IBM Cancels Systems Conference, Slated for This Month

Published: May 4, 2009

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

IBM's North American PartnerWorld business partner organization canceled the IBM Systems Conference last week, which was to be held in Orlando, Florida, between May 18 and 21.

In an email sent out to business partners, IBM did not provide any explanation for the cancellation. The Systems Conference was to have a three educational tracks: one track on IBM's servers and storage, one on solutions relating to IBM's Dynamic Infrastructure initiatives, and the third for professional development (teaching project management, negotiation, and economic analysis of IT solutions). This sounds like the kind of thing IBM's Systems and Technology Group would want to host, but with STG under revenue and profit pressure and companies not wanting to allocate budget for travel and training thanks to the poor economy, it is not a surprise that the Systems Conference was canceled. That it was canceled only three weeks before it started was a bit odd.

In its terse statement, here's what IBM did say about the matter: "Consider attending the following upcoming conferences, planned this year for IBM Systems and Technology Group (STG), which will provide the most up-to-date information on Dynamic Infrastructure initiatives, IBM systems products and services by platform: July 27-31, IBM System Storage and Storage Networking Symposium, Chicago, Illinois; July 27-31, IBM System x and BladeCenter Technical Conference, Chicago, Illinois; September 21-25, IBM Power Systems Technical University, Orlando, Florida; October 5-9, IBM System z Expo, Orlando, Florida."

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