Although I didn't get around to reading this until tonight, a few days ago HP
put out another announcement for next year's largest "HP training venue and
product solution showcase in North America." Notably absent is any mention of
Interex. Because Interex has apparently decided not to commit suicide by
melding itself into the new conference, it will be allowed to die a slower death on
its own.

Wirt Atmar

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Updated: 12:17 PM EDT
HP to Unite Customer and Partner Training at ''HP Technology Forum 2005; New
conference to be largest HP training venue and product solution showcase in
North America

PALO ALTO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--08/11/2004--HP (NYSE:HPQ)(Nasdaq:HPQ)
today unveiled further details regarding a new HP-led technical conference to be
held next year that will unite its major user groups, customers and partners.

HP Technology Forum 2005, currently scheduled to be held in New Orleans,
Sept. 12 - 15, 2005, will be the first conference to deliver qualified, consistent
education and training opportunities across HP's broad base of customers,
partners and employees - including HP systems integrators, value-added resellers
and independent software vendor (ISV) partners, the HP Certified Professional
community,(1) user groups and members of the HP Americas presales and support
organization.

The conference will be held in the Morial Convention Center and will be the
leading venue for technical users in the Americas to learn about the latest HP
software, systems, technologies and services to accelerate their journey
toward becoming an Adaptive Enterprise.

In planning for the 2005 conference, HP is working closely with each of its
major user groups in the Americas, offering continued HP support for separate
user events next year while promoting HP Technology Forum 2005 across its
enterprise segment. As of today's announcement, Encompass U.S. has said it will
collaborate with HP on the 2005 event. In addition, OpenView Forum International
has pledged their participation while continuing to host its planned
software-focused user event in June 2005.

Compared with the multiple, existing user organization conferences, HP
Technology Forum 2005 will offer more solution- and segment-oriented technical
training, in- depth sessions and hands-on workshops, along with greater access to
HP executives. HP will deliver additional details as its 2005 conference plans
unfold.

User groups support HP's unified conference strategy

"There is a lot of buzz right now about user group revenue models and risks
associated with modifying conferences," said Kristi Browder, president,
Encompass U.S. "Encompass runs a lean operation and we're flexible enough to share a
conference with other user groups as we have done with Interex over the past
few years. We're excited at HP's offer to drive a larger, more integrated event
that delivers broader training opportunities to meet the changing needs of
our user members."

"We see HP's new conference as an opportunity for cross-training and exposing
more of HP's enterprise customers to HP software solutions," said Henry
Wojcik, president of the 7,000-member OpenView Forum International. "Because of the
timing, we're continuing to produce the HP Software Forum in June 2005 in
Denver as planned, but we'll also be working closely with HP and Encompass to
participate with them in New Orleans in fall 2005."

About HP

HP is a technology solutions provider to consumers, businesses and
institutions globally. The company's offerings span IT infrastructure, personal
computing and access devices, global services and imaging and printing. For the four
fiscal quarters ended April 30, 2004, HP revenue totaled $76.8 billion. More
information about HP is available at www.hp.com.

(1) Includes HP partners, customers and employees certified through the HP
Certified Professional program, which is a worldwide certification program that
recognizes technical expertise on HP technologies and solutions.

This news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and
uncertainties, as well as assumptions that, if they never materialize or prove
incorrect, could cause the results of HP and its consolidated subsidiaries to
differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking
statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are
statements that could be deemed forward-looking statements, including any projections
of earnings, revenues, or other financial items; any statements of the plans,
strategies, and objectives of management for future operations; any statements
concerning proposed new services or developments; any statements regarding
future economic conditions or performance; statements of belief and any statement
of assumptions underlying any of the foregoing. The risks, uncertainties and
assumptions referred to above include employee management issues; the timely
development, production and acceptance of services and their feature sets; the
challenge of managing asset levels, including inventory; the difficulty of
keeping expense growth at modest levels while increasing revenues; and other
risks that are described from time to time in HP's Securities and Exchange
Commission reports, including but not limited to the risks described in HP's
Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the period ended April 30, 2004 and reports filed
after HP's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended Oct. 31, 2003.
HP assumes no obligation and does not intend to update these forward-looking
statements.

(C) 2004 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. The information contained
herein is subject to change without notice. HP shall not be liable for
technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

CONTACT:HP Don Gentile, 408-447-4410 [log in to unmask] HP Media Hotline,
866-266-7272 [log in to unmask] www.hp.com/go/newsroom or Burson-Marsteller for HP Brandy
S. Baxter, 415-591-4045 [log in to unmask]

SOURCE: HP


08/11/2004 12:02 EASTERN

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