Creating your Insight Agenda – Samples Included

Dean Compher

28 September 2015

 

 

 

Whether you are into DB2, Big Data, Informix, lectures or labs, it is now time to start building your agenda for the 2015 Insight Conference.  There are tons of great sessions and networking (fun) evening activities at the conference and by planning ahead you can squeeze the most value out of the conference.  If you like lab sessions then sign up early or you risk them filling with other people.  In this article I’ll share a few tips on building your agenda and even some sample agendas for various interests to help you get started.  If you’re not that familiar with the conference this may help your planning, but you should review all the choices on the conference web site.  Please browse the sessions on the agenda and pick the ones of most interest to you.  In this article I also provide information on using the agenda building web site. If you haven’t registered for the conference yet, make sure to select IBM Rep and type “Dean Compher” in the box where it asks you how you found out about this conference when you do register. 

 

There are several technical sessions again this year.  If you want to see what is available before you register you can browse the available sessions using the Sample Agenda Builder to see all of the great content.  With the sample agenda builder you can create different prototype agendas and save them with different names, and get a URL link to each agenda that you can save or give to others.  The other people can see the link and import the whole thing into their private agenda by clicking the “Add All Sessions to My Schedule” button, or pick individual sessions by clicking the add button next to each interesting session.  This copies all or some of the sessions into your personal schedule where you can add and delete sessions as you see fit.  Using this method, you can import any of the agendas I have in this article.  So if you don’t have time to create one for yourself, just click on an agenda here that looks like what you want and then easily import the sessions into your agenda and then onto the calendar on your phone or laptop.  You can import more than one of the agendas below.  For example you can import the General DB2 DBA Lectures agenda and then the Receptions, Keynotes, and Book Signings to add the after-hours events to it.

 

If you have not already done so, you will need to register for the conference.  Once you have done that you will get an email from “ibmeventconnect” with a subject line starting with “Build Your Insight 2015 Conference…”.  It will contain your Registration Confirmation Code for the conference site.  To build your private agenda where you can add sessions, reserve your spot in labs and make appointments with experts go to the Insight2015 Events Site, login and click the Sessions tab for private agenda building.  If you attended Insight last year or another fairly recent IBM conference, you can just use your userid and password for it.  Otherwise, use the code in the e-mail as your password.  Once you are registered you can start selecting. 

 

When building a sample agenda on the website, you must not be logged in to your account.  If you are logged in you can only build your private session and you are not able to save that as a sample as far as I can tell. To build your sample agenda, go to the Sample Agenda Builder site and click “Browse Sessions” to begin searching for sessions.  When you are done browsing you will notice that there is not a way to save your agenda.  To save, click the “View Sample Agenda” link on the right side of the window near the top.  You then click a button called “Save Sample Agenda” from this screen.  It took me a few minutes to figure that out.   If you want to start with a sample agenda that someone created, just click the “Find a Sample Agenda” line from either the browse sessions window or the View Sample Agenda window.  To start with any of my agendas, just search for “db2dean” or click any of the links below. 

 

Agenda Builder Tips 

 

There are so many tracks that I couldn’t come up with just one agenda, so I’ve added a few sample agendas that you can use as a template for creating your own schedule.  Each time slot actually has many more sessions; these are just some of my favorites.  Make sure to examine other available sessions using the agenda builder or sample agenda builder.  The first agenda contains the networking and keynote sessions.  You can import that as a start and then import

 

General DB2 DBA Lectures Agenda

If you want to get a lot of information about several topics, then attend as many sessions as you can.  This agenda shows the ones that db2Dean recommends.  Some time slots show multiple sessions because I like them all, but you will need to cross off the ones you would not take. 

 

General DB2 DBA Labs Agenda

If you like to get more in depth on fewer topics then Labs are the way to go.  This agenda in this link is almost exclusively lab sessions, but you can mix and match labs and lectures by importing both this agenda and the General DB2 agenda and removing the conflicting sessions you don’t want.   

 

Cloud and Big Data for the DB2 DBA

Cloud databases and Big Data in the cloud are definitely becoming a large part of the IT data landscape, so this year I created an agenda for the DBA to learn more about these topics and the tools IBM is providing.   

 

Informix Sessions

If Informix is more you thing, then check out this agenda that includes both lectures and a lab. 

 

Data Security and Privacy

Secure your production databases and automate your management of test databases (IBM and non-IBM) and use the great test cases from production, while privatizing sensitive data so that anyone can see your test data because it has been obfuscated.  With the Guardium products evaluate database security vulnerabilities and monitor who is accessing your data.

 

Information Server

Being able to move data around to different data repositories, keep track of where it is and govern it is becoming more important as the amount of data that organizations have grows.  Attend these sessions to learn how to keep everything moving efficiently.  

 

Receptions, Keynotes and Book Signings

Don’t forget about the other interesting things you can do at the conference.  There are several after hours receptions, but as of the writing of this article they are not on the schedule.  I’ll add when they appear..  I’ve added the ones open to the general public to this agenda.  The main fun event is Wednesday evening and is called “Rocktoberfest – 4184A”.  Maroon 5 will be playing at this event.  Make sure to merge these sessions into your technical agenda.  There are also several events that are not widely announced, but you can ask your sales rep if you would like to be invited to them.  Also don’t forget to stop by the expo if you are interested in chatting about particular technologies or just want to get some cool toys for you or your kids.  Also Breakfast and Lunch are included in your conference registration and are normally held next to the Expo.  

 

 

Keith Redman has graciously provided additional Agendas that might be of interest to you.  

 

Integration, Governance and Data Security for the IT Technical Professional

Data is everywhere; on premise, mobile, and in the cloud.  With applications under constant attack, organizations need more secure ways to adopt web, mobile and cloud technologies.  These sessions will help you learn how IBM Security Solutions integrate to provide the ultimate data security.

 

Data Integration and Governance for the IT Technical Professional

Interested in how customers are implementing Data Governance and Data Integration?  These sessions are mostly customer success stories describing their experiences delivering world-class metadata management and information governance to their organizations.  This agenda contains several sessions that overlap, or a repeated allowing the further customization of topics of interest.

 

Data Security and Privacy for the IT Technical Professional

Hardly a week goes by without headlines about a data security breach.  Staying a step ahead of these increasing in number, and increasingly sophisticated attacks requires a comprehensive and proactive approach to data security that helps organizations identify risks and automatically adjust the security defenses before any serious damage can occur.  These session cover Guardium and Guardium integration with QRadar.  This agenda contains sessions that overlap, or a repeated allowing the further customization of topics of interest.

 

Hadoop for the IT Technical Professional

Have an interest in IBMs Hadoop technology Big Insights?  These sessions will give you the lowdown an all things Hadoop including SQL on Hadoop, Geospatial Analysis, Text Analytics using MLib and how to implement High Availability and Disaster Recovery thereby making Hadoop truly enterprise ready.  This agenda contains several sessions that overlap, or a repeated allowing the further customization of topics of interest.

 

What's this thing called Spark

Heard the news about Spark?  Apache® Spark™ is an open-source cluster computing framework with in-memory processing to speed analytic applications up to 100 times faster compared to technologies on the market today. Developed in the AMPLab at UC Berkeley, Apache Spark can help reduce data interaction complexity, increase processing speed and enhance mission critical applications with deep intelligence.  Highly versatile in many environments, Apache Spark is known for its ease of use in creating algorithms that harness insight from complex data. Spark was elevated to a top-level Apache Project in 2014 and continues to expand today. IBM is committing to the Apache Spark project with investments in design-led innovation and broad-scale education programs to promote open source innovation and accelerate intelligence into every application.  This agenda contains several sessions that overlap, or a repeated allowing the further customization of topics of interest.

 

 

Special interest Sessions

There are a number of sessions that I did not include on the above agendas because of their specialized nature.  However, if that specialty appeals to you then you may want to attend them instead of some of the sessions on the above agendas.  Here are some that tickled my fancy:

 

SAP

IBM and SAP are still very strong partners and DB2 is the best database for your SAP applications.  This agenda shows the sessions where you can learn more about how to run SAP on our DB2 systems.   

 

Talk to the Experts

Go to the “Ask the Experts” or “Birds of a Feather” sessions to talk in small groups about how to do something that interests you.  There is no other forum where it is this easy to corner someone from the lab.  All that you have to do is to go to these sessions and bring up your topic

  

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There’s a lot more to the Agenda Builder than what I’ve listed in this article, like a way to connect with friends and advanced search options.  I encourage you to explore that site and use all of those features, but if you run out of time, then using one of these agendas is better than showing up with nothing and wondering aimlessly!  Also don’t forget to make sure to select IBM Rep and type “Dean Compher” in the box where it asks you how you found out about this conference when you register for the conference!

 

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