John:

No disrespect intended, it is just that this is not the first time I have
heard this number bandied about and am a little sensitive to possible
misrepresentation. Others known to us have been waging a campaign of
disinformation, even to the point of saying we are not having an event next
year....which is simply not true.  It takes a lot of restraint not to get
mired down in such shenanigans, so as you can see we bristle when we hear
inaccurate information being proffered to the marketplace.

So I apologize if my message was taken out of context and that the entire
MPE community felt I was characterizing anyone involved in a discussion
about MPE as having a "destructive bent and a personal agenda". Certainly as
you can see from my comment (following) that I was generalizing about a few
folks in the industry who appear to be off base.  ("What we find sad is that
it appears that there are some folks out there totally misrepresenting the
participation numbers at HP World 2003. Seems like they feel that it is to
their advantage to try and disrupt Interex's independent production of this
event for its membership.) This clearly was not directed at the participants
of this MPE discussion.

Since you brought up MPE involvement, I feel compelled to assure the e3000
community that Interex is committed to the continued support of members
using that platform as long as there is interest and financial support to do
so.  Each year we work with our volunteer program committee to assure we
have a balance of content reflecting the needs of these users.  We have no
agenda in terms of pushing homesteading or migration as the best
alternative. In fact in trying to reach out to more members in need of
exploring the options we funded a second e-3000 Solutions symposium event on
the East Coast, even though there was a small turnout and was a financially
draining effort.

The commitment to support members with MPE needs is irrefutable, however it
is a two way street. If members want this coverage then they need to
participate in helping drive content and in attending the conferences and or
sessions reflecting their needs. Vendors too need participate   in order to
supply additional financial support for this effort as well. So in spite of
the slowdown 571 MPE users did participate in HP World this year and must
have felt that the MPE content was worth showing up for.  Hopefully more
will get involved next year.

Ron Evans
Interex


-----Original Message-----
From: John Burke [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2003 7:57 AM
To: 'Ron Evans'; [log in to unmask]
Subject: RE: HP World 2003 Conference Survey


Ron Evans said,

> What we find sad is that it appears that there are some folks
> out there
> totally misrepresenting the participation numbers at HP World
> 2003. Seems
> like they feel that it is to their advantage to try and
> disrupt Interex's
> independent production of this event for its membership.  I
> guess you would
> need to put them in the same category as hackers, they just have a
> destructive bent and a personal agenda.
>

Whoa partner. I "may" have been the source of the 5000 number, since one of
my posts appears to contain the first mention, but here is EXACTLY what I
said: "Of the over 5000 attendees, less than 100 indicated an interest in
MPE."

"over 5000" - I used this because I had not seen or heard any official
figures. Besides, I was only trying to show how few, percentage-wise, of the
attendees were interested in MPE. If I knew it was 8400, I certainly would
have used that number because it would serve to better emphasize my point.
I'm sorry if anyone took my comment to mean "only 5000", though clearly this
is not what I said. In no way was I trying to disparage the conference or
Interex. My comment had nothing to do with how the conference was run.

I do certainly object to your characterization of anyone who has
participated in this current discussion seeking answers to the low
attendance by people with MPE interest and whether we can do anything about
it as "hackers, they just have a destructive bent and a personal agenda".

John Burke