Featured Presentations





Keynote Addresses *

all keynotes *livestreamed to VIRTUAL participants*

Mon 16 Oct
8:30-10:00 CET

Opening Ceremony & Keynote Address: 
 Db2, IDUG and You: Evolution in Action

K01 | Forum Hall
*livestreamed to VIRTUAL participants*

Db2 for z/OS, Db2 for LUW and IDUG are all celebrating important anniversaries in 2023. What were the evolutionary pressures that shaped the database engines and technical conferences that we all know so well today? How have our roles as database professionals changed, and what might the future hold, given the inexorable march of AI and automation? Join Julian as he shares his thoughts and insights on the past, present and potential future of IDUG, Db2 and the database professional. 


Julian Stuhler
Director, Head of Solutions Delivery, Triton Consulting
Julian has worked with Db2 for over 35 years as a developer, DBA, systems programmer and Consultant. He is an IDUG Past President, IBM Gold Consultant, IBM Redbook author and a well-known speaker who has lectured widely on Db2 subjects around the world.

Tue 17 Oct
9:00-10:00 CET

Keynote Address, presented by IBM:
Db2 - Leading the Future of Mission Critical Applications, Analytics, and AI at Scale.

K02 | Forum Hall
*livestreamed to VIRTUAL participants*

With over 40 years of investment and innovation, IBM® Db2® remains central to organizations’ data management strategy, underpinning some of the world’s mission critical transactional and analytics workloads. Join this keynote session and learn about Db2’s evolution as the first RDBMS on the mainframe, to SaaS cloud-based deployments, and now supporting and scaling the AI-driven enterprise with IBM's AI and data platform IBM® watsonx™.

Vikram Murali
Vice President, Hybrid Data Management & watsonx Development, IBM
Vikram Murali is Vice President of Engineering for Hybrid Data Management within IBM Data and AI. Hybrid Data Management encompasses development and support for Db2 Distributed, Netezza, Cloud Pak for Data Systems, BigData partnerships as well as hosted and managed Cloud Database offerings. Vikram also leads development of watsonx.data – our new product offering which is based on open lakehouse architecture and supports Generative AI technologies. 
 

Namik HrleNamik Hrle
IBM Fellow and VP, Data and AI technology, OpenPages and Hyper Blue Software

Namik Hrle is an IBM Master Inventor with over 70 patents, along with numerous outstanding technical achievements, author recognition and corporate awards, Namik has a world-wide reputation as the ultimate expert in using data and AI for digital transformation and reinvention of enterprise applications.  Namik is also one of Bosnia’s most famous football players. 

Wed 18 Oct
8:30-9:30 CET

Keynote Address, presented by Broadcom:
Enterprise Resilience: Mitigating Chaos

K03 | Forum Hall
*livestreamed to VIRTUAL participants*

Join Broadcom as we highlight how mainframe data professionals can harness the power of Db2 for z/OS and related software and processes to mitigate the danger of chaos in today’s complex environments and learn how to remain resilient. Chile Hidalgo, Broadcom Product Management and Strategy Manager, will be joined on stage with 3 IBM Champions—Denis Tronin, Broadcom Product Manager and Client Services Consultants, Julia Carter and Toine Michielse. You’ll walk away with a renewed sense that chaos is very manageable using several best practices to help your journey toward fully leveraging the full value of your Db2 and mainframe investments. Prepare to be entertained!


Chile Hidalgo
Senior Manager, Data Management, Mainframe Software Division, Broadcom
Chile Hidalgo leads strategy and product management for Broadcom’s Mainframe Software Division’s Data Management product portfolio. In this role, he is responsible for understanding customer requirements as well as overall market trends and guiding the strategy for our products and solutions accordingly. Before joining Broadcom, Chile was a consultant for 20 years, working with Fortune Global 500 companies around the globe. He is fluent in Spanish.
 
Denis Tronin
Product Manager, Broadcom Mainframe Software 

Denis Tronin is the Product Manager at Mainframe Division at Broadcom. He is an experienced IT professional having 13 years of expertise in product management and software development. He led development of products for mainframes in Db2, workload automation, API management domains. He is an IBM Champion for Analytics since 2016, a regular speaker at user groups and conferences, and a core member of Zowe open source mainframe project.
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Julia Carter
Db2 Technical Consultant
Julia Carter is a DB2 DBA for z/OS with 15 years of experience working for Abbey National, Santander UK, Santander Mexico, Lloyds Banking Group and currently Broadcom Mainframe Software




Toine Michielse
Client Services Consultant
Toine Michielse has extensive experience in mainframe computing, specifically with Db2 for z/OS. His career covers application development, Db2 database administration, Db2 for z/OS system engineering as well as general mainframe architecture and performance management. Toine has a keen interest in mainframe modernization and exposing the unique value proposition of the mainframe in modern enterprise IT infrastructure. He was also an IBM Champion in 2022.

Thu, 19 Oct
12:10-13:10 CET

Keynote Address, IDUG Women In Technology
sponsored by Broadcom – Soft Skills are the New Hard Skills: Leading as a Changemaker in a Changing World
K04 | South Hall 3C
*livestreamed to VIRTUAL participants*

Culture, Process and Climate in today's computing environments may have worked for decades, yet we now face greater difficulty attracting and retaining talent while modernizing the way we work. Just as computing environments have become hybrid, so have workplace dynamics. 

Understanding and leveraging the power of the creative and growth mindset can transform the way we move through this complex change as leaders who understand making meaning as a changemaker. Modernizing our technology to support business and talent sustainability is critical and can become challenging due to the rate and pace of tech evolution and its impact on social norms and culture.

Experienced teammates may find it difficult to change the way they work, the tools they use, the way they teach others, and the way they lead teams, unintentionally affecting business outcome.  Customer success, architectural decisions and investments in IT and in people, require our leadership thinking to shift to expand our possibilities for peak performance, innovation, creativity and social good.

We will explore how to become a change maker by discussing the importance of:

· Shifting thinking as a leader towards growth mindset
· How growth mindset supports greater creativity and innovation through diversity in teams
· Organizational management that creates peak performance and sustainability


Stela Kovela

Stela Koleva
Head of Support, Mews

Originally Bulgarian, Stela Koleva has accumulated vast international experience and education. She holds an EMBA degree from Mannheim Business School, Germany and a DBA degree from SSBM Geneva. Stela has 20 years of experience in the SaaS industry. She has led large international teams across Technical Professional Services and Support for over 10 years, including their strategy and execution in two global roles – as Vice President for Travel Product Support in SAP Concur and one – as a Global Vice President, Head of Support in Mews.

Passionate for leading multi-cultural teams, Stela dedicated her doctoral research to investigating the influence of leadership styles employed by senior executives within multinational corporations on the execution effectiveness of corporate strategies. In her free time, Stela serves as a mentor in programs for aspiring women leaders and undertakes a personal endeavour: the development of a data platform for Alzheimer’s patients.