COMMON POWERUp 2025: Full Schedule

Unlock the Power of IBM i at POWERUp 2025!

Join us in Disneyland, California, for POWERUp 2025, the premier conference for IBM i professionals. Whether you’re an experienced expert or just starting your IBM i journey, this event offers unparalleled education, hands-on workshops, and valuable networking opportunities. Stay ahead of the curve with insights from industry leaders, explore the latest innovations, and connect with a thriving community that shares your passion for IBM i. Don’t miss this opportunity to expand your knowledge, grow your skills, and power up your career!

10:00am PDT

Techie’s Cheat Sheet to Demystify AI

Monday May 19, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am PDT

Safari

Let’s discuss the alphabet soup that is AI and see how all the parts fit together.

Speakers

Charlie Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Charles Guarino believes in the “power” of IBM Power Systems. His career reflects his dedication and interest in bringing the platform and its solutions to others and as a result has been recognized as an IBM Champion.He is a member of COMMON’s Speaker Excellence Hall of Fame... Read More →

Monday May 19, 2025 10:00am - 11:00am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

11:15am PDT

Modern RPG what does that mean?

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

Safari

You hear modern RPG but, what does that actually mean? we will look at converting from monolithic programs to modular programming including the use of service program and converting RLA(Record level access) to sql.

Speakers

Marina Schwenk

Innovative Software Solutions inc.

Marina started her career in January 2015 at Everbrite LLC in Greenfield WI after graduating from Gateway Technical College in May of 2014 with an Associate’s degree in IT Software Development. Marina worked for over nine years as a Senior Programmer Analyst/IBM i admin at Everbrite... Read More →

Monday May 19, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: RPG

3:15pm PDT

Clean up your i

Monday May 19, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT

Safari

How much disk storage do you have on your system? The most common answer is 'not enough!' Attend this session and find out where all that space went, what you can clean up, and what should be left alone.

Learn about ways to report and find disk usage as well as understanding how you use it.

Develop a deeper understanding of the tools IBM has built into IBM i, ESPECIALLY SQL Tools, and how to leverage them to help keep your system clean.

Walk away with a solid understanding of how to clean up your disk space, manage your IFS, and reorganize your files.

Speakers

Larry Bolhuis

Cloud and Datacenter Engineer, IBM Champion, Service Express Inc.

Larry has grown up with computers since his father became a CE in 1967. He obtained a bachelor's degree in Computer Science from Calvin College in 1982 and soon after began working on IBM midrange equipment with the S/34 and S/36. Larry began working on the As/400 at its introduction In 1988.After spending many years as a developer Larry began working on communications, networking, and systems management tasks. Years of... Read More →

Monday May 19, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Systems Management

4:30pm PDT

Contributing to Open Source

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT

Safari

Open-source contributions are a great way to improve your skills and give back to the community. This session will walk attendees through the process of contributing to an open-source project on GitHub. We’ll cover forking a repository, working in a branch, pushing changes, and submitting a pull request for review.

Speakers

Joseph Wright

Owner / Consultant, Wright4i

Monday May 19, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

5:05pm PDT

What’s New in the World of AI

Monday May 19, 2025 5:05pm - 5:25pm PDT

Safari

The field of AI is evolving at an unprecedented pace. This session will provide an up-to-the-minute look at the latest AI advancements, including OpenAI’s latest models, DeepSeek R1, and leading competitors. We’ll explore benchmarks like SWE, IBM’s upcoming RPG Coding Assistant, and key trends like AI Agents and Chain of Thought reasoning.

Speakers

Joseph Wright

Owner / Consultant, Wright4i

Monday May 19, 2025 5:05pm - 5:25pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

8:00am PDT

AI and IBM i: tying the worlds together

Tuesday May 20, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

Safari

AI has become an unstoppable and unavoidable force in the industry. When you integrate IBM i with a powerful AI stack, the potential is indescribable! In this session, we will learn about some key AI technologies and explore a couple techniques for integrating IBM i with them.

Speakers

Jesse Gorzinski

STSM and Senior Business Architect - AI and Open Source, IBM

Tuesday May 20, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

9:15am PDT

The Ethical use of AI

Tuesday May 20, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

Safari

In the rapidly evolving field of artificial intelligence, the ethical implications of AI systems have become a critical concern for developers, researchers, and policymakers alike. This session aims to provide a comprehensive overview of the ethical challenges posed by AI and offer practical techniques to address hate, abuse, and profanity (HAP), biases, and violations of privacy or intellectual property.

Speakers

Charlie Guarino

CEO & IBM Champion, Central Park Data Systems

Jesse Gorzinski

STSM and Senior Business Architect - AI and Open Source, IBM

Tuesday May 20, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

10:45am PDT

Modern Applications: from UX to AI

Tuesday May 20, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT

Safari

IBM i continues to have a loyal base of users running mission-critical applications. Its robustness and stability make it an ideal choice for industries that require high availability and security. However, as the technology landscape evolves and businesses face growing demands for greater flexibility, efficiency, and a better user experience, there is an increasing push to modernize the applications and user interfaces on the IBM i platform.

One of the key driving factors behind this trend is the need to attract younger talent. Younger generations of developers and IT professionals are more familiar with modern technologies like web applications, mobile apps, and cloud platforms.

By transitioning traditional IBM i applications to web-based platforms, businesses can improve accessibility, streamline workflows, and ensure that users can interact with the system from any device, anywhere; for example mobile applications ensure that IBM i systems can support the growing demand for remote work and mobile-first experiences, giving users the flexibility to perform tasks on the go. Finally, leveraging AI-driven enhancements will not only improve automation, but also enable smarter decision-making, predictive analytics, and more personalized user experiences.

Various factors are driving businesses to modernize, and we will explore some of the key market needs and how they can be addressed

Speakers

Jeroen Van Dun

IBM Champion & Product Manager, Rocket Software

Rashmi Agrawal

Vice President – Engineering, App Mod Vice President – Engineering, App Mod, Rocket Software

Rashmi is a highly accomplished Global R&D leader with 26 years of experience driving product innovation and execution at enterprise-grade companies like IBM, Dell/EMC, and Rocket Software. Her expertise spans a wide range of products, including datacenter, cloud, AI, storage, developer... Read More →

Kuldip Vikram

Principal Architect, Rocket Software

Kuldip is a Principal Architect at Rocket Software responsible for modernizing IBMi applications/workloads and their development through a combination of pure/hybrid Cloud deployments and Generative AI.He has a rich and diverse experience architecting, designing, developing, and deploying... Read More →

Andrew Clark

Andrew Clark has been working on the IBM i platform for more than 30 years, beginning with the "secret Mankato Project" on a pre-release version of os/400, and an internship at IBM Rochester working on the Query team. He has development expertise in more than a dozen languages on... Read More →

Tuesday May 20, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

3:15pm PDT

AI-Powered Development: Your IBM i Copilot (or Claude, or ChatGPT, etc.)

Tuesday May 20, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT

Safari

AI is transforming software development across all platforms, and IBM i is no exception. But how do you effectively leverage these powerful tools while maintaining the high standards IBM i users expect? In this session, we'll cut through the hype and show you practical applications of AI in daily IBM i development. From code generation to documentation to testing to cool new AI-based application capabilities, you'll see real-world examples of how AI can enhance productivity while preserving code quality. We'll demonstrate best practices for AI integration and provide guidance for successful implementation in your environment.

Speakers

Aaron Magid

VP, Open Source Technologies, Open Source Technologies

Aaron Magid, Chief Architect at Eradani, has over a decade of experience in software development and technology. He specializes in modernizing legacy systems like IBM i/AS400 using Python, Node.js, and Java. Aaron excels in bridging old and new technologies together for clients, helping... Read More →

Tuesday May 20, 2025 3:15pm - 4:15pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

4:30pm PDT

Getting Started with Python on IBM i

Tuesday May 20, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT

Safari

Python is becoming an essential tool in the IBM i ecosystem. This session will provide a beginner-friendly introduction to setting up and using Python on IBM i. Topics include calling Python from PASE, SSH access, development in VS Code, and methods for integrating Python with RPG and SQL.

Speakers

Joseph Wright

Owner / Consultant, Wright4i

Tuesday May 20, 2025 4:30pm - 4:50pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: Python

5:05pm PDT

Using Github Copilot with RPG

Tuesday May 20, 2025 5:05pm - 5:25pm PDT

Safari

This session will introduce IBM i developers to GitHub Copilot and demonstrate how it can enhance RPG programming. We’ll cover installation and setup within VS Code, including the Code for IBM i extension. Attendees will see how Copilot generates code, assists with debugging, and improves efficiency through inline suggestions and Copilot Chat.

Speakers

Joseph Wright

Owner / Consultant, Wright4i

Tuesday May 20, 2025 5:05pm - 5:25pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

8:00am PDT

PowerHA for Cloud and Hybrid-Cloud (Geographic Mirroring)

Wednesday May 21, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

Safari

Geographic mirroring is a PowerHA hardware replication technology that provides a complete high availability solution for IBM i working with any type of storage, enabling the simplicity of hardware replication with the flexibility of cloud and hybrid-cloud environments. In addition, if simple real-time disaster recovery meets your needs, Geographic mirroring can also be used in an IBM i-hosted environment for a very easy-to-implement DR solution.

This session will explain the concepts of geographic mirroring, as well as best practices and sizing considerations. We will walk through a complete configuration of a geographic mirroring environment.

This session will cover recently released technologies for geographic mirroring including compression, multi-target geographic mirroring. In addition, other recently announced PowerHA Cloud technologies in IBM Power Virtual Server will be discussed.

Speakers

Brian Nordland

Director of Development, Fortra

In addition to his role as Director of Development for Power Development at Fortra, Brian Nordland serves as the technical product manager for PowerHA and Robot HA. Brian has spoken at events, webinars, and user groups—including COMMON—since 2014. He is a co-inventor on multiple... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

High Availability Resilience

9:15am PDT

IBM i Integrated MFA Solution Developer Impacts

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

Safari

The integrated IBM i MFA solution set of features has various impacts for application developers to consider. Some impacts directly impact if or how their applications work in various configurations. Other impacts involve changes to make applications better ecosystem citizens in context of the authentication exit point information provided to those solutions. Profile handles and profile tokens is one of the primary areas of focus in the session.

Learning Objectives:
Learn about the new and updated APIs and Commands developers should be aware. Understand how updating applications to use these capabilities provides a better MFA end-user experience as well as increases the value of security solutions built on the authentication exit point support.

Speakers

Tim Mullenbach

IBM i Security Business Architect, IBM

Tim Mullenbach is a Senior Software Engineer at IBM Rochester. He spent his first 20+ IBM years with the IBM i Sockets and System TLS development team prior to transitioning to the IBM i Security Business Architect role in 2018.

Wednesday May 21, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Security

10:45am PDT

OSS Tools For System Management

Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT

Safari

Join us as we explore the world of open-source tools for system management, starting with fundamental concepts and progressing to practical applications on IBM i with Prometheus for operational monitoring and Grafana for data visualization. We will also introduce Manzan, IBM i's new open-source solution for seamless integration with modern infrastructure monitoring tools. Have you ever wanted to receive Slack notifications for critical system errors, or perhaps send syslogs directly to monitoring dashboards like Sentry or Grafana Loki? With Manzan, not only is all of this now possible, but it also unlocks the potential for AI-driven system management. Don’t miss this opportunity to see how you can enhance your system's monitoring capabilities with minimal setup and maximum flexibility.

Understand basic system management concepts and explore various open-source tooling options
Learn how to use Prometheus and Grafana on IBM i
Learn how to integrate Manzan with modern infrastructure monitoring tools
Explore the role Manzan plays in system management with AI

Speakers

Jesse Gorzinski

STSM and Senior Business Architect - AI and Open Source, IBM

Sanjula Ganepola

Software Developer - IBM i App Dev & AI Toolchain, IBM

Sanjula Ganepola is a Software Developer at IBM working on IBM i application development tools. As an open-source advocate, he is an active contributor and maintainer of several Visual Studio Code extensions including IBM i Project Explorer, Code for IBM i, IBM i Testing, Source Orbit... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 10:45am - 11:45am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

3:45pm PDT

DB2 Mirror -  Logistics for 400K trucks -  Driving Business Outcomes    

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:45pm - 4:45pm PDT

Safari

  

The logistics company generates over 3.2M downloads to equip over 400,000  trucks 7 x 24 with all the AI features they need for their workday.  Near zero downtime was the only way to keep the fleets connected and moving. This CASE Study will present through the eyes of the customer a roadmap:  IBM lab DB2 Assessment, building a reference architecture, implementation, testing failover and day to day management for DB2 Mirror.

Learn how Transflo leveraged an  IBM Cloud On Net solution by staying on IBM  Power Technology connected to AWS and Azure.

Speakers

Richard Dolewski

VP, Hybrid Enterprise Solutions, Lightedge

Richard is a recognized SME and award-winning industry speaker specializing in, Cloud Computing Architecture, Business Resiliency, Disaster Recovery Planning and Backup & Recovery Program Design. He leads organizations through the new era of technology, achieving the desired, successful... Read More →

Wednesday May 21, 2025 3:45pm - 4:45pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

High Availability Resilience

5:00pm PDT

IBM i Services for the Developer

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT

Safari

In the past you may have considered using CL or coding to system APIs to access and work with system information. Today there is a better option: IBM i Services. In this session you will learn how to use SQL to work with data areas and data queues, discover how easy it is to review your program and service program attributes, and much more.

Speakers

Ann Wilkerson

Software Developer, IBM

Ann Wilkerson is a lead user interface developer in IBM i. She joined the Rochester lab in 2021 and has since worked on Navigator, IBM i Services, and IBM i Migrate While Active. Her focus areas include security, networking, and the IFS.

Wednesday May 21, 2025 5:00pm - 6:00pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programming: General

8:00am PDT

A Practical Guide to IBM i Authority Collection

Thursday May 22, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT

Safari

This session explores practical applications for Authority Collection, including standard and creative use cases. Authority Collection can be used to reduce the security exposure of privileged user profiles and to lock down objects/libraries/IFS. We will cover these in detail, along with some “outside the box” ways of using this technology to answer questions and solve problems.

Speakers

Carol Woodbury

IBM i Security SME and Senior Advisor, Kisco Systems

With over 30 years' experience in the area of IT security, Carol is known world-wide as an expert in the area of computer security. During her career, Carol has architected security solutions for Fortune 100 companies as well as small and medium-sized organizations. Carol is passionate... Read More →

Steve Riedmueller

Certified IBM i Admin - IBM Champion, Speaker, Mentor, and Advocate, Kisco

Thursday May 22, 2025 8:00am - 9:00am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Security

9:15am PDT

Surfing the Net: The Neural Net

Thursday May 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT

Safari

Embark on a journey to understand neural networks! This session takes a dive into the math behind neural networks. We will also explores their applications, and demonstrate how they power AI innovations across industries.

Speakers

Jonathan Zak

Staff Software Developer | IBM i app tools, IBM

Working on IBM i application tools, notably Manzan, Mapepire, and Tyrico.

Thursday May 22, 2025 9:15am - 10:15am PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

11:15am PDT

OS AND POWER SYSTEM UPGRADE TESTING

Thursday May 22, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT

Safari

Upgrading an OS or Power system infrastructure can be daunting when approached. This session will review how to analyze needs, manage risk, assign testing tasks, track, and report.

Speakers

Yvonne Enselman

Owner, Yvonne Enselman Professional Services

Thursday May 22, 2025 11:15am - 12:15pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Program Testing

1:30pm PDT

Navigator for i from a Developer's Perspective

Thursday May 22, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT

Safari

Do you think that Navigator for i is just for system administrators? Think again! Navigator for i is a powerful tool for all IBM i users, including developers. In this session, you will get an overview of how Navigator for i works and learn about specific functions that developers can use to make their day to day work easier.

Speakers

Ann Wilkerson

Software Developer, IBM

Thursday May 22, 2025 1:30pm - 2:30pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Programmer Tools

3:30pm PDT

How Developers/Analysts Control the Expectations of What Can Be Done for the Organization with AI

Thursday May 22, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm PDT

Safari

Most organizations are intrigued by what AI can do, but what can actually be implements by programmers/Analyst. This session is focused on how to limit the expectations of management and leadership to what can actually be delivered by IT. The arguments and planning for AI are explored by this session.

Speakers

Michael McArdle

Instructor, Western Technical College

Though Mike McArdle has been involved in RPG programming since the 1970s, his career path has been through the ranks of leadership. He has been the CFO of Luther Hospital in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, the CFO of Desmond’s Formal Wear in LaCrosse Wisconsin, and Assistant Superintendent... Read More →

Thursday May 22, 2025 3:30pm - 4:30pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

IT Strategy

4:45pm PDT

GROK3 Magic: Turning IT Problems into Possibilities

Thursday May 22, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm PDT

Safari

In this session, we'll explore how this AI tool from xAI can revolutionize your IT practice. We'll introduce GROK's core features, its unique approach to problem-solving, and its application in enhancing decision-making, data analysis, and technical communication. Learn best practices for integrating GROK into presentations, technical integration with IT tools, and how to navigate its limitations. The session will conclude with a recap, a call to action for practical application

Speakers

Jim Buck

CEO & Head Instructor, imPower Technologies

Jim Buck’s career in IT has spanned more than 35+ years, primarily in college education, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. Past president (13 years) of the Wisconsin Midrange Computer Professional Association (www.wmcpa.org) and has served on several teams developing IBM... Read More →

Thursday May 22, 2025 4:45pm - 5:45pm PDT
Safari 1150 Magic Way, Anaheim, CA 92802

Artificial Intelligence (AI)