HP next week will host two conferences aimed at giving the mega-vendor’s customers a look at new hardware, software and services. Each show features several tracks and sessions — and keynote addresses by HP brass as well as a few unexpected guests.
For HP Technology Forum & Expo 2008 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay, HP expects some 7,000 attendees. The vendor will bring out CEO Mark Hurd, CIO Randy Mott and Ann Livermore, executive vice president, to deliver addresses to HP’s servers, storage and services customers.
At HP Software Universe down the strip a bit at the Venetian, HP expects 2,600 attendees to show and learn more about the vendor’s software portfolio — which HP has pumped up with the acquisitions of Mercury Interactive and Opsware. In fact, the vendor is expected to discuss integration work among existing products and added automation features thanks to the Opsware buy.
While I am challenged by the vendor’s online session-tracker application (maybe because I am press I don’t have full access?), it does appear HP was able to recruit some big-name customers to also share their stories on the software side. As for Tech Forum, I am just attending the keynote, meeting with HP’s new consolidated user group president and then spending the rest of my time in Vegas mulling over the vendor’s work on management and automation software. According to a few people I’ve contacted, it seems like software customers want to learn more about HP classics and hear how the vendor intends to support its software end users while in Vegas next week. (The former OpenView Forum International group changed its name to Vivit in 2007.)
Stay tuned for updates on what HP execs have to say about the EDS buy perhaps, what the software team has done to improve their wares and if a keynote by a non-HP employee will bring in the crowds. Jeffrey Ma, Co-founder, PROTRADE, and subject of the movie 21 will deliver a keynote (the timing is unclear to me based on the Software Universe agenda) that HP says will offer a different perspective on business outcomes. Ma is the subject of both a New York Times bestseller “Bringing Down the House” and a new movie 21. (Listen to Network Downtime, an audio podcast review of the movie 21 here and read a review of the film here.)
According to HP: “Both at the blackjack table and in the world of pro sports, Ma has been able to enter what were traditionally very emotional, gut-feel environments and achieve success by gathering the right data, analyzing it and having the courage to follow through on the answers provided. In his keynote, he will draw on his extraordinary life and work to show us how to harness the power of rational, quantitative analysis to make smarter business decisions.”
Considering he came to fame by beating Las Vegas casinos, I wonder if Ma will be escorted out of the hotel/casino following his keynote address? Maybe some show attendees will pick up pointers on how to beat the dealer.
