COMMON EUROPE CONGRESS 2025: Full Schedule

WELCOME TO COMMON EUROPE CONGRESS 2025

Common Europe, in collaboration with Common Sweden, is delighted to be holding its annual flagship event, Common Europe Congress, in the friendly city of Gothenburg offering extensive education, networking and relaxation opportunities.

You will be able to validate your attendance (Check-In to sessions) using your personal schedule.

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10:40 CEST

SEB Power Briefing

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST

12 - R7

Speakers

Wennie Allen

Executive Director of Product Management, IBM Power, IBM

Wennie Allen is the Executive Director of Product Management for IBM Power. Wennie oversees teams responsible for developing and delivering impactful Power products and offerings, including the Power platform, IBM i, and AIX. She plays a pivotal role in shaping the future of IBM Power, driving... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST
12 - R7

10:40 CEST

Should I stay or should I go

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST

13 - Expo Stage

AI offers the opportunity to modernize legacy code, enhancing its performance and maintainability. However, it also presents the possibility of migrating away from the current platform. This raises an important question: should you invest in revitalizing your existing environment, or explore new horizons by transitioning to a different platform? The decision hinges on your long-term goals, the needs of your business, and the value each option brings. So, should you stay and optimize or take the leap and go? Or in The Clash words: "This indecision's bugging me If you don't want me, set me free"

Speakers

Juan Manuel Alcudia

President, IBM Champion, Common Europe

I am a long-time IBM i and Power Systems professional, currently serving as President of Common Europe as well as an IBM Champion. Throughout my career, I have worked extensively on IBM infrastructure, modernization, performance, and business development, always with a strong focus... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST
13 - Expo Stage

IBM i

10:40 CEST

IBM Power & IBM i Explained

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST

14 - R5/R6

Curious about the greatest business application platform on earth?
Not just that I will go through the "concept", the strange vocabulary you will hear talking to the more senior persons but also learn more about truly unique features that the rest of the IT industry just drooling after.

Speakers

Torbjörn Appehl

Vice President for Common Europe, Common Europe & LOAD System

IBM Champion for Power since 2016, love the IBM i platform since my very first contact with it in 1997. Today I am the CEO for Load System in Sweden. An IBM business partner with focus on IBM Power, IBM Storage, IBM Z and LinuxONE.
CEO for Load System AB in Sweden since January 20... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 10:40 - 11:40 CEST
14 - R5/R6

IBM i Div.

11:50 CEST

Pedab Power Briefing

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST

12 - R7

Speakers

Wennie Allen

Executive Director of Product Management, IBM Power, IBM

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST
12 - R7

11:50 CEST

Hackathon 2024 winner - Solution described

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST

13 - Expo Stage

In 2024 Common Europe launched a Hackathon, inviting teams to find solutions to several set challenges.
Easi emerged as the winner with their visitor registration application developed for the IBM i platform. The application stood out for its modern approach to visitor management while leveraging the robust capabilities of the IBM i system. The team demonstrated skills in combining traditional IBM i strengths with contemporary user interface design, making visitor registration both efficient and user-friendly. Their solution showcased the continued relevance of IBM i in modern business applications, particularly in enterprise scenarios. The project’s success highlighted how the IBM i platform can be used to create cutting-edge applications that meet today’s business needs while maintaining the security and reliability the platform is known for.

Speakers

Johannes Heirman

Software Engineer, EASI

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST
13 - Expo Stage

IBM i

11:50 CEST

Basics of SQL Tables, Indexes, and Views

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST

14 - R5/R6

In this session, we are going to talk about how to create SQL tables, indexes, and views, so you can go home and do it yourself. Please bring your laptop if you would like to get some hands-on experience.

Speakers

Sven Jansson

Senior developer, Agria Djuförsäkring

I have worked on the IBM i platform since 1995. My technical roles include developer, analyst, database specialist, application security, and communications. I also worked on IBMz for a few years, and I serve on the COMMON Sweden board. I'm a curious person who always wants to learn... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 11:50 - 12:50 CEST
14 - R5/R6

IBM i App Dev

13:40 CEST

World Café - The Gender Bug in Tech: Can we fix it together?

Tuesday June 3, 2025 13:40 - 14:40 CEST

13 - Expo Stage

Diversity makes teams better – this is especially true in IT. But women are still underrepresented in technical professions. In this interactive session, Heidi and Ann-Kathrin will combine personal experiences and scientific findings: Why is diversity worthwhile? What skills does IT really need? And what are the myths we finally need to overcome?
In an open World Café roundtable, we will discuss exciting ideas with a clear goal: to inspire men and women alike to make the future of IT more diverse.
Join us – whether you are a career starter, a professional, or a manager!

Speakers

Ann-Kathrin Stückl

UI/UX Product & Strategy Consultant, PKS Software GmbH

I build bridges between people and generations and break down barriers between them. I analyse and create applications that precisely meet the needs of the people who actually use them and support them in their work. To do this, I talk to users as equals, get to know their working... Read More →

Heidi Schmidt

CEO, PKS Software GmbH

Women in Tech since 1996
Loving software development and the sustainability aspects on IBM i and IBM Z
unconditional respect, the miracle of appreciation and ayurveda have accompanied my life since 1972

mother of two sons and lucky to live in partnership with a wonderful photo-enthusiast in the south of Germany, closed to the lake of constanze and the mountains... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 13:40 - 14:40 CEST
13 - Expo Stage

Personal Development

15:00 CEST

The optimal maintenance approach for your Power environment

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST

12 - R7

Join in for a discussion on the capabilities from IBM Technology Lifecycle Services. How we leverage AI enhanced support both for self-service and for faster resolution times. How to leverage the call home capabilities and how that functionality can ensure your system is maintained seamlessly with minimal downtime. We will open up the floor for a discussion on committed service levels, the benefits of a technical account manager and anything else you would like to discuss and highlight around IBM maintenance.

Speakers

Denis Masic

IBM

My original formal background is computer science, so worked as a SW engineer, but at some point in my career I've moved to management and also completed an MBA.
Within IBM I made my career out of maintenance services business (aka TLS), currently responsible for Premium support d... Read More →

Sponsor speakers

Lisa Stampe

Leader of Power Support Product Management, IBM

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST
12 - R7

15:00 CEST

Sponsor session: Control all your IBM i applications and systems from your current monitoring solution, extremely easily!

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST

06 - R17

Not happy with the IBM i monitoring level of your existing tool such as Nagios, PRTG, SolarWinds, Zabbix, etc ?
In addition, IBM recently stopped the support of their Nagios plugin for IBM i and said that Control for i is the recommended replacement.

Discover how “Control for i” adds instantly 200 ‘Plug & Play’ IBM i checks and how your tool is enhanced without any development required.

If you already know Control for I, come to see what’s new in the version 4.

You will also acquire knowledge on how it is easy to automate answers or trigger a program to well-known messages in MSGQ or System Log.

Learn how you will become more proactive: with high accuracy probes you are alerted of problems before they become critical; this improves the service continuity and reduces emergency response costs).
Note: “Control for i” is compatible with 90% of most commonly used monitoring tools.

Sponsor speakers

Pascal Ruckebusch

Président, Technical Director, M81

Pascal Ruckebusch adopted IBM i at the exact beginning of AS/400, three decades ago, and never left it … Pascal's experience on IBM i covers system and application development, training and operations. Twice CTO of 2 major IBM business partners in France, his technical skills and... Read More →

Sponsors

M81

M81 is a company specialized in system software running on IBM i operating system (also known as OS/400 or i5/OS), to help IT teams to better manage their systems.
The products made by M81 address complex areas, but are very simple to implement and IT teams can work with them very... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST
06 - R17

Solution provider

15:00 CEST

Sponsor session: IBM i and the SOC: Closing Your Business-Critical Security Blind Spot

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST

02 - F4/F5

What if your most critical business assets – your IBM i systems – are operating in a profound blind spot? The silent workhorse behind your ERP, finance, banking or logistics applications, the IBM i presents unique challenges for security visibility, lacking the straightforward syslog integrations that are built into other operating systems.

Join Fortra, an IBM authority since the days of the System/38 and developers of the Powertech suite of IBM i security solutions, to find out how to fix this blind spot. In this session, we'll expose the technological and human factors that cause IBM i systems to remain largely unseen by corporate SIEMs and how its rich security audit journal – a goldmine of critical intelligence – remains largely untapped. Discover how cryptic IBM i events can be performed into actionable, human-readable input for your organization’s Security Operations team. Learn how smart filtering can reduce noise, significantly save on SIEM costs, and provide the crucial, continuous visibility your risk team needs.

This isn't just about sending logs; it's about securing your business continuity and ensuring that your most valuable data is truly protected. Close the IBM i security blind spot before it becomes your organization's next major incident.

Sponsor speakers

Kurt Thomas

Senior System Engineer, HelpSystems

Kurt Thomas, CISSP, works with organizations all over the world to help them get the most out of their IBM Power ecosystem. His interests range from cybersecurity, data privacy, and operating systems to artificial intelligence. Kurt is Technical Product Manager for a number of Fortra's... Read More →

Sponsors

Fortra

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST
02 - F4/F5

Solution provider

15:00 CEST

Sponsor session: Our successes with rejuvenation

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST

04 - F2

Sponsor speakers

P-A Freiholtz

CEO, Apper

Sponsors

Apper

Our vision is to be the top-of-mind player in business-critical IT in the Nordic region, where IBM is the largest and most strategically important partner.
To achieve our goal, we offer services and solutions in the following business areas:
IBM i / IBM PowerSupply Chain Management, EDI and Digital Business CommunicationPoint of Sale solutionsBusiness systems, ERP... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:00 - 15:25 CEST
04 - F2

Solution provider

15:35 CEST

SAP Rise Overview

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:35 - 16:35 CEST

12 - R7

Speakers

Jonas Ullberg

VP Power and Cloud Global Sales, IBM Technology Sales

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:35 - 16:35 CEST
12 - R7

15:35 CEST

MariaDB Server and MariaDB MaxScale - Enterprise class database technology for IBM Power

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:35 - 16:35 CEST

14 - R5/R6

MariaDB Server is very popular database for any type of workload, and MariaDB Enterprise Server is the Enterprise database system that builds on this to deliver an Enterprise class database system which together with MariaDB MaxScale provides High Availability, Scalability and world class support and services, all available on the IBM Power platform. In this talk I will cover some of the foundations of MariaDB Enterprise Server and MariaDB MaxScale and what features are provided. There are also many new features in MariaDB Enterprise Server, such as Vector search for AI applications, enhanced JSON support and more, which will be covered.
One particular feature of MariaDB will be coverered in more detail, the ease of migrating from other database systems to MariaDB, in particular Oracle.

Speakers

Anders Karlsson

Principal Sales Engineer, MariaDB

Database Sales Engineer with more than 40 years experience from relational databases. Develops tools and utilities and official MariaDB contributor, assistst in MariaDB implementations, specialized in database migrations. Has worked with many different relational database systems... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:35 - 16:35 CEST
14 - R5/R6

AIX/Linux

15:35 CEST

Meet the LUG, COMMON and Common Europe

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:35 - 16:35 CEST

13 - Expo Stage

Join us in a panel discussion where the different user groups are presented, what we do, why we are important for the community and IBM.

Speakers

Torbjörn Appehl

Vice President for Common Europe, Common Europe & LOAD System

Manzoor Siddiqui

Executive Director, COMMON

Manzoor Siddiqui is the Executive Director of COMMON. He oversees all Operations for the organization, and has responsibility and oversight of all areas and Staff. He joined COMMON in 2006, and has over 30 years of multi-disciplinary business, marketing and IT experience across a broad range of industri... Read More →

Floyd Del Muro

Board President, COMMON

Juan Manuel Alcudia

President, IBM Champion, Common Europe

Dave Wiseman

The Large User Group

Steven Wolk

CTO, PC Richard & Son

Steven Wolk is the CTO for PC Richard & Son. Founded in 1909, PC Richard is a family owned and operated chain of over 65 appliance, electronics, and mattress superstores located throughout NY, NJ, CT, and PA. Steve's deep background in retail began on the sales floor while in college... Read More →

Tuesday June 3, 2025 15:35 - 16:35 CEST
13 - Expo Stage

IBM i

16:45 CEST

Latest game-changers in the MariaDB Server - Catalogs and Vectors"MariaDB Server continues to redefine database performance and efficiency with groundbreaking features in its latest Long-Term Support (LTS) releases.

Tuesday June 3, 2025 16:45 - 17:45 CEST

08 - R11/R12

With MariaDB Server 11.8 LTS, MariaDB Vector introduces advanced vector search capabilities, empowering applications with real-time analytics, superior semantic search, and efficient AI-driven functionalities directly within the database.Looking ahead, the upcoming MariaDB Server LTS release will feature MariaDB Catalogs, a robust multi-tenancy solution tailored specifically for cloud and SaaS providers. MariaDB Catalogs optimizes hardware utilization through true isolation between tenants, significantly enhancing resource efficiency and reducing overall infrastructure costs. By consolidating workloads securely within a single server instance, service providers can dramatically lower their total cost of ownership while ensuring exceptional performance and scalability.

By Monti Widenius

Speakers