"Gavin Scott" <[log in to unmask]> wrote in message news:9mn7ij02q5b@enews3.newsguy.com...
> Greg writes:
> > - InterWorks 2002 will be run as a separate conference in the same
> >   location as HPW, not as a "track." Sorry if I was unclear about
> >   that when we talked at the conference, Mark.
>
> > Jerry and I and the respective conference committees are already
> > working on not overlapping content and keeping the confusion factor
> > down about which conference to attend. More about this soon.
>
> Yeek!  This sounds like a difficult task at best.

Absolutely.

> Am I wrong in thinking that Interworks is primarily an HP-UX conference and
> that HP World is at least 1/3 HP-UX these days?

Partly - InterWorks has had very strong Linux content for the past two years.
More than HP World, actually.

> Sounds like someone's going to lose out in this process :-)
>
> Are the attendees different enough that you can segregate them in this way?

Not clear yet. What we're working on are ways to market (eww!) InterWorks
in such a way to appeal to its traditional attendees and differentiate
from HPW content.

> It sounds like a recipe for massive confusion and irritation on the part of
> the attendees who won't be allowed to go to sessions that look interesting
> to them, and to presenters who find that they have to present a session
> twice.

No offense - but you make two invalid assumptions here:

- Attendees won't be allowed to cross-attend. Not true; we will allow attendees
  to go to the other conference's sessions BUT it won't be free. Otherwise
  everyone would sign up for IW (because it's cheaper) and just go to HPW
  sessions. We *will* allow IW attendees into the HPW exhibit hall and keynotes
  and whatnot, like an expo pass allows now.

- We will allow dual presenting. If the two committees do their jobs, this
  will be completely avoided. To that end we're sharing a couple of key track
  chairs between the two conferences.

Also, the IW committee is having intense discussions as we speak on focusing
and trimming the content to a bare minimum that we think people will want
to show up for. Cutting the fat (marketing presentations, fluff) and getting
just to the meat (detailed Unix technical stuff). We are currently focusing
on just three tracks - one each on HP-UX and Linux, with the target being
that attendees by the end of the conference should be ready for the respective
certification test. And we're working to offer the tests onsite for people
who want to take them immediately. The third track will most likely be a
collection of security and tuning stuff.

> Is Interex going to pay for enough security to filter attendees at the door
> to each session?

That already happens; outside the door of each session are hosts who are
supposed to be checking badges, counting attendees, etc.

> Why *not* just run the Interworks content as a part of HP World?

Because we may spin it back out again as a separate conference in 2003
if things improve, and the Board wants to keep that option open. This is
a one year only "experiment." And there's some emotional history as well;
there are a lot of people who don't want to see InterWorks assimilated.

> I suppose you might have trouble getting the average Interworks attendee
> enthused about paying the $1,800.00 or whatever for a full HP World
> conference registration.

True statement. 8^)

--
Greg Cagle
gregc at gregcagle dot com

* To join/leave the list, search archives, change list settings, *
* etc., please visit http://raven.utc.edu/archives/hp3000-l.html *