History of the VM Workshop

The VM Workshop is a grassroots non-profit organization made up of customers, ISVs, and business partners with an interest in the use and growth of the z/VM platform and 'Linux on System z' now called Linux on IBM Z. The original VM Workshops were held during the 70s, 80's and 90's at universities around the US and Canada. The final original VM Workshop was held in June, 1998. While sitting in a bar (many good stories begin with those words) in March 2010, Barton Robinson and Len Diegel of Velocity Software, Inc. were lamenting the loss of the old 4.5 day VM Workshops, the high cost of other major conferences, and the increasing frequency at which companies were cutting or eliminating training budgets. Too many z/VM systems programmers were left without any means to network in person, to learn and hone their black arts, and to share their accomplishments with like-minded wizards of the VM Community. Barton and Len decided to reanimate the VM Workshop, beginning with 2.5 day, very low cost workshop (permitting attendees to self-fund attendance). They contacted several other long-time z/VM and 'Linux on System z' supporters (including Bill Munson of Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., David Boyes of Sine Nomine Associates, and Len Santalucia of Vicom Infinity). With a fortuitous stroke of lighting from passing thunderstorm one 'dark and stormy night', the VM Workshop was reanimated with the first new workshop at Ohio State University during June, 2011.

After an amazing amount of behind-the-curtain all-volunteer work, and financial and other support of 'Sponsor' companies - many years later the VM Workshop became the world's largest educational conference dedicated solely to z/VM, and 'Linux on System z' (now called Linux on IBM Z). Now, VM Workshop has expanded its educational opportunities to include z/VSE.