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Industry events and meetings were abruptly suspended last week as people struggled to cope with personal losses and transit shut-- downs during the terrorist crises in New York and Washington.
At least two meetings ended with the fiery blast of a commercial jet crashing into the World Trade Center. Compaq and Accenture were co-sponsoring a financial technology conference, organized by Risk Waters Group of London, on the 106th floor of the North Tower when the hijacked planes hit. At press time, the companies reported that 114 people remained unaccounted for, including 12 Accenture employees and 16 Risk Waters staffers.
The Tuesday morning attack also halted a storage educational session held by Ingram Micro and Quantum/ATL on the 78th floor of the North Tower. Spokesmen for both companies said their personnel escaped, including Quantum/ATL employees who worked in the building.
At three other events-- Networld+Interop in Atlanta, CIA's Wireless IT conference in San Diego and the Compaq Enterprise Technical Symposium 2001 in Anaheim, Calif-the shocking news disrupted activities. Solution providers scrambled to find rental cars to drive home, and some vendors rented buses to transport staff and customers.
At N+I, vendors such as...