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