Karla Winter Marketing Program Manager HP Imaging and Printing Group

Greetings from the HP Tech Forum in Las Vegas, where things are hot.  Not only is the temperature hot, 107 degrees, but so are the offerings from HP. 

We’ve taken over the Mandalay Bay Hotel and Convention Center for HP Tech Forum 2008.  HP Tech Forum is a technical training event and showcase where customers and resellers can learn about the latest HP enterprise technologies, products, applications and services as well as participate in discussions that will shape future offerings.  Numerous breakout sessions, hands-on training and demonstrations are available. 

The event started with a general session Tuesday morning featuring Randy Mott, HP’s CIO, sharing the story of HP’s IT transformation.  Ann Livermore, HP’s Executive Vice President for the Technology Solutions Group, then took the stage and continued the story.  Mark Hurd made a quick appearance to answer some questions and to thank everyone for their business and for coming to the event.  The room was packed, with many people standing.  Live music blasted from the stage and created a party-like atmosphere.  The “host” of the event had the audience dancing and shouting “HP Rocks”.  One customer from Canada was put on the spot and asked to do some dancing.  He was a great sport and had the moves! 

I’m helping to staff the expo area where the power of HP is on display.  We have servers, storage options, software, services, PCs and printing – the one place where a customer can see everything HP has to offer.  The expo area also has several companies demonstrating how their products and solutions work with HP. 

On the printing side, we’ve seen great interest in the Universal Print Driver and multifunction printers, and how MFPs can be an alternative to a copier.  We’ve also talked to customers about the importance of having a printing and imaging strategy in place and how a better optimized printing and imaging infrastructure can result in cost savings. 

I am looking forward to meeting more customers and hearing what their needs are and discussing how HP can help them. 

Technorati tags: enterprise printing, hp, Hewlett Packard, HP Tech Forum