RIP: MQ Technical Conference

Capitalware Inc. is a small software company specializing in IBM MQ. Capitalware used to be a vendor at IBM’s Transaction and Messaging Technical Conferences (T&M Conference). IBM merged several conferences including the T&M Conference into Impact 2007. I went as a vendor to Impact 2007 but found that most attendees were not involved in MQ. So, I decided that it would be the last conference I would attend as a vendor. I starting bugging IBM PartnerWorld, marketing and education people to bring back IBM’s T&M conference. This went on for 6 years with IBM people always saying “that is not the direction we are going in”.

So, in earlier 2013, after many years of frustration, I decided to stick my neck out and create MQ Technical Conference (MQTC). I wanted a technical conference to be focused on IBM MQ (plus IBM products that use MQ) and thought 3 days was a good length. Since, my wife and I have 5 kids, I decided the conference should be at a family-friendly hotel/resort. I had already been to many conferences at Kalahari Resorts in Sandusky, Ohio, so decided it was a good location for MQTC. When I signed the contract with Kalahari Resorts, I had to personally guarantee to pay them $24,000 USD (for food and facilities) regardless if anyone showed up or not (plus penalties for minimum room guarantee). I was pretty nervous about it and hoped attendees would show up.

It is a lot of work to create a conference, coordinate with vendors, food, audio/video, scheduling of sessions, etc. but I always enjoyed the conference and I believe most attendees found it valuable.

Last year, Ray Daniel of IBM came to MQTC v2.0.1.8 as part of IBM sponsorship team. He so enjoyed the conference that he decided IBM needed to create its own conference modeled after MQTC. He created a 3-day technical conference called Integration Technical Conference (ITC). Like MQTC, it will have 5 session rooms, like MQTC, it will be heavy into IBM MQ and like MQTC, it will be at a family-friendly venue. The big difference, between ITC and MQTC is that ITC will be FREE to attend. Last year, MQTC v2.0.1.8 costs more than $65,000 USD and I cannot possibly offer a free conference.

Therefore, I have decided to suspend MQTC as IBM now offers a conference for MQ users which is free.

I do hope that Ray Daniel continues the tradition of having the cheesecake bar and ice-cream social at ITC. 🙂

I would like to thank:

Thank you.

Finally, I would like to especially thank T.Rob Wyatt for his support and help with MQTC.

Regards,
Roger Lacroix
Capitalware Inc.

P.S. I would like to hear feedback from ITC attendees on core and non-code MQ sessions.