The Northeast Ohio Regional User Group mounted its first conference along with a local Compaq user group, and the RUG president Gene Calais reported more than 100 users were on hand for a day that included HP’s migration road show. “This is a significant accomplishment considering the dwindling attendance at most local user group meetings,” Calais said. Talks about moving OpenVMS applications to the Itanium architecture and features of the Alpha-based Digital systems took their place beside HP’s all-day 3000 migration road show, a production that HP has rebranded as a Transition tour.

The 100 users were on hand to hear about HP-UX, Compaq systems and Linux, a broad array of topics designed to appeal to range of customers much wider than just HP 3000 managers. “For the first time, users from the classic HP and classic Compaq/Digital eras have come together to collaborate,” Calais said. HP was doing its best to ensure that the HP 3000 customers who’d registered for the Transition tour were attending by making pre-meeting reminder phone calls, as well as sending detailed directions to the meeting venues.