Open Source booms as ApacheCon Europe 2008 pulls in record crowds Official European conference of The Apache Software Foundation achieved 40% growth in registered attendee numbers and stronger sponsorship from leading tech organisations, signifying greater awareness, interest and investment in Open Source technology in Europe.
Amsterdam - 29 April 2008 - ApacheCon Europe, the official conference of The Apache Software Foundation, has announced that the 2008 event, held in April, attracted higher than ever attendance figures, with 496 registered attendees for this year's event. This figure represents an increase of more than 40% over the previous year, demonstrating the rapidly growing interest in Open Source software amongst European businesses. Further proof of the increasing take-up of Open Source technology was demonstrated by the fact that all of the pre-conference training sessions, including the new two-day training events, were nearly sold out. The conference also attracted a larger number of sponsors this year, including several high profile partners such as Google, Hewlett Packard, and Yahoo!. Lars Eilebrecht, Vice President of Conference Planning, Apache Software Foundation said, "The success of this year's ApacheCon Europe provides a clear signal that Open Source technology is now a significant component of the European IT landscape. Organisations throughout Europe are increasingly recognising the many benefits that Open Source software offers over its proprietary counterparts, and this is reflected in their increased spending on Open Source training and development." Several distinguished keynote speakers attended the 2008 conference including Cliff Schmidt from Literacy Bridge, Rishab Aiyer Ghosh from the Open Source Initiative and Roy Fielding from Day Software. This event was supported by CrowdVine for Conferences (http://apacheconeu2008.crowdvine.com/), a social networking site designed to help delegates, sponsors and speakers make the most of their time at the conference. And for the first time, Linux New Media provided a live streaming of the Keynotes and one track each day. You can view these at http://streaming.linux-magazin.de/en/archive_apachecon08eu.htm. The keynotes are available for free and the other talks are available for 49 Euro. The response from bloggers who attended the conference has been overwhelmingly positive, with comments such as the following finding their way onto the blogosphere: "The last five days I have been in Amsterdam to attend ApacheCon. The conference this year, as always, was really amazing. The presentations I attended were absolutely on the top-level." - Petar Tahchiev http://weblogs.java.net/blog/paranoiabla/archive/2008/04/apachecon_in_am.html "I presented twice at ApacheCon Europe last week. Both times the room was full - I think ApacheCon Europe is starting to have a bit of buzz that wasn't there before. The conversations were excellent." - Paul Fremantle http://pzf.fremantle.org/2008/04/presentations-from-apachecon.html "This was my first ApacheCon, I really enjoyed myself. Many thanks to the sponsors and organisers for a great event." - Jeremy Quinn http://blog.fiveone.org/2008/04/apachegone.html The ApacheCon Planning Committee wants to thank all the speakers, attendees and the sponsors, exhibitors, media and community partners - Accenture, The Apache Software Foundation, Cloudmark, Covalent & Spring Source, Crowdvine, Day, Feather Cast, Google, HALO Worldwide, Hippo, Hewlett Packard, IONA, JTeam, Linux Magazine, Linux New Media, SkillsMatter, SOPERA, ThinkGeek, Wifisoft.Org, WSO2, and Yahoo!. The next ApacheCon will be held in the United States, in the beautiful city of New Orleans in November of this year. For more information please visit http://www.us.apachecon.com or email [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sponsorship opportunities are now available - please contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] About ApacheCon Europe 2008 ApacheCon is the official user conference of The Apache Software Foundation (ASF), drawing ASF Members, innovators, developers, vendors, and users to experience the future of Open Source development. The most influential platform dialogue amongst the Apache community at large, ApacheCon is the must-attend user and developer forum showcasing key Apache and Open Source technologies. Attendees meet, mingle, and exchange ideas with like-minded participants on groundbreaking technologies and emerging industry trends, through informal networking, peer discussions, Birds-of-a-Feather sessions, and entertaining social events. Drawing internationally-renowned thought-leaders, contributors, influencers, and organizations in the Open Source community, ApacheCon offers insight into the culture and community that develops and shepherds industry-leading Open Source projects, including Apache HTTP Server - the world's most popular Web server software for twelve years running. ###
