Spring World 2005 Another Great Success

By Jon Seals

More than 1,100 attendees joined expert speakers and exhibitors for a total of 1,500 people at Walt Disney World’s Coronado Springs Resort in Orlando, Fla., for the Disaster Recovery Journal Spring World 2005 conference March 6-9.
“We are very pleased once again by the excellent turnout, supporting the idea that business continuity is growing rapidly,” said Bob Arnold, vice president of Disaster Recovery Journal. “Another show that pulled in nearly 1,500 participants and a sold out exhibit hall really speaks highly of this industry.”
SunGard, the gold sponsor of DRJ’s 32nd conference in 16 years, hosted the Monday night hospitality event.
“Attendees really seemed to enjoy themselves at the Mardi Gras celebration hosted by SunGard,” said Arnold. “DRJ truly appreciates SunGard and all of our past and future gold sponsors. The Monday night celebration has become a huge hit at all of our shows.”
Bearing Point, Forsythe, and Hewlett-Packard were silver sponsors of Spring World 2005.
Co-sponsors included: Agility Recovery Solutions, AlarmPoint by Invoq Systems, COOP Services, Herakles Data, IBM, MessageOne, and StorageTek. Virtual corporation sponsored the mock disaster while Rentsys sponsored the cyber city. FedEx Custom Critical is the official transportation sponsor of DRJ conferences. DRI International and PPBI are non-profit sponsors of the conference.
The exhibit hall was filled to capacity, with more than 85 exhibitors manning almost 100 booths.
Sessions featured a wide variety of topics, coinciding with current events and industry trends.
DRJ President Richard L. Arnold was particularly excited about the new Advanced Networking Session for experienced planners (see Page 10 for more information).
“We continue to pull in a great deal of novice business continuity planners,” said Bob Arnold, “but DRJ has made a concerned effort to attract seasoned planners. The benefit from networking with these veterans will certainly enhance the experience for all of our attendees.”
Other highlights of the show included a special session on the tsunami, keynote speaker Tim Gard, and a general session presentation by former NFL quarterback Joe Theismann, who related his personal comeback to recovering from a disaster. Theismann’s appearance was sponsored by Forsythe.
Daily attendance prize winners included: William Hastings (gift basket), Joni Gates (gift basket), Becky Whipple (two Cirque du Soleil tickets), and John Marino (two Disney theme park tickets).
Vicente Gonzalez won first prize in the attendance drawing Wednesday morning, with Kelly T. Cuddeback and Julius Edwards finishing second and third.
“If you did not have a chance to join us for this great show, we will be in San Diego in the fall and back in Orlando in the spring of 2006,” said Bob Arnold.
DRJ will hold its 33rd conference Sept. 18-21, 2005, in San Diego, Calif. For more information on Fall World 2005, see pages 79-85.

Jon Seals is the editor and chief of Disaster Recovery Journal. A 15-year veteran journalist, Seals has been honored with dozens of state, regional and national awards for his work as a reporter, columnist, page designer and editor.

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