The GSE UK Region Conference is an annual event which takes place in November for three days, generally in the Midlands. This annual event is organised by the GSE Conference Committee which is comprised of volunteers.
There are several keynote and plenary sessions and a large number of subject streams, each of which covers a specific area of interest. The majority of the streams are aligned to one of the regular working groups and the agenda for the stream is coordinated by the committee of that working group. In addition, there are several non-working group aligned streams and workshops organised by the central conference committee which also coordinates the overall conference agenda.
Where possible ideas and suggestions from participants attending the previous conference are used to form the agenda for the following year’s event. Topics may also be received from the various GSE Working Groups or may be based on announcements from IBM and other vendors.
The conference provides over 200 hours of technical training from IBM, other vendors and most importantly from GSE members themselves. Plenty of time is set aside to allow for networking with speakers, vendors and delegates during breaks and the evening receptions and dinners.
Each year there is a large conference exhibition with stands from many companies who build and sell solutions relevant to the membership. The income from this exhibition and associated sponsorship enables GSE to offer five free places plus one or more trainee places per member company. It also allows GSE to charge very reasonable rates to other delegates attending the conference.
GSE works with educational establishments to encourage students to attend, as everyone is acutely aware of the increasing skills shortage in the z/os industry. Students are offered free places. The conference includes a whole stream dedicated to people new to the platform.
The 2018 national conference attracted 486 delegates. There were 5 keynotes, 15 streams comprising 168 sessions of technical education.
Please register using the "Registration" menu link above.
The basic conference fees for 2019 remain at the 2018 rate inclusive of VAT for GSE members with a slight increase for non-members and are as follows:-
Delegates from GSE member companies (see below) £150 per day
Delegates from other non-member companies £220 per day
There is a 20% discount to these rate for registrations made during the early bird period (up to and including October 7th) and there will be a £36 admin surcharge (inc. VAT) for late registrations made after the Friday before the conference (November 1st).
Each UK GSE member company is entitled to send up to 5 delegates and one or more bone-fide trainees FREE OF CHARGE provided they register during the early bird period. Additional delegates will be charged at the prevailing member rate. Voucher codes are issued to each member company for this purpose.
After the end of the early bird period vouchers may still be used up to one week prior to the conference (Tuesday October 29th) however they will be charged at HALF the relevant rate, i.e. £75 per day inc. VAT. Vouchers purchased as a conference package and those provided to vendors participating in the exhibition will be free of charge up until the weekend before the conference when the late fee of £36 will apply.
Changes or cancellations to your registration can be made free of charge during the Early Bird period. Any changes you want made after this time will incur an admin fee of £10.
The following table shows the fees per day with and without VAT at 20% for each category of delegate and date range...
The GSE UK Conference Package enables companies, be they members or non-members of GSE, to purchase discounted "bulk" attendance to the annual UK Conference.