Viewed as a technical conference, OpenForum ’92 in Utrecht, the Netherlands last week was a successful event, with top-class speakers addressing an informed and interested audience. Even the business side included the likes of Doug Michels from the Santa Cruz Operation Inc, Chuck Reilly from the Open Software Foundation and Roel Pieper from Unix System Laboratories Inc, and was well attended. The problem was that OpenForum ’92 was originally intended to be an exhibition as well, and the relatively late decision by the organisers to focus more on the conference was not communicated clearly enough to some of the exhibiting vendors. Digital Equipment Corp, introducted the Alpha line to the Dutch market here, and Hewlett-Packard Co, had each spent a lot of money assembling and staffing the stands and were less than happy with the trickle of visitors descending from the various sessions down onto the floor.
