TechXchange (Las Vegas)
2024-10-21 - 2024-10-24
This year’s IBM’s TechXchange Conference takes place on October 21-24 at the Mandalay Bay – Las Vegas. More than 5,000 technical attendees will be on-site to engage, network and attend the more than 1,000 sessions, demos, instructor-led labs and roadmap discussions.
In addition to our Community Day activities, which can be found here, there are a few Open Mainframe Project-related sessions. Add these sessions directly to your IBM TechXchange Agenda here.

Tuesday, October 22 at 04:30 pm – 05:15 pm PDT
AMA: What’s NEW in OpenTelemetry on IBM Z and IBM LinuxONE [3762]

OpenTelemetry is a vendor-agnostic, open-source project with the aim to enable an effective observability by making high quality telemetry data from any source available to any target. Research among customers shows that mainframe integration is a mandatory requirement for observability of core business applications. Ideal for IT architects, Site Reliability Engineers and mainframe experts, in this AMA we will discuss fundamentals of this topic and explore best practices for modernizing mainframe observability with OpenTelemetry.

Rudiger Schulze, IBM
Thursday, October 24 at 10:00 am – 11:00 am PDT

Collaboration of Linux Distributions on the Mainframe – A Benefit for you & all Linux Distributions [2543]

Debian, openSUSE and Fedora have founded together the Linux Distributions Working Group at the Open Mainframe Project for achieving better support for the mainframe architecture s390x and collaboration for providing solutions. That has been such success, that SUSE, Red Hat, Canonical (Ubuntu), AlmaLinux and Rocky Linux have joint also. The question has popped up, whether we should be open only for all Linux Distributions or should we include also important upstream projects in our Linux Distributions Working Group. We have started also to share our automated test suites for openQA. In this presentation I will represent the existing benefit for all Linux distributions and the impact for you as customers with the value of functionality and support.

Sarah Julia Kriesch, Accenture

To learn more about the event, visit the main event website: https://www.ibm.com/community/ibm-techxchange-conference/.
To register and use Open Mainframe Project’s 30% discount, register with this link: https://ibm.co/3KbeObO
Open Mainframe Project is planning the content for October 21 as it pertains to the Community Day. The Linux Foundation and Open Mainframe Project are not managing TechXchange. The main TechXchange event is planned and managed by IBM.

IBM Z Day Special Edition (Virtual)
2025-04-08
Something BIG is coming! Join us for IBM Z Day: Special Edition on April 8 to connect, learn, and discover the latest in mainframe innovation.

Engage with industry experts as they share their knowledge, explore groundbreaking advancements, and dive deeper into the technology that powers the world’s economy— always Open | On | Secure.

Accelerate your digital transformation journey with 150+ speakers across 3 immersive technical tracks—IBM zNext, AI & Data, and App Dev & IT Ops. This event will provide you with actionable insights to drive innovation within your organization.

Register Today! https://ibm.biz/ibmzday2025-se

Community Day at TechXchange (Orlando, Florida)
2025-10-06
The Open Mainframe Project will again be featured as part of IBM TechXchange’s Community Day, which will be held on October 6, the first day of the event. Last year, Open Mainframe had record-breaking attendance and a packed agenda highlighting open source and projects including Zowe, Galassa, Mentorship, Mainframe Open Education, COBOL Programming Course, Feilong, Software Discovery Tool, zopen Community and more.
Community Day (Monday, October 6) Schedule

Transforming z/OS Software Management with an Open-First Approach Using Ansible and Zowe
1:30-2:15pm | Room 1 | Jan Prihoda and Rose Sakach (Broadcom)
How to Contribute to Linux on the Mainframe
1:30-2:15pm | Room 2 | Sarah Julia Kriesch (Kyndryl) and Elizabeth Joseph (IBM)
CBT Tape – The Treasure Trove of Mainframe Utilities
2:15-3:00pm | Room 1 | Joe Winchester (IBM) and Reg Harbeck (Mainframe Analytics)
Galasa – Scaling Integration Testing for the Enterprise
2:15-2:35pm | Room 2 | Louisa Denly (IBM)
Skill Up! Mainframe Learning for All
2:40-3:00pm | Room 2 | Kathleen Nordstrom (Broadcom)
Unlock the Full Potential of Zowe Explorer – Essential Tips and Tricks AND What Mainframe Connection Protocols (FTP, SSH, or z/OSMF) Can I use for Zowe Clients?
3:30-4:00pm | Room 1 | Dan Kelosky (Broadcom)
Mastering Mainframe Architectures – Transaction Processing on z/OS AND OpenTelemetry on Mainframe SIG: Progress Updates
3:30-4:00pm | Room 2 | Rudiger Schulze (IBM)
Take your mainframe career to a new level by contributing to Zowe
4:15-5:00pm | Room 1 | Dan Kelosky (Broadcom) and Rose Sakach (Broadcom)
Zelma – z/VM and Linux Modern Administration
4:15-5:00pm | Room 2 | Mike MacIsaac (Sine Nomine Associates)
From Punch Cards to VS Code
4:15-5:00pm | Room 1 | Wolfram Greis (European Mainframe Academy)
A not-to-technical deep dive into Feilong
5:15-6:00pm | Room 2 | Aazam Thakur (Open Mainframe Project Ambassador) and Mike Friessenger (SUSE)

Additional Details
To learn more about these presentations or to add these to your schedule in the Session Catalog – click here.
There will be other Open Mainframe Project sessions and activities at TechXchange. For more details, click here.
Register for Community Day for free using the Open Mainframe code here. (This only registers you for Community Day on Monday, October 6. It does not give you access to the rest of the IBM TechXchange conference.)
Register with the Open Mainframe Project code and link for a 30% discount on the TechXchange conference here.
Open Mainframe Project is planning the content for October 6 as it pertains to the Community Day or Pre-Conference Day. The Linux Foundation and Open Mainframe Project are not managing TechXchange. The main TechXchange event is planned and managed by IBM. Learn more about TechXchange here. If you have questions, please email techxchange@openmainframeproject.org.
