Update: HP World canceled; Interex disbanding

Some HP customers learned of the decision last night

By Patrick Thibodeau

July 18, 2005 12:00 PM ET

Computerworld - HP World, the major systems conference for Hewlett-Packard Co. that has in the past drawn thousands of enterprise customers, has been canceled, and the sponsoring user group, Interex, is disbanding.
The conference was scheduled to take place Aug. 14-18 in San Francisco.
Conference co-chair Greg Cagle notified HP users on a mailing list for HP 3000 customers late last night of the decision, and he confirmed his note today. He said Interex laid off its staff late last week and believed the best thing to do was to alert HP users.
"It has been canceled," he said of the event.
Denys Beauchemin, the vice chairman of Interex's board, also confirmed the news. He said he couldn't discuss the reasons and referred those interested in the event to the Interex Web site. "Right now there are some legal things that we have to go through," he said.
Officials at Interex couldn't be reached this morning. But a statement posted on the Interex Web site this afternoon said the cancellation was "unavoidable."
"It is with great sadness that after 31 years we have found it financially necessary to close the doors at Interex," the statement said. "Unfortunately, our publications, newsletters, services and conference (HPWorld 2005) will be terminated immediately. We are grateful to the 100,000 members and volunteers of Interex for their contributions, advocacy and support. We dearly wish that we could have continued supporting your needs but it was unavoidable."
There was nothing on the HP World Web sites this morning indicating any changes.
Cagle, a conference volunteer, said he didn't know all the reasons for the cancellation, but said he believed HP's decision to hold a conference in September was a likely factor. "Let's face it: You had two competing conferences."
The loss of HP World isn't a good thing for the company's users, said Cagle. "HP World was more of a user-focused conference," he said. "It's a loss."
HP last year announced plans to hold a its own technical conference.
HP World, like most user group conferences, has seen a decline in attendance since 2000, when 12,000 people attended the conference. In recent years the number of attendees was about half that size.

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