The 3000 networking event of the year is officially on the community's schedule, as the San Francisco bayside MPE meeting is set with a location and a growing agenda. Most interesting to us: Nearly an hour-and-a-half of 5-minute slots when any attendee can talk, ask questions or relate their tales of 3000 migration or homesteading.

And while we mean anybody, that will be an intimate group. The group's key organizers — Alan Yeo of ScreenJet and Michael Marxmeier of Eloquence maker Marxmeier AG — are holding the line at 50 attendees. Get your name in soon to earn one of the spots. Speedware, in a key sponsorship move, will be making a signup Web page available next week, we are told.

For the time being, You can e-mail Michael, or Alan, or send an e-mail to us at the NewsWire if you want to ensure your spot at the MPE meeting.

On the agenda already, according to Yeo: members of HP's 3000 crew; Birket Foster with an OpenMPE update; Speedware; Gavin Scott of Allegro/Resource 3000 on homestead and extended support options; Rick Gilligan of banking app provider CASE (a COBOL shop and migration site); contact with the Encompass user group; Micro Focus and its update on the COBOL choices for 3000 sites.

Plus there's more, like a keynoter of community fame (name under wraps, apparently, for now). Oh, and free food, and free admission.