GET IN TOUCH
| Stream | Session | Presentation Title | Speaker | Company | Workgroup | Room | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Keynote: | Conference Opening | Leanne Wilson | Vertali Limited | 09:30 - 09:45 | ||||
15 Minute Break
09:45 -
10:00
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1A | Making Your Early-Career Impact in the Mainframe Community | Nishka Sardar | Vertali Limited | WAVEZ 101 | VR1 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2A | SDSF Hidden Treasures | Rob Scott | Rocket Software UK Ltd | WAVEZ 102 | VR2 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3A | What's new in CICS TS 6.3? | Jenny He | CICS | VR3 | 10:00 - 10:45 | ||
| Virtual Room 4 | 4A | AI for the Modern Mainframe Network Engineer | Claire Connor | Geniez AI | Network Management | VR4 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7A | Ready Player One? | Roy Boxwell | Software Engineering GmbH | Db2 | VR7 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room 8 | 8A | THIS SESSION IS CANCELLED - Being Aware of Changes in z/OS 3.2 Sooner Rather than Later (April 2026 edition) | Shigeki Kimura | IBM Japan | LSWG | VR8 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9A | AI centric z/OS application development experiences with VS Code Agent Mode and MCP | Peter Haumer | IBM USA | AppDev | VR9 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room A | AA | Achieving Zero Trust In The Z Environment | Adnan Can | Consultant | Security Working Group | VR10 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
30 Minute Break
10:45 -
11:15
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1B | How do you make it go faster and use less resource? Doing performance on z/OS | Colin Paice | Consultant | WAVEZ 101 | VR1 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2B | Step-by-Step Automation: Regex, sed & VTL in z/OSMF Workflows | Pavel Zlatnik | Broadcom Mainframe Software | WAVEZ 102 | VR2 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3B | Mastering System Synergy: A Guide to Intelligent Region Grouping and Flow Analysis. | Rakesh kumar Singh | HCL Technologies | CICS | VR3 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4B | Encrypting connections to Db2 | Giovanni Creato | Broadcom Mainframe Software | Network Management | VR4 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5B | Measuring AS activity with SMF 30 | Danilo Gipponi | Inspired Solutions | Capacity & Performance | VR5 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6B | Impostor Syndrome - Are you good enough? | Niall Ashley | Vertali Limited | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR6 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7B | Db2 from the Inside Out: Directory, Catalog, Logs & BSDS Explained | Saurabh Pandey | BMC Software Ltd | Db2 | VR7 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 8 | 8B | Beyond the Batch: Unlocking Business Value from Sub-Second Analytics in the Streaming Era | Sai Kaushik Ponnekanti | Consultant | LSWG | VR8 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9B | Accelerating Mainframe Development with AI | Claire Connor | Geniez AI | AppDev | VR9 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room A | AB | Beyond the Surface: Tackling Mainframe Vulnerabilities with Strategy and Precision | Cynthia Overby | Rocket Software UK Ltd | Security Working Group | VR10 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
30 Minute Break
12:00 -
12:30
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1C | Behind the curtain: The journey of a problem from your report to our support | Sudha Dhanwada | IBM USA | WAVEZ 101 | VR1 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2C | Welcome to Z-City-A Street-Level Tour of the z/OS Virtual Storage Map | Aditya Srivastava | BMC Software Ltd | WAVEZ 102 | VR2 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3C | Latest update on security in CICS TS 6.3 | Mark Pocock | CICS | VR3 | 12:30 - 13:15 | ||
| Virtual Room 4 | 4C | TCPIP Security overview | Navya Ramanjulu | IBM USA | Network Management | VR4 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5C | Can we all share fairly? Detection and remediation of inter-LPAR performance impacts | Scott Chapman | EPS | Capacity & Performance | VR5 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6C | Neurodiversity and Z | Abi Bettle-Shaffer | IBM UK LTD. | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR6 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7C | CBT Tape Tools for DB2 | Klaudiusz Konieczka | Ensono | Db2 | VR7 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 8 | 8C | IBM Z Cyber Vault Explained - Soup to Nuts and Nose to Tail | Nathan Brice | LSWG | VR8 | 12:30 - 13:15 | ||
| Virtual Room 9 | 9C | Automate the heck out of every LPAR! | Bronwyn Davies | PopUp Mainframe Ltd. | AppDev | VR9 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room A | AC | Check Yourself Before You Wreck Yourself: Are You Prepared for a Cyber Attack? 2026 Edition | Thomas Conley | BMC Software Ltd | Security Working Group | VR10 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
30 Minute Break
13:15 -
13:45
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1D | Security is a War Game | Niall Ashley | Vertali Limited | WAVEZ 101 | VR1 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2D | Trust me I'm a certificate | Joe Winchester | Consultant | WAVEZ 102 | VR2 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3D | CICS Security Discovery | John Taylor | CICS | VR3 | 13:45 - 14:30 | ||
| Virtual Room 4 | 4D | IP Routing on z/OS Part 1: the basics | Edward Seidl | IBM USA | Network Management | VR4 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5D | Blending Art and Science: The Performance Top 10 | John Baker | IBM | Capacity & Performance | VR5 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6D | Training for Emerging Security Threats - An experienced based approach | Andy McCandless | Consultant | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR6 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7D | All About Db2 for z/OS Packages | Anna McKee | IBM | Db2 | VR7 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 8 | 8D | GDPS quality resiliency on LinuxOne? Yes, it’s possible | Steven Cook | IBM USA | LSWG | VR8 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9D | Bang for your zOS buck with Go | Mackenzie Malainey | IBM | AppDev | VR9 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room A | AD | Mainframes and the Dark Web - 2026 Reboot | Mark Wilson | GS-UK | Security Working Group | VR10 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
30 Minute Break
14:30 -
15:00
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1E | Db2 for z/OS 101: What you should know about data sharing! | Mark Rader | IBM USA | WAVEZ 101 | VR1 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2E | THIS SESSION IS CANCELLED ... ChatDb2 - Db2 AI Introduction | Bruno Mileu | ICU IT Services BV | WAVEZ 102 | VR2 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3E | (Primer to) The IBM Z Processor Optimization Primer | David Hutton | IBM USA | Capacity & Performance | VR3 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4E | IP Routing on z/OS Part 2: Dynamic routing and Cisco ACI integration | Edward Seidl | IBM USA | Network Management | VR4 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5E | What's New in DFSMS | Barbara McDonald | IBM USA | Storage | VR5 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6E | Integrating z/OS from an iPaaS? There’s webMethods in the madness! | Andrew Smithson | Hybrid Cloud | VR6 | 15:00 - 15:45 | ||
| Virtual Room 7 | 7E | Zcrafter - Claude code for the Mainframe | Victor Taiwo | Consultant | AI | VR7 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 8 | 8E | Career Toolkit Essentials: How Communities Shape Skills for the Future | Natalie Carrillo | Consultant | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR8 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9E | COBOL playbook for modernizing core business applications on z/OS | Chandni Dinani | IBM | AppDev | VR9 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room A | AE | Single Signon for zOS with Client Certificates | Colman O'CARROLL | Virtel | Security Working Group | VR10 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
30 Minute Break
15:45 -
16:15
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1F | Able baker to Zulu: What I wish I'd learnt at college about enterprise computing | Joe Winchester | Consultant | WAVEZ 101 | VR1 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2F | An IBM Champion’s Guide to Advocacy | Niall Ashley | Vertali Limited | WAVEZ 102 | VR2 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3F | Automating Mainframe Operations with REST APIs & Zowe CLI Plug-ins | Joshua Powell | Broadcom Mainframe Software | Open Mainframe Project | VR3 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4F | The Next Generation z/OS User Experience | Fiona King | IBM | New Technologies | VR4 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5F | Improve your RTO & RPO with a multi-site resiliency solutions | Ben Younger | Storage | VR5 | 16:15 - 17:00 | ||
| Virtual Room 6 | 6F | Object Storage Fundamentals | Andrew Wilt | IBM USA | Hybrid Cloud | VR6 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7F | Bring your mainframe data to your AI Agent | Andrew Smithson | AI | VR7 | 16:15 - 17:00 | ||
| Virtual Room 8 | 8F | Reinvent storage for artificial intelligence era | Alain Beauregard | Hitachi Vantara Ltd | LSWG | VR8 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9F | XMIT Unpacked Bringing Mainframe Transmit Files into Modern Automation Pipelines | Henri Kuiper | zDevOps | AppDev | VR9 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room A | AF | Cybersecurity and Data Set Encryption – Overview and tape data set deep dive | Cecilia Lewis | IBM USA | Security Working Group | VR10 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
End of Day's Sessions
17:00 -
17:30
|
||||||||
| Stream | Session | Presentation Title | Speaker | Company | Workgroup | Room | Time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virtual Room 1 | 1N | ISPF Made Even Easier Part 1 | Peter Van Dyke | HCL Technologies | Service Management | VR1 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2N | What’s new in MQ | Gwydion Tudur | MQ | VR2 | 10:00 - 10:45 | ||
| Virtual Room 3 | 3N | OpenTelemetry tracing in CICS TS 6.3 | Jenny He | CICS | VR3 | 10:00 - 10:45 | ||
| Virtual Room 5 | 5N | Modern Machines, Modern Metrics | Martin Packer | Capacity & Performance | VR5 | 10:00 - 10:45 | ||
| Virtual Room 6 | 6N | Pervasive encryption with DB2 for z/OS | Sandip Bhange | Consultant | Db2 | VR6 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9N | COPILOT ❤️ COBOL | Anthony Papageorgiou | Microsoft | AppDev | VR9 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
| Virtual Room A | AN | Mastering Digital Certificates: The Keys to a Streamlined Experience | Jan Prihoda | Broadcom Mainframe Software | Security Working Group | VR10 | 10:00 - 10:45 | |
30 Minute Break
10:45 -
11:15
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1O | ISPF Made Even Easier Part 2 | Peter Van Dyke | HCL Technologies | Service Management | VR1 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2O | MQ Meets Agentic AI | Gwydion Tudur | MQ | VR2 | 11:15 - 12:00 | ||
| Virtual Room 3 | 3O | Integrating CICS with AI - MCP server in CICS TS 6.3 | Khadar Mohamed | IBM | CICS | VR3 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4O | Let's Talk (Talking) Tech | Brian Hugenbruch | IBM USA | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR4 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5O | An Introduction to Observability, OpenTelemetry and IBM Z | Chris Walker | IBM USA | New Technologies | VR5 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6O | Bringing Mainframe into the Future: OpenTelemetry for Db2 for z/OS | Christoph Theisen | Rocket Software UK Ltd | Db2 | VR6 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7O | Vibe Coding: What Enterprise Developers Need to Know | Vaidehi Bhonge | BMC Software Ltd | AI | VR7 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9O | Why the binary artifact repository is a game-changer when adopting full CI/CD pipelines | Dennis Behm | IBM Germany | AppDev | VR9 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
| Virtual Room A | AO | Pen Testing 101: Mastering Mainframe Penetration Testing for Maximum Security | Ray Overby | Rocket Software UK Ltd | Security Working Group | VR10 | 11:15 - 12:00 | |
30 Minute Break
12:00 -
12:30
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1P | From reactive to proactive optimization: evolve your mainframe Asset Management strategy | Simone Catini | HCL Technologies | Mainframe Audit | VR1 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2P | Quantum Safe MQ | Gwydion Tudur | MQ | VR2 | 12:30 - 13:15 | ||
| Virtual Room 3 | 3P | Modernizing the Core: Orchestrating CICS Business Processes with Mainframe-Resident APIs | Mihir Shah | Broadcom Mainframe Software | CICS | VR3 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4P | Our GSAP Journey: From Zero to z/OS | Alessandro Cavallo | Macro 4 Limited | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR4 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6P | Use AI to gain business insights from your data … now! | Richard Ruppel | IBM USA | Db2 | VR6 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7P | Defensively Ambitious: LLMs and Assisted Development | Jared Hunter | Rocket Software UK Ltd | AI | VR7 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 8 | 8P | Expanding SMF Access to Promote Data-driven Decision Making | Todd Havekost | IBM | Capacity & Performance | VR8 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9P | The CICS Developer’s Guide to Working Smarter, Not Harder | Andrew Twydell | IBM | AppDev | VR9 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
| Virtual Room A | AP | The Hacker Whodunnit: Know your cyber assailants | Niall Ashley | Vertali Limited | Security Working Group | VR10 | 12:30 - 13:15 | |
30 Minute Break
13:15 -
13:45
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1Q | How to Pass a Mainframe Audit | Daniel Burk | IBM | Mainframe Audit | VR1 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2Q | Planning Your Mainframe Processor Upgrade in 2026 | Scott Chapman | EPS | Capacity & Performance | VR2 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3Q | Seamless Integration between Java and COBOL | Robert Stroud | National Westminster Bank (Natwest) | CICS | VR3 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4Q | Step Up the Skills Ladder: Continuous Learning for Mainframers | Richelle Anne Craw | Beta Systems Software AG | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR4 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5Q | PAVS, what are they, what is there significance? | Rahul Gupta | Consultant | Storage | VR5 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6Q | The latest and greatest in z/OS 3.2! What's new! | Steve Warren | IBM USA | LSWG | VR6 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7Q | Why Data Science Students Should Care About IBM Z and Enterprise Systems | Amirthavarshini Vimaleshwara Raja | Consultant | AI | VR7 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9Q | Traditional Mainframe Development practises | Giovanni Creato | Broadcom Mainframe Software | AppDev | VR9 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
| Virtual Room A | AQ | RACF Update: z/OS 3.2 and More! | Mark Nelson | IBM USA | Security Working Group | VR10 | 13:45 - 14:30 | |
30 Minute Break
14:30 -
15:00
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1R | Designing for Defensibility: Evidence-Centric Compliance Architecture for Financial Web Platforms | Manasa Uppula | Consultant | Mainframe Audit | VR1 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3R | Mainframe Trends 2026: Insights from the Mainframe User Survey | Amanda Hendley | Planet Mainframe | Women in IT | VR3 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4R | The Anatomy of ‘Why?’. Taking Control of Your Future Career on the Mainframe | Clementine Gribble | Interskill Learning | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR4 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5R | Introduction to ICF Catalog Support | James Steel | Dino Software | Storage | VR5 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6R | Understanding, debugging, tracing and troubleshooting AT-TLS. | Joe Winchester | Consultant | LSWG | VR6 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 7 | 7R | AI-Driven Framework for Zero-Downtime Cloud Database Migration | Pradeep Kumar Nangunoori | Consultant | AI | VR7 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 8 | 8R | WLM… Did you ever think of? | Mary Solomon | SMT Data | Capacity & Performance | VR8 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9R | Semeru (Java) on z/OS: Key Updates & Why Upgrade? | Thaksena Rangarajan | IBM | AppDev | VR9 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
| Virtual Room A | AR | Crypto Discovery and Inventory for z/OS | Asha Shekharappa | IBM India | Security Working Group | VR10 | 15:00 - 15:45 | |
30 Minute Break
15:45 -
16:15
|
||||||||
| Virtual Room 1 | 1S | z/OS Danger Zone - data theft | Al Saurette | MainTegrity Inc | Mainframe Audit | VR1 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 2 | 2S | Instrumenting the Mainframe: An introduction to no-code instrumentation with OpenTelemetry | Ruediger Schulze | IBM Germany | Open Mainframe Project | VR2 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 3 | 3S | IBM Concert for Z, an AI-Powered Mainframe Resilience Platform: Solutions vs. Alerts | Domenico D'Alterio | IBM Italy | Service Management | VR3 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 4 | 4S | EMMA: an implementation of a mainframe apprenticeship | Cameron Seay | Consultant | Mainframe Skills & Learning | VR4 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 5 | 5S | z/OSMF Storage Management Plugin - SMS Like Never Before | Alexis Kapica | IBM | Storage | VR5 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 6 | 6S | What's new in SDSF for z/OS 3.2 | Rob Scott | Rocket Software UK Ltd | LSWG | VR6 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room 9 | 9S | REST API (S3) for Unstructured (object) Data on z/OS using OAM | Peter Sobik | IBM USA | AppDev | VR9 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
| Virtual Room A | AS | Post-Quantum Cryptography | Emily Popovic | IBM | Security Working Group | VR10 | 16:15 - 17:00 | |
15 Minute Break
17:00 -
17:15
|
||||||||
| Keynote: | Test | James Harper | GS-UK | 17:15 - 17:30 | ||||