It takes an extraordinary amount of effort to mount a user group conference. Even a brief one requires the work of dozens of volunteers. Clearly, meeting in person must have extraordinary benefits.

HP believes this is true of the upcoming conference in Houston. In just four weeks, the Greater Houston Regional Users Group (GHRUG) will host a two-day meeting, March 14-15. This event will meet at the University of Houston Clear Lake Campus, just down the street from the front gates of NASA. There will be two tracks dedicated to the HP 3000 community. The conference also offers three other tracks dedicated to Blade Systems, Unix/Linux, and Best Practices and Emerging Technologies.

HP's 3000 business manager Jennie Hou has checked in with us and says HP will be at the event as well, briefing customers on the platform updates. You can never be sure what will change in HP's policies or forecasts. We know, for example, that another PowerPatch is being released this year, a collection of the patches for MPE/iX 7.5. There may be other news, too. A vendor exhibit area at the meeting will let you make face to face contacts with other community suppliers and partners, too.

We believe this is an important meeting, one that you should make a strong effort to attend. Since the resources and strategies of the 3000 community are changing, with third parties playing a larger role than ever, it’s a smart choice to get updated at the GHRUG event. The user group has even added a feature new to conference registration: you can pay the $175 fee online at the event Web site with your credit card or PayPal.