HP Tech Forum and Encompass User Group Meeting Kicks Off September 17

Published: September 7, 2006

by Timothy Prickett Morgan

The HP Tech Forum, an annual event that Hewlett-Packard puts on to give customers and partners access to the company's top brass, and Encompass, the HP user group, are getting ready to kick off a joint event in Houston, Texas, on September 17. So far, this year looks a lot easier than last year, when Hurricane Katrina washed out the event two weeks before it happened, forcing HP to switch times and venues.

According to Kristi Browder, who is the president of Encompass, the two organizations are expecting close to 6,000 people to attend the event, which is tracking better than the attendance last year, which was moved to Orlando. (Why do people try to host events near the Gulf of Mexico or the Southeast during hurricane season, you ask? Good question.) Over 1,000 HP certified professionals--what we used to call system engineers--are expected to show up, including private individuals as well as those from partners and resellers, to brush up on their skills and certifications.

HP is bringing out Mark Hurd, the company's president and chief executive officer, to do a song and dance routine--well, actually, I don't know that he will be doing, but he will probably talk about how HP's numbers look good, but the company still has a lot of work to do.

And Randy Mott, HP's chief information officer, will talk about the company's efforts to consolidate the 85 data centers the behemoth company has running around the globe to a mere six highly virtualized facilities. HP calls them "the six pack," and it is going to take a lot of those to make this happen, to be sure. The HP Tech Forum will also feature an invitation-only executive summit with the HP top brass and the CIOs and CEOs from 100 companies. HP is also sponsoring 150 junior high school kids from the inner city areas of Houston for a half-day session on information technology and how they can make a career of it.

The HP Tech Forum runs from September 17 through 21. You can find out more about the event at the Tech Forum web site.