With a vision of Open Source on the Mainframe as the standard for enterprise class systems and applications, the Linux Foundation’s Open Mainframe Project is continuing to attract community members who share their mission to eliminate barriers to Open Source adoption on the mainframe.

The project has announced the launch of Call for Proposals (CFPs) for its 4th annual Open Mainframe Summit. This year, the premier mainframe event will be collocated with two industry conferences: IBM TechXchange Conference 2023, hosted in Las Vegas on September 11-14; and Open Source in Finance Forum, hosted in New York City on November 1.

A program committee, which includes active community members and project leaders, will review, and rate the proposals. Open Mainframe Project welcomes Alan Clark, CTO Office and Director for Industry Initiatives, Emerging Standards and Open Source at SUSE, Donna Hudi, Chief Marketing Officer at Phoenix Software International, Elizabeth K. Joseph, Global Head of the OSPO for IBM zSystems at IBM, Rose Sakach, Offering Manager, Mainframe Division at Broadcom, Inc., and Len Santalucia, CTO at Vicom Infinity, A Converge Company. 

"As mainframe technology and events evolve and mature, it becomes a more natural evolution to align Open Mainframe Projects and activities with other industry events,” said John Mertic, Director of Program Management at the Linux Foundation and Executive Director of the Open Mainframe Project. “This year, by partnering with IBM and FINOS, we are offering attendees the opportunity to enhance their experience with unique presentations and targeted conversations with industry experts.”

“As open source becomes the default development model for many enterprises, mainframe customers are looking to embrace community developed code for their mainframe environments,” said Steven Dickens, Vice President and Practice Leader at the Futurum Group. “The Open Mainframe Project has established itself as the go-to community for mainframe developers, enterprises and vendors alike.  The events announced today are a key part of how the community will gather to advance code on the mainframe.”

Open Mainframe Summit aims to connect and inform all those interested in growing the use of mainframes and related technology in dynamic technical and educational sessions. It is open to students, developers, corporate leaders, users, and contributors of projects from around the globe looking to learn, network and collaborate. It will feature content tracks that tackle both business and technical strategies for enterprise development and deployment.

The IBM TechXchange Conference offers technical breakout sessions, hands-on experiences, product demonstrations, instructor-led labs, and certifications, and the Open Mainframe Summit will be featured as part of IBM’s TechXchange Community Day on September 11.

The Open Source in Finance Forum is dedicated to driving collaboration and innovation in financial services through open source software and standards. This event brings together experts across financial services, technology, and open source to engage in stimulating and thought-provoking conversations about how to best (and safely) leverage open source software to solve industry challenges. Open Mainframe Summit will be featured as part of a 6-session track and a 10-minute keynote presentation.

The Call for Proposals is now open and will be accepting submissions until Friday, June 30, 2023. Interested speakers for either event can submit proposals with options for 20 minute talks, 30-minute sessions, 60-minute panel discussions or a 60-minute workshops or labs. All topics that benefit the Open Mainframe ecosystem are welcome and can include (but are not limited to) AI, machine learning, building the next workforce, cloud native, COBOL, Java, hybrid cloud, diversity and Inclusion, z/OS and Linux on Z, and security.