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September 1999
editor@os2voice.org

Warpstock Europe 99

A small history and preview

By: Christian Hennecke (e-mail: christian.hennecke@ruhr-uni-bochum.de)

Warpstock has been a real success in the USA so far. Since most European OS/2 users didn't have the opportunity to attend many were left wondering if a similar event could be created in Europe. Last year the local german TeamOS/2 user groups decided to try this in a joint effort, but Warpstock Europe 98 was canceled due to organizational problems. What did survive this attempt was the german OS/2 news and Warpstock information site Buntspecht.de that has been providing the german speaking OS/2 users with the latest news since then and the wish to make Warpstock Europe reality.

Well, finally this wish IS to become reality in the time of 1. - 4. Octobre 1999 at the University of Bochum, Germany! (And by the way, we don't consider its international acronym BUG an ill omen!) Entry is free! Meanwhile we have over 300 registrations including people from the Netherlands, Denmark, France, Italy, Switzerland and ... Saudi-Arabia!!! So this is truly going to be Warpstock Europe.

A few months ago contact between the user groups and the university was established by Olaf Cichewicz, an OS/2 user who is working at the faculty of physics and deserves our thankfulness for carrying a huge load of organizational work and being one of the main persons for contact. The university will provide us with an infrastructure that is ideal for such an event. After the place and time had been confirmed a new website for information, registration and feedback was set up: www.warpstock.de. Slowly, but increasingly faster offers for lectures and workshops dropped in. By now the timetable is almost filled.

One thing that we learned from trying to convince companies to exhibit at Warpstock Europe is that we will have to begin organization earlier next time, some months earlier. We didn't think of the time the companies will need to decide, plan and invest part of their budget into exhibiting. Another is that even ISVs making OS/2 software (which I think proposes some enthusiasm) decide whether to attend or not at least partly depending on economic analysis. So the question is "Will exhibiting pay?". Well, judging from the negative reaction we got from a few companies I'd say that the image factor is a bit underestimated and/or that some are selling so much that they think it's not important any more.

So what will be really going on at Warpstock Europe? First there is the exhibition. Several companies and organizations are attending, among which are:

The second part are sessions and workshops. There will be two to three parallel blocks consisting of up to 5 session-units of 45 - 60 minutes and 1 workshop unit of 2 - 3 hours per day. All sessions and workshops will be offered twice during the four days, so everyone should have the opportunity to attend everything she/he wants to. No matter if you are a normal end user, a power-user, a developer or interested in building a LAN for your company, the wide range of topics offers something for everybody. Here is a selection:
If you are interested in attending Warpstock Europe 99 please register via its homepage - http://www.warpstock.de/en/index.html to help us planning. The following addresses should be used for contact:
I'm looking forward to see you at Warpstock Europe 99! (Or otherwise I hope you'll attend Warpstock Atlanta 99 or Warp Expo West!)

Christian is a student of geography at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum (the place where Warpstock Europe 99 is happening) and an OS/2 user since Warp 3.

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