Speakers are already signing up to train the HP 3000 community at this fall's International MPE/iX Conference, to be held Sept. 14-15 at the University of Houston Clear Lake Campus. The Greater Houston RUG (GHRUG) is organizing this unique event, working with the help of much of the tight-knit 3000 community.

It's early bird season for HP conferences — Encompass opens up its full HP Tech Forum lineup on Sunday — and the 3000 community is mounting its specialized fall meeting. The community will gather to gain two days full of cross-training for the climb toward platform transition. 3000 customers are staying, or they are going — or staying until going. But maintaining training is key to near-term and long-range success.

Confirmed speakers, just as of this week, for the conference that runs over a full Friday and Saturday:

• Alan Yeo of ScreenJet, supplier of tools for migration and interface upgrades
• Michael Marxmeier, creator of the IMAGE workalike Eloquence database
• Paul Edwards, trainer and operator of MPE-Education.com
• Chuck Ciesinski of the OpenMPE board
• Patricia Hood, offering an update on the IBM migration alternatives

The conference is seeking trainers on HP 3000 skills, cross-platform talks to cover topics of interest to HP managers targeting a new platform, and more. For the moment, send your simple proposal for a talk to organizer Judy Reustle down at NASA.

OpenMPE will be updating the community on HP's aftermarket programs for the HP 3000. To get your early spot and save on the affordable attendance rates, head off to the conference Web page: ghrug.org/ghrug.htm. We'll have more details, like prices and sponsorship opportunities, very soon.