‘The Power of 3’ Q&A

SNW Europe, Virtualization World and Datacenter Technologies
Q&A with Marketing Director, Paul Trowbridge

Q - SNW Europe in Frankfurt has been going for five years now, do you think that the event has established itself as Europe’s major annual storage networking showcase?

A - 2009 will in fact be our sixth consecutive year in Frankfurt which in itself lends some credence to our position in the European IT event calendar. We have seen steady growth over that time both in terms of the number of delegates attending the event and the number of organisations supporting it. However we cannot ‘rest on our laurels’, hence the decision this year to co-locate two brand-new events alongside SNW Europe; Virtualization World and Datacenter Technologies, designed to attract a wider audience and more vendors to Frankfurt in October.

Q - The obvious question – this year, with the ongoing global economic turmoil, can we expect vendor and visitors to hold up?

A - The current climate is obviously a concern but we believe that our 2009 plans will help us overcome that challenge.  Firstly the widening of the scope of the event with the two new collocated conferences is already attracting  new sponsors and in fact bringing back others that had not been with us for a couple of  years. Being based in Germany which, by all accounts, is expected to be among the first economies to show signs of recovery, we believe will help generally and last but not least our concentration on delivering a high-value conference program rather than just a trade-show will attract more delegates who can see a real benefit to attending.

Q - Have you established the main theme, or themes, at the 2009 event, and can you give us a flavour of what to expect overall?

A - Our theme this year is ‘The Power of 3’ – emphasising the breadth of content across the three events, all of which are interlinked and represent three of the most important aspects of any organisation’s IT environment today.  We will continue to have a multi-track conference program with a number of key-note sessions, customer case-studies, SNIA tutorials and industry ‘hot-topics’.  We will once again be running the ever-popular ‘Hands-on Lab’ program designed to let delegates get some real-time experience on the latest products and technologies. Finally we are once again discussing content with many of the leading analyst firms and our training partner program is also off to a great start.

Q - Presumably, FcoE, Cloud Computing and Virtualisation will be dominant? Are there any other topics on the horizon, like, say, SSDs?

A - Cloud Computing is obviously a hot-topic this year and we will update our audience on FCoE after the very popular panel debate featured in 2008.  Solid State Storage has certainly leapt up the agenda and SNIA’s Solid State Storage Initiate will be contributing to the program. The impact of virtualization on the industry is plain to see and hence our introduction of dedicated conference tracks and expo area this year.

Q - Working so closely with the event, you must be aware of some of the success stories – where vendors have met new customers, and customers have found the solutions they’ve been looking for – can you share some of those with us?

A - I think they would be too numerous to mention here, without doubt the reason that sponsors and delegates alike keep coming back to SNW Europe year after year is testament to the fact that both constituents get a great deal out of the time they invest in being with us for two days.

Q - SNIA Europe continues to underpin the event – what is the value that they bring as opposed to ‘just another’ trade show?

A - SNW Europe is the flagship platform for SNIA Europe and the two new events are both co-owned by the association.  The vendor-neutral, educational tutorial program forms the backbone of the conference program and I strongly believe that the audience we attract is heavily influenced by that core dedication to sharing knowledge and not just scheduling a number of thinly veiled sales-pitches.

Q - This year, you’ve added data centre and virtualisation events to SNW Europe, what’s the thinking behind this decision?

A - The idea behind the new collocated events was to help reinforce the positioning of SNIA Europe as being more than ‘just storage’.  With its roots in storage and storage networking, SNIA has grown to be involved in so much more, but as you know, brand association can take some time to change and we felt that by deliberately highlighting the virtualization and datacenter links that the association has would help fast-track changes in that perception, while at the same time delivering a bigger and better event for the delegates and of course bring in new sponsors. 

Q - What is the thinking behind adding the DC and Virtualisation events to the already successful SNW Europe?

A - We were discussing the expansion of the SNW Europe program with SNIA from as far back as 2006 and made to proposal to co-locate the new events prior to last year’s conference.  Our relationship with SNIA is long-lasting and mutually beneficial and our rationale was very much driven by the desire of SNIA Europe to position itself as the key industry body that addresses a broad-base of industry standards and technologies.

Q - What has been the response from the vendor community?

A - So far it has been very good - we had obviously sounded out our plans on several key constituents and partners and were encouraged to progress by everyone we spoke to.

Q - And is it too early or not to say if end users find the new event of interest?

A - To be honest yes- our delegate marketing program really kicks-in from June onwards and that is when we will hopefully see the results come through in terms of registrations.

Q - Are you working with any trade organisation relevant to the data centre industry, or keeping the event under SNIA Europe’s guidance?

A - Right now we are working closely with SNIA Europe and are engaged also with BITKOM but there are other interested parties out there that may well come into the frame.

Q - Will the event focus on storage within the data centre environment, or be an all encompassing data centre event – covering everything from servers, applications and security, to hosting, cabling and facilities?

A - As the title says, the aim is to stay focussed on Datacenter Technologies which is pretty broad, we and SNIA Europe have an open mind on the extent to which the event will cover facilities etc..

Q - It’s exciting times within the data centre market, as convergence continues apace – will this be reflected in the conference programme?

A - Certainly convergence will be one key area as will the whole question of sourcing (in or out) and energy efficiency.

Q - Will Virtualization World focus on storage virtualisation exclusively – or all kinds of virtualisation (server, network etc.)?

A - In the main we will be concentrating on server and storage virtualization and the cross-over into cloud computing in particular but we are expecting conference sessions to also touch upon issues around networking in particular.

Q - Will it be a VMware-dominated event – or will visitors be able to see other virtualisation solutions?

A - I am sure that we will be able to present a balanced view and that we will give all the interested parties a fair ‘crack of the whip’.  We are encouraged by the support from a number of leading suppliers and alternatives to the obvious names out there.

Q - Do you think people still need to learn about virtualisation – or are they out there deploying it in test, or real, environments?

A - As in every area there are those early adopters who are well down the road but a vast number of others who may only have conducted pilot schemes or are still reaching aspects. The role of SNIA and of our event is to help guide people regardless of where they are currently at, through a balanced conference program and the opportunity to speak to all the leading players under one roof.

Q - Presumably, cloud computing will feature prominently?

A - Undoubtedly!  SNIA have just announced a technical working group on the topic and we expect to see some interesting materials coming from them in time for the October event.  We are planning a Cloud Computing ‘summit’ as part of the conference proceedings to highlight that area and give delegates the best opportunity to further their knowledge in this area.

Q – Any last comments?  

A – The whole team here at organisers Angel Business Communications are working flat-out to make SNW Europe and the new events a great success – we are already seeing more early registrations than we have in the past two years and several new names joining our list of sponsors – these are two key metrics for us.  We are looking forward to welcoming the widest cross section of IT professionals yet to Frankfurt in October.