It was great seeing everyone - we had a super time in Virginia Beach!
Derek presents at his Bootstrap Responsive Web Development for IBM i session.
Our first impression of this inaugural Virginia Beach IBM i User Conference is that this event is promising - and we can't wait to see everyone again!
Putting on a brand new event is always full of challenges. The recent Virginia Beach IBM i User Conference hosted by Hamway Software Solutions met those challenges in championship form.
Challenge 1: Starting a new group and event.
Congratulations to Laura Hamway and her team for overcoming the first tests of putting together an exceptional inaugural event. We look forward to being a part of growing this regional support for the platform next year.
A great event starts with great sessions and this conference was packed solid. Trevor Perry's meal-time "Change Me" and "What can i do" sessions challenged everyone to make a difference in themselves to make a difference for the IBM i platform. Good advice! Derek and I had sessions of our own. Read more about those below...
Challenge 2: Hurricane Matthew.
Challenge two was Hurricane Matthew, the storm that was just days away. Thanks to those that braved the weather to attend and our prayers are with everyone affected in Matthew’s aftermath.
Challenge 3: The Vendor Challenge.
The challenge we were looking forward to was the opportunity in the Vendor Challenge! If you know Surround’s Accelerator solution (now newly released as version 7), you know that any contest for rapid software development is all but rigged for us Software Superheroes. For this challenge, we were provided the programs and files in a save file from part of a financial system that posts inventory transactions at a cost bucket level. Development could not be started until the beginning of the conference Thursday morning. Derek spent a couple of hours while at the conference to produce complete fully-functional Windows and Web Applications along with the n-tier architecture and web services to support them. It is quite clear, no one can even come close to what Accelerator is capable of.
