX patch management without downtime. I personally still didn’t use AIX LiveUpdate but I want to hear how Christian uses it and how it could help me to avoid downtimes!
The App
I think the best way to plan your IBM TechXchange visit is to use official TechXchange app. Download and install it on your smartphone. Create your agenda. And send me a message in the Networking part of the app!
Have fun at IBM TechXchange!
Andrey
Hi, I am Andrey Klyachkin, IBM Champion and IBM AIX Community Advocate. It means I don’t work for IBM. Over last 20 years I worked with many different IBM Power customers all over the world both on-premise and in cloud. I specialize in automating IBM Power infrastructures making them even more robust and agile. I co-authored several IBM Redbooks and IBM Power certifications. I am an active Red Hat Certified Engineer and Instructor.
Follow me on LinkedIn, Twitter and Youtube.
Meet me on events like IBM TechXchange, Common Europe Congress and GSE Germany’s IBM Power Working group sessions.