It is with great excitement that we can report to you that COMMON, the major international user group dedicated to the IBM PowerSystem platform, including the AIX, IBM i (old OS/400 on AS/400) and Linux processing environments, will officially enter the African market. This after an absence of almost 14 years of any kind of user group dedicated to the platform we all love and adore!

COMMON Africa, as well as YiPs (Young i Professionals) Africa, will be launched on Tuesday 10 November 2009 at 14H30 in the IBM Auditorium, 70 Rivonia Road, Sandton. To reserve your seat, please click here.

We are very privileged to have Mr. Trevor Perry (Google him for more background), Board member of COMMON USA and internationally renowned motivational and technical speaker, as our keynote speaker. He is widely regarded as one of the most influential people in the PowerSystems and IBM i space in the world and is a highly entertaining, and an exceptionally gifted speaker. He will be joined by Ms. Cally Beck, the Program Manager for the PowerSystem IBM Academic Initiative based in the UK, who will share with us what IBM is doing internationally to improve and develop skills around our platform.

Membership of both COMMON Africa and YiPs Africa will be free for the foreseeable future, until the two boards of directors have formulated how best to serve your needs.

If you cannot attend the launch, but would like to register for future information and notifications, please click here.

Should you wish to inform your colleagues, friends or acquaintances about this exciting initiative, please click here, and we will send an invitation on your behalf. Please hurry, as seats are limited and the first 60 odd seats are already taken!

PowerSystems greetings

The COMMON Africa and YiPs Africa launch team