Retrospection
December 2019
It is the Thanksgiving week here in the United States, which means the year is slowly but surely coming to an end. The Thanksgiving holiday is a time for reflection and retrospection. I am thankful for the countless hours that IDUG volunteers have spent in making IDUG one of the best run user groups and the focal point of Db2 community. Their tireless efforts have paid off—with increased attendance in North America and European conferences and increased vendor participation.
IDUG turned 31 this year. Very few technology user groups make it to the 30-year mark. The agility and nimbleness of the organization is a testament to the volunteers and users who run IDUG. This has been a year of many firsts. IDUG expanded its conference footprint by holding its first-ever event in Mexico City and switched to a city model in Australia. IDUG co-sponsored and held its first-ever hackathon and continues to look forward to co-hosting and co-sponsoring more hackathons in the future. IDUG collaborated with IIUG and held its first-ever co-located event in Latin America. IDUG also partnered with Gartner to get feedback from the Db2 community at its events in Charlotte, San Jose, and Rotterdam.
The year may be slowly winding down, but IDUG volunteers are busy at work as ever. The conference planning for the IDUG North America event is well under way. In addition to the core offerings, the conference planning committee continues to focus on agile and DevOps topics.
The website for the IDUG EMEA conference in Edinburgh in 2020 is already up and running. The loyalty rate for the IDUG EMEA conference in 2020 is available until December 25, 2019. This is an excellent opportunity to work with your managers and put any used education funds from 2019 to use. The conference planning committee is also looking for abstracts from seasoned speaker, newbies, and folks who have never presented before. After all, it is the diversity in thinking that brings out the best in all of us. There is no time like the present; please take the time to submit your abstracts today.
The IDUG Finance Committee is currently putting its final touches on the IDUG 2020 strategy, and a significant portion of the budget will be spent on expanding IDUG offerings and reaching out to the Db2 community. IDUG will have a renewed focus on working with the Regional User Groups and will explore new ways to connect with the Db2 community. IDUG will be co-sponsoring a virtual event in India leading up to the IDUG India events.
Please feel free to drop me a line with any questions or suggestions. Until next time, I encourage you to go through idug.org and check out the valuable content. As always, I can be reached at billy.sundarrajan@idug.org.