Cloud Circle forum attracts industry heavyweights

UK-based utility computing community The Cloud Circle is holding its first forum  at London's Victoria Park Plaza on April 20.

The one-day conference is entitled "Getting to grips with the business-critical fundamentals of cloud computing" and features speakers from organisations like EasyJet, The University of Westminster, legal giant Ashurst and outsourcing heavyweight InTechnology. In its short history, The Cloud Circle has attracted a good deal of such corporate support. Both Google and Microsoft are sponsoring the April forum and darling of the SaaS scene SalesForce is also providing a panellist.

"Google, Microsoft and Mimecast were all sponsors of The Cloud Circle launch event on February 23, 2010, and were extremely impressed with the quality of end-users who attended the event," says The Cloud Circle's Hannah Mitchell. "Over 120 members responsible for investigating, evaluating, driving or implementing cloud computing initiatives across business and in IT within their organisations attended the launch event."

The Cloud Circle says that over 800 members have joined since it was launched in December last year under the aegis of BI and corporate performance interest group Obis Omni. Mitchell says that, so far, the membership is predominantly UK-based, but she is seeing an increase in registrations from members based in Ireland and mainland Europe.

Given the nature of the members who have already signed up to attend the April forum, perhaps it is no surprise that the Cloud Circle has garnered such heavyweight industry support. CXO-level delegates make up 13%, 58% are in senior management and 25% middle management with a fairly even balance between business-focused and IT-focused execs. The majority are from firms with between 1000 and over 5000 employees.

Mitchell says: "Our key message is that we are not a one-hit-wonder events company. The Cloud Circle is a membership community and the sponsors who support our events have the unique opportunity to see only end-user, pre-screened members in front of them and have the ability to build strong relationships with them. Our mission is to provide a forum for our members to exchange ideas, expertise and best practice on cloud computing. Our aim is to get beyond the hype, to the business issues around cloud computing and to help our members understand what cloud computing really means and the potential advantages of cloud computing to their organisation."

For more information and registration, see The Cloud Circle website.