WebhostingDay 2009 Approaches

Europe's largest Web hosting event has attracted more than 2,000 registrants thus far for the highly-anticipated 2009 session.

From March 18-20, 2009 the fifth annual edition of WebhostingDay will be held. WebhostingDay 2009 will take place in Bruehl, Germany just outside of Cologne in the Phantasialand theme park and conference center. While one might expect that a trade show event held in this economic climate - with much of the business world suffering through tough economic times - to be undersubscribed, the exact opposite is true. As WebhostingDay approaches, the event looks to be completely full, even before the final week of the registration.

Thomas Strohe is the founder and organizer of WebhostingDay. Mr. Strohe recently commented on the state of signups for WebhostingDay 2009. ”Fantastic, we have more than 2.000 registrations so far, already an 80% increase compared to last year. We are getting close to the max capacity of the venue which is approximately 2,300. We will have to shut down registration if we hit that number. So, if someone wants to attend, they should really sign up asap. We have sold more than 550 hotel rooms to this day.”

In terms of the activities and speakers for this year’s conference, you can view the complete agenda here. Some of the firms scheduled to participate are: Parallels, AMD, Microsoft, Intel, HP and Bob Cares. TopHosts.com, of course, is a media sponsor for WebhostingDay 2009.

Angelika Goll, works for Parallels in Germany and is working on WebhostingDay arrangements on behalf of the company. Ms. Goll explained the role of Parallels at this year’s conference. ”WebhostingDay is the largest hosting event in EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). We are proud to be a top sponsor since the event started. It has been a huge success every year. Cloud Computing is one of the big buzz words in the industry - Parallels has been working in and with the cloud for years. Most of our partners know that already but we are excited to tell new partners how we can help them to be successful in the hosting industry. Partnering is one of our key focuses - we want to understand our partners and get to know them and help them to be successful! We are having three speaking engagements: a keynote address by Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels. Jack Zubarev, President of Parallels will present on empowering hosting resellers. Pat Correia, Senior Marketing Manager SaaS and Matt Leonard, Director Automation Product Marketing, Service Provider Division, Parallels will present on getting SaaS solutions to market quickly.”

If you are planning on attending this year’s conference, also be aware that Parallels is sponsoring a Happy Hour Party on March 18th starting at 5 pm CET. Drinks will be available on a first come first served basis.

As far as new items at this year’s conference, show founder Mr. Strohe mentioned the following: ”This year’s event has some interesting new features, for example CloudCamp, an unconference where early adopters of Cloud Computing come together. CloudCamp is held parallel to WebhostingDay’s second day and its attendees may also take part in all of the WebhostingDay events. Moreover, there will be more hosting.SESSIONs in the afternoons than last year, so that attendees can choose from even more topics. There will also be some additional social events like a Fun Fair in the evening of the first day and a BizBrunch on the third day. All of this guarantees even more information, more networking and more fun than in previous years.”