San Fran faces glut of vendor conferences

The city by the bay will play host to BEA Systems' BEAworld on 10-12 September, overlapping with VMWare's VMworld from the 11th to the 13th. Then Salesforce.com's Dreamforce takes root from the 17th to the 19th, criss-crossing with Intel's Developer Forum, which runs from the 18th to the 20th. At this rate, you won't be able to walk down Market street for all the discarded USB keys and nasty sponsored bags.

The packed schedule will bring millions into Californian coffers as well-heeled visitors spend big in hotels, restaurants and shops, but the fixture congestion means that some delegates, speakers and hacks will be forced to stay on in the city and do double-duty.

September won't be the end of the conference glut. Oracle's monster Openworld event is due in November while the CTIA's Wireless IT conference runs in October.

It gets worse for those of you work for these companies. BEA execs will schlep from San Francisco in September to Barcelona in early October and then head east to Shanghai in December. Intel will follow up IDF in SF with a similar event in Taipei in mid-October. Asia and eastern Europe have seen conference action escalating in the past few years as suppliers seek to chat up lucrative growth markets.

The collapse of big business expos such as Comdex has given more focus to vendor conferences. That inflation means that fewer cities now get to host the big IT names. In the past, New York, Paris and London could get these gigs but now SF, Las Vegas Barcelona and Shanghai are hogging the pie.

And what common theme that will doubtless be trotted out by vendors flying in the droves of visitors? Why, the environment, of course. µ