By Annette Brooks, SHARE IBM Liaison
SHARE Fort Worth is here and I couldn’t be more excited! My name is Annette Brooks and I have the great joy of serving as the IBM Liaison to the SHARE Board. In this role, I assist in the strategic planning and direction for SHARE and its partnership with IBM.
Throughout my IBM career, I’ve had an opportunity to participate in multiple SHARE events and webinars. It has been encouraging to watch SHARE evolve in its main tenets of “Educate. Network. Influence.” SHARE provides relevant education for the enterprise IT community and an opportunity for participants to network and influence technical solutions and deliverables.
SHARE has continued to reinvent itself to meet the evolving needs of its members. It has been purposeful in engaging with people who have been longtime members of the SHARE community, and also attracting new participants. With so many IT institutions facing the challenge of maintaining sufficient mainframe skills, it is timely that we have started to see the “faces of SHARE” also include people newer to the platform. One example is the addition of the Women in IT focus, which has sparked a new energy within the conference.
Throughout the years, IBM’s strategic partnership with SHARE has been invaluable to the SHARE community and to IBM. This partnership is a year-round commitment that spans beyond pure dollars and the twice-yearly conference. IBM sends hundreds of employees to the conference, where they serve as volunteers and presenters for hundreds of sessions.
IBM also hosts a “Meet the Developers Day” at many SHARE events (typically at the SHARE Technology Expo), sending a busload of developers from a nearby lab to engage with clients. This has been a win/win for both SHARE members and IBM, each having an opportunity to gain insight to better shape their technical direction.
Throughout the year, IBMers lead and participate in SHARE webinars to allow for ongoing product education and to receive feedback from clients and vendor partners. For SHARE Fort Worth, I had the awesome opportunity to secure the Tuesday morning keynote speakers. We are pleased to have Mark Figley and Brain Gracely provide insight into IBM/Red Hat synergy through their keynote titled, Can the Rest of Application Development Catch Up to the Importance of the Mainframe? This promises to be a highly informative session that you don’t want to miss!
In the latter part of 2019, SHARE announced a new strategic partner, Broadcom. We welcome Broadcom in joining us as a SHARE strategic partner. Having both IBM and Broadcom participate in this capacity helps to drive the broader strategy forward and brings an even greater value to the entire SHARE community.
I look forward to connecting with you at SHARE Fort Worth — the place where mainframe enthusiasts unite!