CM First Group Is Heading to New Orleans for COMMON POWERUp 2026
If you work in the IBM i space, you already know that one event every spring stands apart from the rest. COMMON’s POWERUp conference is the largest IBM i community gathering in the world, and this year it’s coming to the New Orleans Marriott from April 27–30. CM First Group will be there — with a booth on the expo floor, swag to give away, and two presentations on the schedule. If you’re attending, we’d love to see you.
What Is COMMON POWERUp?
For anyone newer to the IBM i ecosystem, a little context is in order. COMMON is a nonprofit user group that has served IBM i (formerly AS/400 and iSeries) professionals for decades. POWERUp is its flagship annual conference, drawing more than 1,000 IT professionals, developers, architects, and business leaders from across the IBM i world.
The conference is built around three ideas: learn, engage, and grow. Over four full days in New Orleans, attendees gain access to hundreds of expert-led sessions, hands-on workshops, and keynote presentations covering the full breadth of what’s happening in the IBM i ecosystem right now. Sessions this year span the latest release of IBM i 7.6, open source security, modern development approaches using APIs, RPG, Python, and Node.js, AI applied to systems management and observability, database modernization, and much more. Whether you’re a developer writing RPG every day, an architect planning your organization’s next modernization phase, or a technology leader trying to make the right strategic bets, there’s a track built for you.
Beyond the sessions, the expo floor is where the IBM i vendor community shows up in force. The POWERUp Expo is the largest of its kind, with extended hours and receptions built into the schedule Monday through Wednesday — a genuine opportunity to have real conversations with the people building the tools you’re evaluating or already using. And then there’s New Orleans itself, arguably the most distinctive conference city in the country. The closing reception this year is at Generations Hall, a historic venue in the Warehouse District. If you’ve never attended a conference here, this is the year to say yes.
CM First Group at POWERUp 2026
CM First Group’s connection to the IBM i community isn’t recent. John Rhodes, our CTO and co-founder, was part of the original Broadcom engineering team that built CA 2E (Synon) and CA Plex — platforms that thousands of IBM i shops still run today. That lineage means we don’t just understand IBM i from a distance; we understand it at the architecture level, and that depth of experience has shaped every aspect of how CM evolveIT was built and how our consultants approach modernization engagements.
This year, we’re bringing that experience to the POWERUp expo floor. Stop by the CM First booth to talk with our team about whatever is on your mind — whether that’s modernization strategy, AI-powered code analysis, business rule extraction, cross-system dependency mapping, or just understanding what CM evolveIT can do for your specific environment. We’ll have swag on hand and practitioners ready to dig into the details with you.
We’re also delivering two sessions at the conference this year, and both are squarely focused on the practical engineering challenges IBM i teams face when modernization is on the roadmap.
Session 1: COBOL to Modern RPG Using Static Analysis, Automation and AI Assistance
Moving COBOL applications to RPG IV can be faster and safer with the right combination of tools — but it still requires solid engineering discipline. This session explains how static analysis tools identify data flow, dependencies, and shared logic before conversion begins, and how to combine AI automation with proven analysis methods to transform COBOL business logic into clear, maintainable RPG IV code. Real examples walk through planning, testing, and incremental rollout techniques that minimize risk. A case study using actual COBOL code is included. Attendees will leave with a practical understanding of how to balance automation, analysis, and AI methods for dependable, low-risk modernization on IBM i.
Session 2: Mapping Cross-System Interactions with Static Analysis and AI Assistance
Modern IBM i environments depend on complex data exchanges across systems — through messaging platforms like MQ, APIs, and batch managed file transfer processes. Documenting those interactions is often the hardest part of any modernization planning effort, especially when the original documentation no longer exists. This session focuses on combining automated static analysis with AI techniques to trace and document system connections, rebuild missing documentation, identify redundant paths, and improve visibility across the integration landscape. A case study is included. Attendees will learn how to identify and map cross-system dependencies, understand when AI assistance adds value versus when traditional analysis works better, and apply hybrid techniques for documentation, modernization, and improved reliability.
Why POWERUp Matters for IBM i Modernization Teams
The conversations that happen at POWERUp are different from what you get at a general enterprise tech conference. The people in that building understand IBM i from the inside. They know what it means to maintain mission-critical RPG applications that have run without interruption for 25 years. They understand the weight of that responsibility — and the pressure to modernize, to connect legacy systems to modern APIs, to extract embedded business logic before experienced developers retire, and to meet compliance demands that keep getting more complex.
That’s the world CM evolveIT was built for. Our compiler-level analysis tools give IBM i teams the visibility they need to make modernization decisions with confidence rather than guesswork. The approximately 80% reduction in legacy system discovery time that organizations typically experience with CM evolveIT isn’t an abstract benchmark — it’s the difference between a modernization program that gains momentum and one that stalls indefinitely in the analysis phase.
POWERUp is where those conversations happen naturally, among people who are actually living those challenges. That’s why we keep coming back, and why we’re especially pleased to be on the session schedule this year.
Come Find Us in New Orleans
If you’re registered for POWERUp 2026, put the CM First booth on your must-visit list. Come with your questions, your toughest modernization problems, and your appetite for beignets — we’ll handle the rest. To connect with our team before the conference, visit cmfirstgroup.com or reach us directly at info@cmfirstgroup.com or 888-866-6179. We’ll see you in New Orleans.
