HP sets new user conference for September '05

Computerworld - Hewlett-Packard Co. today said its new unified technology conference will be held Sept. 12-15 in 2005 in New Orleans and in a statement called it the "leading venue for technical users in the Americas."
The new conference will be known as HP Technology Forum 2005, HP said, describing it as the "first conference to deliver qualified, consistent education and training opportunities across HP's broad base of customers, partners and employees."
The announcement comes just ahead of HP World 2004, which opens next week in Chicago.
HP said it is "working closely with each of its major user groups in the Americas" in planning the conference and will offer "continued HP support" for separate user events next year. It gave no other details. HP said Encompass U.S. and Open View Forum Internal (OVFI) will participate in the new event, even as OVFI continues to host its own software-focused event next June.
HP's largest user group, Interex, with 100,000 members, wasn't mentioned in the latest statement from HP, and the user group's role in the new conference is still not clear. Last week, Interex President Denys Beauchemin said Interex will continue to hold its HP World in 2005 and continue to evaluate its involvement in the new conference (see story).
Henry Wojcik, president of the 7,000-member OVFI, said in the statement that HP's new conference is "an opportunity for cross-training and exposing more of HP's enterprise customers to HP software solutions."
HP's move has been seen as a competitive challenge to user group conferences, which will now have to vie for attendance from users. HP officials said last week that the idea of a single conference arose from requests by HP customers for comprehensive information about hardware and software technologies.
But user group members had argued that a vendor-sponsored conference such as the HP Technology Forum 2005 would be marketing-driven and could be a threat to their independence. Conference revenue, through vendor sponsorships, trade floor space rental, advertising and conference fees, is the chief source of revenue for the user groups.