Valley Forge is only 260 feet above sea level, but in late March that Pennsylvania city will be the best vantage point to see what the future holds for HP 3000 owners. The outlooks will cover both migration and homesteading views at this year’s Interex e3000 Migration and Solutions Symposium, starting March 26. HP is promising to bring new success stories from its customers who are making a migration away from the platform, and we look forward to hearing some tales from companies who don’t make software for a living, run 200-person IT shops or already host hundreds of HP-UX apps someplace else in the computer room. Down the other fork of the Transition road, the show that runs through March 29 will have a Homesteading Report from Paul Edwards, who’s been chairing the Symposiums’ program committee as well as the MPE Forum.

It doesn’t look too late to attend a few key Valley Forge days — Wednesday-Thursday March 26-27 look ripe, if you can drive to southeast Pennsylvania — even as you read this. Symposium admission fees are about half of what you’ll pay at the HP World show this summer, and it looks like there’s good 3000-based Unix training and Linux advice on tap as well. The economy is hitting travel budgets pretty hard as we write, but it seems like saving a few thousand dollars by staying off the road might cost quite a bit more later on, given the “tens of thousands-to-millions” budget which everybody associates with migration. We could still find airfare under $300 from most of the Eastern US as late as March 12 to Philadelphia. If you’re in the West, there’s even more time to plan a training trip to the San Jose version of the Symposium, April 23-26. Sign up at the Interex Web site, and look for the NewsWire at both conferences. We’ll bring back the best in spring and summer articles.