A user conference that includes content for both HP and Compaq customers is one of the objectives of this summer’s HP World show, which opened up for registration about 90 days before the scheduled August 11 start of the show in Atlanta. A quick tour of the OpenVMS track at the conference turned up about 30 sessions with the phrase “OpenVMS” in their title, showing that the user group for HP’s customers wants to make the managers of the world’s 450,000 installed OpenVMS systems see the value in attending the conference. The OpenVMS community has offered its own Encompass group show as a yearly event, but Interex announced earlier this year that it’s working alongside the former Compaq user group to develop show content and offerings for HP’s newest segment of customers.

HP 3000 sessions which are scheduled for the event include many that have been offered this spring during the Interex e3000 Solutions Symposium meetings. More than 40 MPE and MPE-related sessions were on the Interex lineup, including 19 with the words “transition” or “migration” in the title. Special Interest Group meetings, ranging from stalwarts like SIG-MPE to an overarching SIG-Migration, numbered at 16. Brand-new to the MPE track of the conference is an “HP e3000 Customer Needs Panel” led by HP’s OpenMPE board liaison Jeff Vance. That session looks like a way to let HP interact with its customers in a roundtable setting, a session that “will cover all aspects of migration from technical to business, to HP’s role and ability to help support customers through the process. It will also address the needs of customers that will be using their 3000 in their businesses past HP’s end-of-support date. Questions from the floor are welcome as well as pre-submitted questions for those that cannot attend in person. Panelists will be managers from virtual CSY, HP Support, and the HP Migration Center.”

Registration for the conference can be handled at the Interex Web site, www.hpworld.com. Prices for non-Interex members are $1,790 for a five-day pass, $1,690 for four days and $695 for a one-day pass; Interex and Encompass members get $100 discounts. A free Expo Pass is also available through the Web site that lets attendees visit the 160 vendors and hear HP’s speeches during the event.