Four weeks. An entire month left to register for the 2015 COMMON Annual conference and Expo. (Although after March 26 it will cost a bit more.) If you haven't made your plans yet, ask yourself why is it that you have not. Can it possibly be that you don't need to learn anything? I rather doubt that's the case although you might be 64 1/2 years old and ready for retirement. You're already polishing your golf clubs, replacing the lines on your fishing poles, or polishing up the motor home to do some serious traveling, and if that's true? Congratulations and enjoy!! (Do remember though you can still come, there is a 'Retired i Professionals' group too!)

Still reading? Yep you're part of the rest of us who still have things to do, projects to complete, tasks on the list, challenges to overcome, mysteries to solve, and of course a retirement to fund!

Yes you are busy, I get that, I feel your pain and I think pretty much everyone who volunteers for COMMON can feel it too. So if you're already too busy why take more time away from the office? Why, because "doing it the way we've always done it" does NOT make that the best way. If you don't have opportunity to learn that better way you never will.

Experts know that digging in harder works for a little while but productivity suffers. You need a break. You need another way to see things. You need to find out how others do things. You MUST expand beyond the four walls of your cubical and idea up!

Let's take an example: You might be the best guy in the world with a double-bit axe and are able to fell a 36" tree in under an hour. Then some young whippersnapper steps up to the next tree over and takes it down in under 5 minutes. You, Mr. Axe expert, are standing there with one question: "What IS that noise?" Suddenly you're made aware of a tool that can save you not just minutes but HOURS even DAYS of effort. For a double bonus it does a better job too!

You see what you don't know CAN hurt you. Your productivity suddenly is on the wrong scale! Trees per day? Nope, new scale: trees per hour! Wood lost to the cut, 12", 14", 18"? Nope, just a couple inches and a shorter stump too.

Are you writing CGI code to deploy web pages through the Apache server? Excellent, so you understand the web then! What if there was a tool that could automate putting your data on the web? (There is) Come and find out! Still using WDS in 24x80 or that MASSIVLY HUGE (wink wink) 27x132? Wait till you see RDi on a screen with hundreds of rows and columns! And Tabs! And well, you gotta see it to believe it. Ask Charlie!

Need a development partition because the auditors are getting cranky about testing being too close to production? No idea how to do that? It's not that hard if you come and ask Pete or Kevin or Jim.

Your database got you down? Does it need modernization? (Yes it likely does.) Come ask Birgitta or Doug or Jim or Rob or Scott.

Wondering if you could do RPG Better? (Yes you can!) Experts a plenty with Scott and Barbara and Vern and Charles.

Need help with connecting to your Power System from the desktop? NEW STUFF there you know, er, maybe you didn't. You should! And there to tell you all about it are Jesse and Wayne and Ray.

Didn't know your IBM i was mobile? Well, OK Technically it's not but it's accessible from your mobile, and it has lots of capability! Instead of staying home and stumbling through this yourself get it from the experts! Alison and Tim and Pete and Alex and a couple Steve's and Robert and Brian and MORE!

Feeling insecure? Got a Target on your back? Lose your number at the Home Depot? Got some cranky auditor steaming up your glasses? We got that. Come here Jeff and Carol and Liz and Patrick and Robin and Jim and Bob and Margaret and others.

And this isn't all, there are jewels and open source and so very much more, you can't HELP but come back with a fresh view of what you can do on IBM i, how to help your business and how to cut through that backlog with a new attitude and a better tool.

And there are people here selling that chain saw too! And not only will they show you it's features they'll show you how to use it and take care of it and in no time at all you'll be dropping trees on top of your pickup truck with the best of 'em! No no, wait, should have moved the truck but if you had Training you would have known that AND which way the tree was going to fall!

COME. HEAR. LEARN. Oh and it's Disney, ENJOY!!!

Looking forward to seeing you there!

- DrF