The three major Hewlett-Packard (HP) user groups have
vowed to go ahead with their annual conferences, despite HP's
decision to stage its own user conference next year.
HP announced earlier this month that it would hold a new
conference, the HP Technology Forum 2005, in New Orleans next
September.
An HP spokesman said the company wants one, all-embracing event
so that it can "bring the full brunt of HP resources" to users.
The established HP World user conference was held in August in
Chicago and has traditionally been produced by HP user groups
Interex and Encompass.
Interex, the biggest HP user group, plans to stage HP World
again next year, president Denys Beauchemin said.
"We just believe that being fully independent, yet loyal to our
supplier of choice, would be best for everyone involved," he
said.
Interex has yet to vote on whether it will take part in the HP
Technology Forum 2005 and Beauchemin said it is "an extremely big
decision for us", but if members prefer, Interex will work with HP
on the new event.
Another HP user group, the OpenView Forum International, will
continue with plans to hold its own Software Forum next year, but
the group's president, Henry Wojci, said it is "a little bit
concerned about our future".
He said the success of HP Technology Forum 2005 will dictate
what happens to Software Forum in 2006.
ITUG, another HP user group, also plans to hold its own ITUG
Summit in October.
HP America's vice-president, David Parsons, said HP will
continue to support its user groups, but whether that will
translate to supporting their annual conferences to the same degree
as in the past is unclear.
The idea of a single conference is a response to requests by HP
customers for comprehensive information about hardware and software
technologies, Parsons said.
David Watson writes for Computerworld