By Brian Proffitt
Managing Editor
The booths have all been taken down, the smiling penguins packed
away. Another LinuxWorld Expo has come and gone in San Francisco,
and all that’s left to do it wait until the cold harsh winter to
see the penguin again, right?
If that’s what you think, then you will be pleasantly surprised
to learn of a series of ongoing LinuxWorld conferences and expos
taking place throughout the world throughout the months of June
through October–shows that, like their US counterparts, hope to
deliver the good news of Linux and open source whererever they
open.
The development of these shows has occured via serveral methods,
according to IDG World Expo Group VP Warwick Davies.
“Some have grown organically, some were formed from
partnerships, and some are new stakes,” Davies explained.
Starting on September 22, LWE will travel to Europe, where one
of those new stakes will be the first LWE held in the nation of
Italy.
LinuxWorld Expo Italy in scheduled in Milan (Crowne Plaza Milan
Linate) from Sept. 22-24. This is the second planned venue for the
show, as the show has already outgrown its first venue, Davies
reported.
The Milan show will feature an expo show floor accompanied by a
series of conference tracks that show organizers hope will attract
both the business- and technical-minded. Tracks will include “Linux
for E-Gov,” “Linux for Executives,” “Linux for SMEs,” “Linux for
System Integration/Migration,” “Linux for Embedded and Devices,”
“Linux for Desktop Integration,” “Linux for Banking and Finance,”
“Linux for Multimedia,” and “Linux Security.” A final, “Open
Source? Made in Italy!” track that features Zope and project
Amberle will also be presented.
The show will return to Tokyo again from Sept. 29-30, though for
its second 2004 appearance, it will be a conference only. Two of
the show’s sponsors, NEC and Oracle, will each have their own track
on one of the conference days, with Oracle strongly pushing its
Unbreakable Linux line. HP and Sun Microsystems will also be
involved in the conference program, as high-end and desktop system
capabilities will be presented to Japanese attendees.
The show will be hosted in the Shunjuku NS Building (NS Hall) in
downtown Tokyo.
Following the Tokyo show will be the largest LWE outside of the
United States, thanks to a recent merger of two large Linux
events.
The six-year-old London-based show recently merged with two
other British Linux conferences (Linux Expo UK and the Linux
Developer and User Group Conference) to become what organizers hope
be a much larger and more vibrant event.
According to the show’s Web site, the conference, which takes
place on Oct. 6-7, will be split into four half-day tracks, chaired
by Graham Taylor of Open Forum Europe and with daily opening
addresses from John “Maddog” Hall, President, Linux International
Inc. On Oct. 6 there will be two half-day tracks focusing on “Linux
for the Technical Team.” “Linux for Enterprise” will take place in
the morning and “Linux in the Public Sector” in the afternoon of
Oct. 7.
The London show will be hosted at the Olympia 2 convention
center, Olympia, London.
IDG will be partnering with VNU Exhibitions Europe in
cooperation with IDG will organize the Dutch version of LWE on Oct.
13-14.
This show is being organized as a much smaller, intimate version
of the other LWE conferences. IDG has partnered with European media
group VNU to conduct this LWE, which is being co-located with an
existing security event.
The Utrecht event will have a single conference track covering a
variety of business and technical topics on each day. These topics
include certification, FUD (Fear Uncertainty Doubt), User-mode
Linux, firewalls, migration, as well as Linux in the enterprise and
Linux on the desktop.
The show will be held in Jaarbeurs, Hall 8, in Utrecht, The
Netherlands.
Finally, the LWE global tour will wrap up with a stop in
Frankfurt, Germany on Oct. 26-28. The conference is geared to be a
solid European information platform for IT decision-makers from all
branches of business. The program is designed to provide insights
into the latest technological developments and offers help on
decisions about investment in Linux-based IT structures, according
to show organizers.
Topics will include: clustering/HPC/grid,
communications/networking, databases, desktop, embedded, security,
server management, software development, and storage.
The Frankfurt show will be hosted at the Frankfurt Trade Fair
and Exhibition Center, Hall 4.
Davies and the rest of his IDG colleagues are excited about the
growth of the LinuxWorld brand, and are working to strengthen that
brand across all of these conferences. Though all shows’
conferences are put together by local advisory boards, Davies
stated that there will be consistencies between all expos.
For starters, all of the shows will be targeted towards the IT
decision makers in enterprise and SMBs, regardless of the region.
Some channels might be more focused upon in one show versus
another, but the core audience will remain this group.
Davies indicated that IDG World Expo sees no signs of slowing
down for 2005. All of the locales in 2004 will be repeated next
year, though there is currently some question as to whether the
Utrecht show will remain in that city or be relocated to another
Netherlands city. Davies hinted at additional shows, but declined
to comment on these locations, citing ongoing negotiations.
Davies did confirm the recent announcement that the Real World
Linux Conference and Expo in Canada has been acquired by IDG and
will now be known as LinuxWorld Conference and Expo Canada.
For more information on the remaining 2004 shows, visit the
LinuxWorld
Expo site.