Looking around during the opening session of the 2010 COMMON Annual Meeting, it was obvious that some members of the audience, myself not included, were too young to have any sentimental attachment to the words “peace, love and groovy.” Yet, COMMON, which was launched in 1960, predated the flower-power days that made those words famous.

The opening session tipped a hat to the 50 years of COMMON, while also honoring the present and future of COMMON and IBM Power Systems. The lead speaker, Wayne Madden, COMMON president, paid tribute to all of those who work hard to make a success of not just the COMMON Annual Meeting and Exposition, but all of COMMON’s initiatives. Madden also made an fervent plea for members to volunteer their time and skills to help carry COMMON forward into the future.

The opening session included an announcement of the winner of the 2010 COMMON / IBM Power Systems Innovation Award. To quote from the COMMON Web site, “The COMMON / IBM Innovation Award recognizes members of the Power Systems community who have demonstrated innovation, leadership and ongoing commitment to the community.”

This year’s Innovation Award finalist was Landstar Systems. Daniel Linge, director of application development, accepted the finalist recognition on behalf of Land.star.

The winner of the Innovation Award was the West Haven Police Department. It deployed a solution that improved the security and safety of its officers, while also reducing costs. Mary Rooney, president of DCS, the IBM Business Partner that supplied the solution, accepted the award on behalf of the West Haven Police Department.

The new <a href="http://www.common.org/conferences/2010/annual/certification.html#about">COMMON Certification Program</a> was also discussed during the opening session. The program includes two levels of certification: COMMON Business Computing Associate and COMMON Certified Business Computing Professional. For the first time, exams for the COMMON Business Computing Associate credential will be administered at the COMMON conference. Attendees who pass the exam will return home with that certification in-hand.

The keynote speaker at the opening session was Ross Mauri, general manager of IBM Power Systems. Watch for Chris Smith’s upcoming post about Mauri’s speech.--Joel Klebanoff