BT : Upcoming events in Belgium

You sometimes see an OT 'sign' indicating that the post is (a little) Off Topic. Well I guess this one's nearly an exclusive Belgian Topic (BT). I would like to draw your attention to some events and (tele)conferences, mainly in Brussels, I just added to the agenda.

26-28/09/2007 Proof of Technology
SOA Featuring WebSphere Advanced ESB - Special Focus: 3rd day on zOS at IBM Forum Brussels

Using WebSphere Message Broker and WebSphere MQ as its core technologies, the Advanced ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) provides a flexible connectivity infrastructure for integrating applications and services (...) WebSphere Message Broker can run on both Mainframe and Distributed platforms. The first 2 days of this free Proof of Technology will cover general WebSphere Message Broker aspects which apply to both platforms. The 3rd day will focus on the z/OS platform and its connectivity.

01-02/10/2007 Proof of Technology
WebSphere Developer for System z at IBM Forum Brussels

This WDz Proof of Technology session provides with basic skills and hands-on exposure to the major features of the WebSphere Developer for System z version 7.0.
Attendees will complete structured walkthrough labs that demonstrate the major features and new functionality of WDz. The labs also provide an introductory hands-on experience to using WDz on building a zSeries-based Service Oriented Architecture (SOA).

03-04/10/2007 Proof of Technology
Problem Determination Tools for System z at IBM Forum Brussels

This z/OS PD Tools Proof of Technology session provides with basic skills and hands-on exposure to the major features of the Problem Determination Tools for System z version 7.0. Attendees will complete structured walkthrough labs that demonstrate the major features and new functionalities of z/OS PD Tools.

Some of the tools covered are Debug Tool for z/OS, WebSphere Developer Debugger for System z, Fault Analyzer for z/OS, File Manager for z/OS, Application Performance Analyzer for z/OS, File Export for z/OS, Workload Simulator for z/OS and Application Time Facility for z/OS .

04/10/2007 Teleconference
z/OS Version 1 Release 9 for your demanding data serving at 5.00PM (Brussels time)
This teleconference by Gita Grube Berg covers the latest features of z/OS 1.9 and points out which value they can deliver to your site. Some Topics : IPSec network encryption, iRMM, XML parsing for DB2® 9 pureXML workloads and many more.

26-30/11/2007 z/OS University
z/OS University in Brussels (free of charge - more info when available) : I haven't got a link yet to the event but it's a great opportunity to introduce young people or people with no experience on the mainframe to the z/OS platform. The 5-day course is based on the 'Introduction to the New Mainframe: z/OS Basics'.

03-07/12/2007 ITSO Workshops
ITSO workshops at Brussels Forum
These workshops are given by the top specialists for each subject. It's each time a one day workshop with the following subjects : z/OS 1.9, Parallel Sysplex, System z Hardware, System z Security and System z Networking.

Thanks to Jean-Paul Goemaere from IBM Belgium for bringing some of these events to my attention.