What a community event: IDUG 2023 EMEA Db2 Tech Conference in Prague

IDUG and Db2 celebration with cake

Last week, we had a great Db2 conference in Prague. It was a real community event. We had more than 530 attendees, about 426 of them were on-site, the others virtual in three (out of seven) streamed tracks. During the opening of the expo on Monday, a special birthday cake was served, celebrating 40 years of Db2 for z/OS, 30 years of Db2 for Linux, UNIX, and Windows, and 35 years of IDUG - the International Db2 User Group.

The conference followed the proven schedule of keynotes starting the two first two days. After the formal opening, Julian Stuhler - at his last IDUG, he retired - gave an insightful talk about Db2 and IDUG. Looking back at technologies, products, and services gone over the past decades, new business challenges and demands, Julian demonstrated how Db2 has evolved, adapted and maintained its capability to power mission-critical workloads. Towards the end of his keynote, Julian looked into AI and what can / could be done with the power of AI today. It includes writing and optimizing SQL queries, but also this expanded version of "it depends":

ChatGPT and "it depends" for Db2 DBAs

During the conference, I already posted the following articles on LinkedIn:

• Last Monday, I looked back at the IDUG 2023 EMEA opening ceremony.
• During the IBM keynote on Tuesday, Namik Hrle looked back at the history of Db2, Vikram Murali provided a glimpse at what is to come.
• Full rooms either indicate a "latest from the lab" session or the Db2 expert panels.
  

Without needing an account, you can find the list of all IDUG 2023 EMEA presentations in the online scheduler. If you attended, then you can download the presentation slides and soon the recordings. I am going to end my quick look back with this slide from the closing ceremony about IDUG 2024 EMEA Db2 Tech Conference:

Looking forward to IDUG 2023 in Valencia

If you have feedback, suggestions, or questions about this post, please reach out to me on Twitter (@data_henrik), Mastodon (@data_henrik@mastodon.social), or LinkedIn.