What No Vegas for PartnerWorld? Phew!

Attendance and attention at IBM PartnerWorld keynotes should improve this year after Channel execs made the call to move the show from Las Vegas to St. Louis.

Channel execs said they made the call to move the show after partners expressed some waning interest in a fourth consecutive PW in Sin City.

And the city is fitting for this PartnerWorld’s theme, “Gateway to Growth.” (That big upside down horseshoe on the City’s Mississippi riverfront is actually the Gateway Arch.)

The city might also be favored over Vegas by IBM Chairman Sam Palmisano, who is making his first PartnerWorld appearance in a few years, for the second day keynote.

Ravi Marwaha, Don Atkins replacement as General Manager of IBM Global Business Partners, kicks off the first day’s keynote in his first major introduction to partners since taking the post in December.