World’s Largest IT Service and Support Event, HDI 2006 Conference & Expo to Take Place March 19-22

17th Annual HDI Event to Be Held at the Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tenn.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - January 9, 2006 – HDI, the world's largest membership association for IT service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry, today announced that the HDI 2006 Conference & Expo – "Get Connected" (http://www.thinkhdi.com/hdi2006) will be held March 19-22, 2006 at the Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tenn. More than 2,500 IT service and support professionals and industry leaders will congregate for the world's largest conference addressing the latest trends in the help desk and IT support industry.
HDI 2006's conference program is designed to provide help desk and support professionals with in-depth education, insight into today's and tomorrow's challenges and a valuable opportunity to network with their peers from around the globe. The program will enable service and support organizations to maximize performance and productivity, become more strategic and integrate more effectively with their organizations overall. The four-day event will feature an expo hall showcasing the latest tools, technologies and services from nearly 100 exhibitors, and will offer a robust conference program with more than 100 sessions in several tracks including:

Essentials for New Support Managers
Executive Focus
Issues & Answers for Customer Service
Issue & Answers for Technical Support
The Human Factors
The Technology Zone In addition, for the first time ever, attendees will have the opportunity to obtain HDI Certification while onsite at the event. Attendees will be able to take an in-depth preparatory course, join a study group, participate in “Exam Cram” sessions with the experts and then take their certification tests at the Help Desk Analyst, Support Center Team Lead and Help Desk Manager levels. In addition, attendees can study for and achieve ITIL IT Service Management Essentials Certification.

HDI founder and CEO Ron Muns will present the State of the Industry address in a featured keynote presentation. In addition, a number of other inspirational and entertaining keynote presentations will be featured, including:
World record wheelchair athlete Chad Hymas -"Who Needs Legs When You Have Wings"
Author of Living on the Fault Line Geoffrey Moore - "Dealing with Darwin"
Jeopardy Champion Ken Jennings - "Let's Play Jeopardy"
Author of First, Break All the Rules Marcus Buckingham - "The One Thing You Need to Know"
Emmy Award Winning Comedian Ross Shafer - "Nobody Moved Your Cheese"
Speaker, author and songwriter David Timmons - "Your Leadership Brilliance: The ART of Influencing Excellence"
“The HDI Annual Conference & Expo is the definitive gathering for service and support professionals. From senior IT executives, to directors, managers and new support managers, HDI 2006 offers valuable practical and success-oriented education,” stated Ron Muns, founder and CEO of HDI. “HDI's goal is to inspire, motivate and help our membership and the industry at large to become more effective. The HDI 2006 Conference & Expo allows us to achieve this goal by bringing industry leaders from around the globe together with the largest gathering of internal and external help desk, customer service and technical support professionals, IT managers, directors and senior level executives in the world.”

For media and analyst registration, contact Jennifer McClure of New Communications Strategies at (650) 331-0083 or email [email protected]. For more information on HDI 2006, visit http://www.thinkhdi.com/hdi2006, or call 1-800-248-5667.

About HDI
HDI is the world's largest membership association for IT service and support professionals and the premier certification body for the industry. Founded in 1989, HDI's mission is to lead and promote the IT service and support industry by empowering its members through access to timely and valuable industry information, including reports and publications; encouraging member collaboration through events and online forums; and establishing internationally recognized, standards-based industry certification and training programs. In addition to membership, certification and training, HDI produces the world's largest and highest-rated event for service and support professionals, the HDI Annual Conference & Expo. HDI is member-focused, and remains vendor-neutral in its efforts to facilitate open, independent networking and information sharing within the association network. HDI has more than 7,500 members worldwide including many of the Fortune 500, and 60 local chapters in North America. For more information, visit http://www.thinkhdi.com.

Media Contact:
Jennifer McClure
New Communications Strategies
(650) 331-0083
[email protected]