ITWire

IBM promises that at the event, dubbed 'Upload' that "You'll get the same experience as attending a physical event, including the ability to network with other attendees, exhibitors and IBM company representatives, without having to leave your desk." It says it has "collected together some of the world's foremost specialists and experts from across the industry to talk about topics that are having the most impact on organisations."

The presentations are viewed in the virtual auditorium and there is a virtual exhibition hall with stands from IBM, IBM business partners and specialist exhibitors. The hall also boasts "a live chat booth with personnel to answer any questions and product inquiries you may have." Then there's the networking lounge with "the ability to see who is currently in the lounge, meet peers and have group chats about critical issues of interest."

Registration is free and for anyone unable to sit down in front of their computer for all or part of the day, registrants will be able to access archived presentations at www.ibm.com/events/au/upload (Australia) or www.ibm.com/events/nz/upload (New Zealand) for 90 days.

All that's needed to access are a high speed Internet connection and a Windows PC with Internet Explorer 6.0 minimum or Firefox 1.5 or higher or a Mac with Firefox 1.5 or higher. Macromedia Flash Player 8 or higher is also required.

The conference kicks off at 9.00 am AEST with a five minute keynote address from Glen Boreham, CEO and managing director of IBM Australia and New Zealand. He's followed by Mark J Hennessy, VP CIO, IBM who will talk on "The CIO as Catalyst for change." The conference then breaks into two streams from 10:00 till 13:00, when there is a half hour virtual lunch break (if you want a real one you'll have to organise it yourself). Then there is a half hour plenary session "Notes from the future of IT infrastructure management" from Richard Watson, chief futurist, Future Exploration Network.

For the rest of the day the conference again splits into two streams with one featuring presentations from gold sponsors Nortel and VMware. Darren Leffler, product manager, Nortel will speak on 'managing the customer experience in a Web 2.0 world.' He will be followed by VMware senior systems engineer in the finance sector, Michael Bookey, speaking on " Virtualisation - beyond the traditional data centre."

Finally there is another plenary "How resilient are you?" from Andrew Fry, service product line leader, business continuity & resiliency services (BCRS) IBM Global Technology Services." The conference closes with a networking session and a chance to visit the virtual exhibition.