Benelux Power 2026
Give Your Brain a System Upgrade
Three countries, two days, and a chance to upgrade something other than your laptop.
Pack your curiosity, bring your best questions and tell the inbox you’re seeing other people. BeNeLux Power 2026 is calling, and a couple of days talking technology with actual humans sounds considerably more cheerful than another afternoon muttering “why?” at a screen.
BeNeLux Power 2026 takes place on 23–24 November at the Van der Valk Hotel in Tilburg, the Netherlands. That is Tilburg, not Tilbury in the UK! An important distinction, particularly if you would like your satnav and your conference badge to agree.
COMMON Belgium, COMMON Netherlands and COMMON Luxembourg are joining forces to bring their communities together. Think of it as a friendly technical get-together with three hosts and a very good excuse to leave your desk.
Three Countries, Plenty to Smile About
Before the technical brain gets its workout, a little cultural warm-up. These are traditions from the three countries behind BeNeLux Power—not additions to the conference programme. Please don’t arrive demanding a waffle track.
The Netherlands: A Biscuit With a Deployment Strategy
One lovely Dutch ritual is to rest a stroopwafel over a cup of hot tea or coffee, letting the warmth soften its syrup filling. A snack that uses waste heat to improve performance: there’s an idea for the next architecture meeting. If you try it during your travels, remember that “warming” and “dropping it into the coffee” are different implementation plans.
Belgium: Craftsmanship You Can Taste
Belgium offers an excellent answer to the question “What shall we talk about once we’ve exhausted SQL?” Beer and chocolate. Generations of brewing and chocolate-making know-how have brought us Trappist and geuze beers and the classic praline—proof that not every worthwhile legacy needs modernising. By all means retire the undocumented script, but leave the chocolate recipe alone. And if anyone asks whether a second praline is really necessary, explain that you’re testing reproducibility.
Luxembourg: A Tradition With a Spring in Its Step
Luxembourg has the Echternach hopping procession, a religious and cultural tradition held on Whit Tuesday in honour of Saint Willibrord, combining prayer, song and dance. It is a springtime tradition, not a November conference activity.
Your own movement between sessions can remain strictly freestyle; enthusiastic walking is quite sufficient, especially with a laptop bag.
Different traditions, one very appealing prospect: getting people together. Now, back to the programme—before this turns into a travel supplement with occasional SQL.
Monday: Feed the Brain, Not Just the Inbox
Monday 23 November is workshop day, with four parallel tracks in the morning and afternoon. Sessions run from 10:00–13:00 and 14:00–17:00, with lunch between them. Proper time to get into a subject, rather than reaching the interesting bit just as somebody waves the “five minutes remaining” sign.
The published workshop line-up includes Tim Rowe’s “Just Ask Bob: Natural Language, AI, and the Art of Talking to Your IBM I” and PowerWired editor, Andy Youens’s “Give Your Db2 Data an AI Voice”. Apparently, giving the database a voice is now on the agenda. Let us hope its first words are not “we need to discuss your naming conventions”.
There is also “Unleash the Power of the Query Super Visor” with Rudi van Helvoirt, plus an Ansible workshop covering Linux, IBM AIX and IBM i with Toshaan Bharvani and Andrey Klyachkin. So, if your interests extend beyond asking AI increasingly elaborate questions, there is plenty to investigate.
The afternoon choices include “Managing IBM i the Modern Way” with Tim Rowe, Rudi van Helvoirt and Steve Bradshaw; Ludovic Gasc’s “IBM i meets IBM Bob: Advanced Modernization for Your Applications and Operations”; and practical Git with Toshaan Bharvani and Andrey Klyachkin.
Then there is Koen Decorte’s wonderfully titled “Bring Your Worst RPG — an AI-assisted modernization lab”. Finally, a session title that sounds like an invitation rather than an accusation. Somewhere, a source member labelled “temporary fix” is beginning to feel nervous.
Monday Evening: Networking Without a Patch Cable
The event dinner is scheduled for Monday evening, from 19:00–22:00. A chance to swap ideas and compare notes without trying to squeeze a conversation into the gap before the next session.
This is your chance to put faces to names, swap a few stories and finish a conversation without someone saying “sorry, you’re on mute”. Bring a question, pull up a chair and enjoy talking to people who won’t glaze over when you mention Db2. That alone deserves an evening out.
Tuesday: Pick Your Track and Find Your People
Tuesday 24 November brings the four-track conference, Expo and closing drinks. The organisers list AI, emerging technologies, open source, application development, Db2 and SQL, system management and customer case studies among the event’s topics, with an audience spanning IBM i, AIX and Linux.
Treat the programme as a pick-and-mix for the technically curious. Try your usual favourites, then choose something you wouldn’t normally tackle on a busy Tuesday. The only catch is that you can’t be in every room at once. If someone solves that particular scalability problem, please let PowerWire know!
The event’s official language is English, so there is no need to learn Dutch before discussing SQL. Whether SQL itself counts as a shared language may depend on how strongly you feel about somebody else’s joins.
The Important Bit: Getting Yourself There
The venue is Hotel Tilburg, Dr. Bloemenlaan 8, 5022 KW Tilburg, the Netherlands.
Workshop day and dinner are on Monday 23 November; the conference and Expo follow on Tuesday 24 November.
Check the conference schedule for the latest session details and the official event website for registration, current prices and ticket combinations. COMMON Belgium, COMMON Netherlands and COMMON Luxembourg members should check their member links for applicable pricing. Do not assume that an early-bird announcement means the early bird is still accepting visitors.
And of course, PowerWire will be there too! Come and say hello, share what you’ve learned, or tell us about the RPG program that deserves its own dramatic soundtrack. We’ll be gathering stories, meeting the community and trying not to describe a stroopwafel as a “two-layer syrup integration solution”.
Join us in Tilburg: bring your curiosity, leave room for a laugh, and give your and give your inbox something to be jealous of. See you there!
BeNeLux 2026