IBM Cancels Systems & Technology Group University Event in Las Vegas

Published: January 16, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

To the chagrin and surprise of many business partners and independent software developers, last week IBM abruptly canceled the Systems & Technology Group University, which was to be held in Las Vegas from January 23 through 26. IBM sent out notices to partners last Monday morning. This was a bit of a bummer for people who had already bought their airline tickets, of course.

STGU is a forum hosted by the Systems & Technology Group sales teams from the Americas, European, and Asia/Pacific regions and the PartnerWorld organization to teach partners and resellers about new server, storage, operating system, and middleware technologies and to help partners and resellers get knowledgeable and fired up about Big Blue's offerings. The STGU 2006 agenda was all about virtualization, openness, and collaboration--which are the three pillars of the IBM Systems Agenda. (See The IBM Systems Agenda: iB(M) from the October 10, 2005 issue of this newsletter if you don't know what all this IBM talk is about.)

The original notice for STGU 2006 had this to say to partners:

"As you push through fourth quarter, remember that a great year is well within our grasp. We endured a tough start this year, but our incredible team has bounced back strong. We've continued to build on our marketplace momentum; renewed our commitment to client success with the IBM Systems Agenda; and launched an incredible array of products that are already gaining traction. We're grateful for your hard work and achievements this year. And we're looking forward to sharing the success of a great year with you in January!"

Something clearly changed somewhere, and canceling such a show at the last minute surely had to cost IBM some big bucks, which meant it had a really good reason to do it. I called an IBM representative on the letter to try to get a reason why it was canceled, but she never returned my call. IBM has said in the past that over 10,000 people attended the STGU 2004 event, so attendance didn't seem to be a problem. But IBM might want to shift some of the work it was doing at STGU to its broader PartnerWorld organization. PartnerWorld 2006 is being held March 12 through 15 in Las Vegas.

The main part of the notice sent out by IBM explains, in part, the thinking that went into killing off STGU:

"After much consideration, we determined that this global event did not support the requirements of a new model based on lowering the center of gravity and driving sales execution at the region and country level. We are instead creating a new, more localized model for STG sales education and community building. As many of you have told us, there's more value in rapidly advancing STG education in a new direction by creating and mobilizing a new set of interactive, Web-based tools and content, and leveraging more integrated, localized events at the country and integrated market team (IMT) levels. You will receive additional information on these new initiatives soon."

Maybe they should call it Systems & Technology Group Online Community College?