I recently attended SHARE User Events with a very specific goal in mind: to learn about what was going on within disaster recovery from the standpoint of storage (Tape & Disk), security and replication. I had no idea just how huge SHARE was until actually getting there. SHARE provided me with a great deal of information on my primary topics of interest, and I was able to gain a whole lot more by leveraging the know-how of other attendees and IBM experts. Attending SHARE allowed me to expand my professional support community far more quickly and effectively than I otherwise could have.

Make no mistake: SHARE is all about outstanding educational sessions. But if you really want to maximize the value of your participation, you must take advantage of the free-flowing information sharing both in and out of the technical sessions.

To get the most out of SHARE, I would recommend starting an ongoing dialogue with the presenters during and after their sessions. Informally, SHARE is really an exceptional venue to interact with other IT professionals to find out what they’ve been learning and what they’ve been doing back at their shops. SHARE’s structure and culture are set up so that attendees can literally learn something every minute throughout the week.

Heading to SHARE I had a very important business issue that I was hoping to learn more about during that week. My organization was looking at a different replication process for our Disaster Recovery project. After sitting in on the XRC session and asking some specific questions, I returned to the office with the answers that led us to make an informed decision. This was one of the many highlights of the week, which also included learning about encryption processing using DFSMS and the Crypto card.

My manager was impressed with the accessibility of the IBM staff at SHARE. You really don’t experience that kind of access any other time. The direct feedback from IBM staffers on questions from my organization was truly refreshing. There is no communicating through email or playing phone tag. Those I most want to hear from – people that develop the applications and hardware we use on a daily basis – were available all week. This was especially valuable when you consider that when I returned to the office, much of the information gained from the IBMers influenced our ideas as we looked at new tape technologies.

I definitely plan to attend SHARE in the future. There is no way of knowing what business issues or questions will arise for my organization in the coming year. However, I am certain that SHARE will provide the guidance and education necessary for us to implement smart, strategic plans that will have long-term benefits our organization.

If you would like to share your experience, please contact Megan Price at mprice@share.org