Looking for alternatives to HP Discover for 2012

[Paul Maglinger]

I'm looking to spend our training dollars on something better than what Discover 2011 turned out to be.  I can see why they no longer called it a 'technology forum".  What a disappointment.  I skipped one year, 2010, and this year walked into session after session on sales and how to outsource your IT department to HP services.  Very little available for HP-UX.  So, does anyone have any suggestions for a "technology forum" next year for HP-UX system administrators?

[Robert_Jewell]

That is sad to hear.  I typically attend every other Tech Forum due to budgeting, etc.  When I seen the new "Discover" format I was a bit intrigued, but since I went in 2010 wasnt able to go. It was supposed to be a merger of HP Tech Forum and a couple other events I thought and that drove the name change.  From your comments you were dissapointed in the lack of technical info and to be honest, I felt the same in 2010 (comparing back to 2008 and even earlier when it was HP World).

Anyone else have comparable feedback regarding Discover 2011?

[Bart_Heungens]

Hi,

I went to HP Discover in Vegas in 2011 and I am one of the happy visitors... I was not there for HP-UX so I cannot confirm that but on server, virtualization, storage and management level, I must admit that there were too much technical sessions to fit in my agenda...

I also met a lot of interesting people that I would not be able to meet here in Europe...

So for me, HP Discover 2012 is already in my agenda!

Kr,

Bart

[Paul Maglinger]

Not much action on this posting.  I'm glad that your sessions were more productive than mine.  I'm still looking for alternatives for something for the HP-UX crowd.  Any other comments?

[Dave Olker]

Hi Paul,

Did you provide feedback to the Discover folks on the sessions you attended, both positive and negative?  Having presented at many HP-UX conferences, including Discover, I can tell you that if a session/speaker receives a lot of negative feedback that will affect their chances of getting their abstracts approved for future conferences.  This kind of feedback is very important for the conference coordinators to hear if the subject matter is not meeting attendees needs.

Regards,

Dave

[Paul Maglinger]

Yes, I "dinged" the sessions which I felt were misleading.  My biggest problem was that some of those sessions had descriptions like, "how to be more efficient" and such.  These were presented by HP themselves to promote their services.  To be frankly honest, I went to Discover to learn how to do my job more efficiently, not to learn that HP Services was wanting to do my job. 

[CScharer]

Paul,

Vivit has Advanced "Deep Dive" Sessions at the HP DISCOVER event.  Although I don't know that we have anything with regards to HP-UX.  Please feel free to contact me directly and I can see what I might be able to do to help you out.

[CW_5000]

Paul,

There is a users group for HP Hardware called HP Connect (http://www.connect-community.org/).  While I don't know that they'll be offering training at this event, they have a paid membership that grants members access to among other things, archived webinar and podcasts.  As I'm not a member of Connect (I'm on the software side of the HP pond) and haven't reviewed it, I don't know whether this content will have the answers that you seek. but for $50 a year, it might be worth taking a look.  I did a site search and found a few hits on HP-UX, so it sounds like there's potential.

I hope this helps... thanks!

Colin W. Fries

Vivit Board of Directors

Vivit Worldwide
http://www.vivit-worldwide.org

[Paul Maglinger]

Thanks Colin.  I believe I used to be a member of Connect years back.  I don't know if or how I dropped from membership or lost track of them.  Maybe I missed the renewal notice.  As far as Discover, I'm waiting to see the session calendar before deciding whether to go or not.  And even then, will ask for specific details on the sessions before committing.  We use our training funds to attend this event and it's hard to come with to begin with.  I don't want to waste my time or the company's money.  $50 sounds like a good investment.