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General
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Track 1
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Track 2
We would like to extend a big thank you to everyone who attended the conference, in-person or remote. We offer day one “AI Day at the Conference” keynote presentations available to stream anytime, open to the public.
If you attended the conference in-person or remote, you have full access to session videos and materials on the secure conference sessions page. If you attended and haven’t received a password yet, send an email request here.
Tuesday, October 15 – General Sessions
Kickoffs and Roadmaps, followed by a special event Tuesday Evening.
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2:00PM – 3:00PM
Registration
Registration/Hospitality Desk Open.
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3:00PM – 3:30PM
Welcome / Sponsor Introductions
Roger Griffith, President, Plex/2E User Community wiil kick off the conference. Conference Sponsors will be introduced, and each will give a short intro about their respective companies and how their technologies can help the CA Plex/2E community.
Moderators Roger Griffith, Mark O’Brien
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3:30PM – 4:30PM
IBM Keynote: IBM i, AI, and the World of Modern Development
IBM i is a truly amazing platform. It started life as AS/400 over 36 years ago, and with its visionary architecture and an eye to the future continues to meet and often exceed the needs of our user community. With the world of AI running headlong toward us, what are we to do? For the IBM i development team, we are actively embracing AI to help our users take advantage of this amazing technology while continuing to honor the pillars this platform has known all these years: security, reliability, cost performance and future-proofing the core business applications your business depends on.
Tim Rowe
STSM – Application Development and Systems Management
IBM i ISV Council
IBM i Development Lab
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4:30PM – 4:45PM
Break
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4:45PM – 5:45PM
Microsoft Keynote: Microsoft and the CoPilot Revolution
Discover the landscape of conversational AI solutions with Microsoft’s CoPilot offerings in this comprehensive session. We’ll start with an in-depth look at CoPilot for Microsoft 365, Microsoft’s flagship AI experience that is transforming how users interact with everyday applications. Explore how you can extend M365 CoPilot to meet custom scenarios, tailoring its capabilities to fit specific business needs.
We’ll also delve into the new frontier of low-code AI solutions, made possible through CoPilot Studio and the Power Platform. These tools open up AI development to a broader audience, empowering users of all technical backgrounds to build and deploy conversational AI without deep coding expertise.
Finally, we will address the professional developer’s perspective, focusing on the engineering considerations for building CoPilots from the ground up. Learn best practices for designing robust, scalable, and secure AI solutions that align with Microsoft’s ecosystem.
Richard DiZerega
Principal Engineering Lead
Microsoft
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6:00PM – 8:00PM
Opening Reception
Join the community for a game of golf at Top Golf’s state of the art golfing facility. Food and drinks will be provided.
Wednesday October 16th – Hands On Sessions
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8:30AM – 9:00AM
Registration
Registration/Hospitality Desk Open
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9:00AM to 10:00AM
Modernization Roundtable
Several executives and architects will discuss how they modernized their legacy applications developed in CA 2E, CA Plex, and other languages. This will be an interactive discussion – bring your own modernization experiences and questions to this group.
Moderators: Roger Griffith, Mark O’Brien
Speakers: JP Gallo, A&I, John Rhodes, Don Estes, Alexandre Levis
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10:00AM – 10:15AM
Coffee Break
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10:15AM – 11:15AM
Midrange Dynamics ALM
Learn how to embrace DevOps and CI/CD pipelines while continuing to support your existing CA 2E applications with MDChange. Seamlessly integrate both legacy CA 2E models and new applications using a unified set of tools.
MDChange not only maintains support for your CA 2E models but also facilitates the expansion and refactoring of your applications. This enables you to leverage modern techniques such as ILE, advanced SQL strategies, and any other languages supported on IBM i, whether they are stored in the IFS or a Git repository.
Mary Langen
Vice President, Midrange Dynamics North America
President, Northeast User Groups Conference
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10:15AM – 11:15AM
CA Plex 7.3
Broadcom has released the first new version of CA Plex since 2016. Learn about the latest features and added support in CA Plex 7.3.
CA Plex 7.3. highlights include:
- Visual Studio 2022 support for C++
- .NET Framework 4.8 support for C#
- Ability to save model configurations for individual developers
- VBScript deprecation/modernization techniques
- CM WebClient and Matchpoint latest features
Speakers Andrew Leggett, Eric Giron
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11:15AM – 12:15AM
CA 2E Show and Tell
Most of the users in the 2E community have found ways to give their 2E applications unique features outside of what 2E offers at face value. We look at several customer applications – bring your questions.
Moderators Mark Schroeder, Maya Najjar
T2
11:15AM – 12:15AM
Sodisa – Integrating AI with applications created in CA Plex
In this session we will present the Use of Artificial Intelligence Technology, integrated with applications developed with CA Plex / Web Client applied to Finance, Agribusiness and Education Solutions.
– Process automation
– Virtual Assistants
– Results projection
– Managing images for facial recognition
– Biometrics validation.
Ninoska Fernandez
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12:15 – 1:30PM
Lunch – Trivia
Join us for lunch and an exciting game of CA Plex, CA 2E, and IBM AS/400 trivia.
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1:30PM – 2:30PM
Feralloy RPG to COBOL
Join us as we discuss our journey to refactor our in-house application. Includes moving from DDS to DDL, Cobol to RPGLE, enforcing coding/design standards, using program specifications and best practices.
Speaker Eamonn Foley
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1:30PM – 2:30PM
Barreau du Quebec-Ai/Plex
To accelerate our transformation, Barreau du Québec has investigated the potential of generative AI to extract our business rules from our CA Plex systems. We will share the approach we’ve taken and the results we’ve achieved.
Speaker Alexandre Levis
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2:30PM – 3:30PM
CM evolveIT
Join our webinar to explore the challenges of maintaining and modernizing legacy systems like CA 2E (Synon) and CA Plex. Learn how new AI-driven RAG automation with MetaTX can streamline transformation processes, along with success stories from organizations that have modernized their tech stack.
Speakers Roger Hammer, Kiyoshi Terasawa
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2:30PM – 3:30PM
A&I Test Data Manager
A&I Solutions will discuss Broadcom’s Test Data Manager (TDM). TDM helps organizations deliver test data faster, create synthetic test data from scratch, shorten test cycles from weeks to days, mask sensitive data, and improve compliance. TDM supports all major DB management systems and platforms, including DB2 for i and SQL Server.
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3:30PM – 4:30PM
Sponsor Sessions – Remain Software
Modernizing CA 2E DevOps: Integrating Gravity, TD/OMS, and Octo for Enhanced Visibility and Workflow
This session demonstrates how to leverage modern DevOps tools and practices within a CA 2E environment, focusing on improving collaboration between development and operations teams while enhancing visibility across the entire software lifecycle. We’ll walk through a practical workflow that integrates Gravity ticketing, TD/OMS task management, and Octo’s Kanban capabilities to create a seamless DevOps process for CA 2E applications in 2024.
Key topics covered:
- Creating and linking Gravity tickets to TD/OMS tasks for unified tracking
- Utilizing XREF and Octo XREF for comprehensive impact analysis
- Demonstrating table and function creation within the integrated workflow
- Leveraging Octo Kanban for visual task promotion and status updates
- Implementing safe rollback procedures for promotions using the modern toolset of TD/OMS and Octo
Attendees will gain insights into:
- Streamlining communication between ops and development teams
- Improving traceability from initial request to production deployment
- Enhancing visibility into project status and bottlenecks
- Modernizing CA 2E processes without sacrificing existing investments
- Managing risks through efficient promotion and rollback capabilities
- This demonstration will provide practical techniques for CA 2E shops looking to adopt DevOps best practices and improve overall efficiency in their software delivery pipeline, with a specific focus on utilizing Gravity as the primary ticketing system and ensuring robust promotion management.
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3:30PM – 4:30PM
Sponsor Sessions – Sodisa
Deploying CA Plex Application as a Service on Azure
SODISA explains how a solution developed in CA Plex was set up, using Azure, and serving more than 40 companies. How AI and facial recognition services were integrated
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4:30PM – 5:30PM
CA 2E Tips and Techniques
There are many obscure features in 2E that are not documented, but in many cases known to many in the 2E Community. Most of these are only known to the 2E Community by word of mouth, and many of these might only be known by one person. Some of these are so powerful, and beneficial, you will wish you had known them decades ago. This session will attempt to gather as many of these tips and techniques as possible and share them with the 2E Community by your fellow attendees.
T2
4:30PM – 5:30PM
CA Plex Tips and Techniques
There are many obscure features in Plex and WebClient that are not well documented, but in many cases known to many in the Plex Community. Most of these are only known to the Plex Community by word of mouth, and many of these might only be known by one person (I bet I can show you one that nobody else is aware of). Some of these are so powerful, and beneficial, you will wish you had known them decades ago. This session will attempt to gather as many of these tips and techniques as possible and share them with the Plex Community.
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7:00PM – 9:00PM
Special Event
Punch bowl social
11310 Domain Dr Suite 100, Austin, TX 78758
Thursday October 17th: Hand-On Labs
Deep dive Thursday.
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9:30AM – 11:30AM
Basics Microsoft Azure Open AI Studio
This workshop will demonstrate how to incorporate Microsoft Azure Open AI Studio to assist in customizing user interface interaction in your existing web application. You will learn how to set up an Azure AI instance and configure it for use in business applications.
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9:30AM – 11:30AM
2E Modernization
This workship will share our approach to reimplementing your 2E legacy application while keeping the business specific capabilities and bringing new technoligies with CA Plex and Webclient. You will get some hands on experience with the modernized functions.
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11:30PM – 12:30PM
Lunch
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12:30PM – 2:30PM
Advanced Microsoft Azure Open AI Studio
This workshop demonstrate AI usage in a few real scenarios. We share our experience and steps to achieve the goal that including design, prompt amd RAG. We hope AI becomes more useful than just using AI chat service on Browser after this workshop.
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12:30PM – 2:30PM
Plex Modernization
In this workshop we’ll be expanding Plex Java/WebClient applications with third-party libraries, and introduce a new transformation technique for refactoring Plex applications.
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2:30PM – 3:00PM
Post Conference
Wrap up and farewell.