The HP Technology Exchange was tranquil this afternoon, the third day of exhibiting at the HP Technology Forum. HP laid out its 500 square feet of thick-padded gray carpet in the rear center of a floor with 107 vendors, more than 50 new faces from last year's oft-moved show. Tonight's wrap-up reception on the floor should pack in enough customers to "brick up the aisles," as one exhibitor said of the opening event Monday evening.

Oddly, the exhibition space was closing at 3 PM today, but will reopen at 6 for a reception. Some conferences schedule the other way, stopping talks in mid-day to give exhibitors better traffic through their booths.

The modest-sized DSPP technology kiosks, available for less than $3,000 to HP partners, found a few 3000 suppliers, such as migrations company DB-Net and Quest Software.

Show gimmicks were in easy view. One vendor who specializes in repairs of printers and computer equipment rigged up a dry ice trick to make it look like a printer was burning. The smoke was pouring out of an IBM printer — just about the only non-HP equipment in the exhibit hall. HP was serious about keeping the gear at this conference limited to HP and partner models. One presenter was told to leave his Sony Vaio laptop at home.

HP 3000 allies and suppliers Transoft, Genisys, Acucorp, Bradmark and Speedware are exhibiting on the floor, all with 10x10 booths except for Speedware -- which is sharing its 10x20 space with arch-rival Cognos, of all companies. Cognos brought two sizes of banners in accepting Speedware's invitation, but decided to post the smaller flag on the outside edge of Speedware's space.

The two companies are still in negotiations to work together on migration projects, according to Speedware's president Andy Kulakowski and Cognos technical account manager Charlie Maloney. Speedware's had a meeting at the Cognos facility in August to combine forces on migrating PowerHouse customers to other platform versions of the 4GL. Speedware's Kulkowski said that 55 percent of his company's revenues now come out of the professional services work. Speedware's Chris Koppe said yesterday that for a PowerHouse customer, moving to PowerHouse on a non-3000 platform is the lowest risk migration.

HP's booth for 3000 customers catered to the migrating kind, with a green sign among a forest of sea-green banners called "HP Transition Services." No 3000 hardware sat on the show floor, but a Web browser stood open to HP's migration customer success stories.  HP's Colleen Mueller (left) stood in for HP group managers and engineers while we snapped our photo. She was preparing for a few dates on the HP Integrity Road Show starting up next week, coming to a town near you. 

No 3000 hardware sat on the HP Technology Forum show floor, but a Web browser stood open to HP's 3000 migration customer success stories.