Penton Media Tech Conference Heads for Nice, France
Staff -- Tradeshow Week, 3/13/2006
Penton Media's Tech Conferences division has already had success drawing attendees to its four-in-one information technology conferences in the United States. Now, the company is ready to launch in Europe.
Comprised of four segments — ASP.NET, Visual Studio Connections, SQL Server Connections and Microsoft Exchange Connections conferences — the inaugural Connections Europe is set for April 24–26 at the Nice-Acropolis Convention Centre in Nice, France.
Together, the developer conferences will offer 100 sessions, with registrants for one segment being granted admittance to the entire conference. Organizers did not say how many attendees or exhibitors they expected.
The European event is being produced by Tech Conferences in partnership with Penton's Windows IT Media group, and is being co-sponsored by Microsoft.
"Our Connections technology conferences are very successful in the United States," stated Shirley Brothers, president of the Tech Conferences division. "We expect this launch in Europe to be the start of a series of successful events overseas."
The next U.S. version of the event, the DevConnections Conference & Expo, is set for April 2–5 at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando. The fall event, set for Nov. 6–10 at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay Casino & Resort, will feature an added Mobility Connections component, expected to boost attendance to 4,000 from its usual 2,800.
Besides magazines and newsletters, the Windows IT Media group over the years has produced several series of road shows that include one-day stops in a number of cities. Several hundred attendees and a dozen or so vendors typically show up for each event.
The group launched its Windows Security Tour in four cities in October 2002. In early 2003, it took its Microsoft Mobility Tour to seven cities and its HP & Microsoft Network Storage Solutions Road Show to 10 cities. Hewlett-Packard teamed up with Microsoft and Penton later in 2003 on taking the Mobile & Wireless Road Show to 10 cities.
