By James Vincent, SHARE Immediate Past President
SHARE Atlanta was a very successful event, and we look forward to using this as a benchmark to continue improving our offerings to members and attendees on our journey to be the one place for education, networking and influence for enterprise IT professionals.
SHARE kicked off the week in Atlanta with keynote speaker Shane Snow, CCO of Contently, listening to his message on bigger and better, the motivation with small wins and sideways moves. Shane's story was a great message to everyone looking to solve problems in a creative way! SHARE also rolled out a new mentoring opportunity in Atlanta for zNextGen’ers to help with navigating the SHARE event as well as their own IT career. We also ran "New to z Systems," a focused course for individuals who need a quick ramp-up to z technology, in addition to two SHARE Academy deep-dive topics for our more established IT attendees on "CICS Immersion" and "z/OS Bug Busterz."
At the end of SHARE in Atlanta, we elected a new SHARE Board of Directors, who took the reins of leadership, and brought my term as SHARE president to an end. Looking back, I had always thought that the role of SHARE president seemed daunting and scary, and I never thought I would consider it. But I wouldn’t have changed anything in my choice to lead this organization, and I thank all the great people who helped me succeed. My goals as president were straightforward. First, equip the board and HQ staff to work together as a high-functioning, interactive, open and honest team. Another was to embrace "fail fast forward" thinking — to embark on new initiatives, and even if they don't work, learn from them, keep moving forward and try something else. I can’t express how very proud I am to say that is what I’ve seen happen during my term, thanks to the SHARE volunteers and HQ staff embracing those goals.
I may be out of the president role, but I certainly don't get a break! As immediate past president, I have the pleasure of leading the Nominating Committee for the next two years to fill board positions as terms expire. I am also keeping busy with many key committees on the board, looking at items such as SHARE strategy, skills gap, membership and more.
It has been and continues to be a sincere pleasure to serve SHARE's members and IT professionals who look to SHARE for guidance and resources. Cheers!