First there is the 3rd Annual Warpstock event to be held October 16-17, 1999 in Atlanta, Georgia. As you may recall, the first Warpstock was held in Southern California and drew an audience primarily from the West Coast. Last year's show in Chicago drew from the mid-west, and this year's event should, in theory, draw predominantly from the east coast.
Starting from humble beginnings, Warpstock has become the preeminent OS/2 event in the world. A lot of planning, organization and polish have gone into developing the conference which now attracts vendors and users from around the world. For more information on Warpstock, please see their web page at: http://www.warpstock.org/.
Not to be outdone by the Americans, the Europeans have organized the first Warpstock Europe 99 conference to be held October 1-4, 1999 in Bochum, Germany. After a false start to put on an event last year, Team OS/2 Deutschland eV and the University of Bochum have organized a Warpstock primarily for the German market, where OS/2 is still very much alive. The event's web page is at http://www.warpstock.de/ and includes an English translation.
The newest OS/2 related event is Warp Expo West which is being sponsored by the Southern California OS/2 User Group (SCOUG), a large and thriving user group that helped launch Warpstock three years ago. With Warpstock now located in Atlanta, west coast users became somewhat restless and yearned for their own show, consequently SCOUG is putting on a complete exposition, featuring lectures, demonstrations, and vendor presentations. Warp Expo West will take place at the Chapman Conference Facilities in Orange, California, just four miles from Disneyland, on Saturday September 18, 1999. For more information on the conference, visit SCOUG's web page at: http://www.scoug.com/ or e-mail the conference coordinator, Rollin White at Rollin@scoug.com.
So what does all this mean?
First, that OS/2 users will not go away quietly into the night. They believe in the product and want to see it enhanced by the vendor. Second, such expositions help keep OS/2 specific vendors in business, thereby providing the means to further develop their products for the OS/2 world. Third, these shows provide a platform for users to voice their support of OS/2 to the vendor, the press, and the world.
Recently I was contacted by a writer from PC MAGAZINE who was asked to develop a "Where are they now?" article on PC products. Not knowing a thing about OS/2 (he had never heard of it) he searched the Internet and came across our OS/2 CONNECT newsletter. Consequently, he telephoned me and asked for my opinion of the product. For those of you who have followed my column, you can probably guess my response: "Great product, horrible marketing by the vendor." What baffled the interviewer more than anything was the loyalty of OS/2 users to the product. I described the historical development of OS/2 along with the precedents it set, and, bottom-line explained why OS/2 was better than Windows. Having only been a Windows user, it was difficult to assimilate what I was talking about; e.g., SOM, Workplace Shell, embedded Java support, etc. However, he did appreciate my description and was impressed with the user loyalty, as expressed by such conferences as Warpstock.
The point is, the conferences described in this article are vital for the survival of OS/2. As long as users organize such events, IBM cannot completely turn its back on this powerful operating platform.
It will be interesting to see who attends these conferences, both users and vendors (including IBM). I wish conference organizers the best of luck.
Keep the Faith!
