According to its latest press release, Parallels says the current number of registered attendees more than doubles the number last year and with a little less than three weeks to go, it'll be interesting to see how many more register for the event.

"We are pleased to see so much interest in the Parallels Summit 2008 among registrants and sponsors that include an impressive group of globally recognized industry leaders and innovators," says Kurt Daniel, senior VP of marketing and online, Parallels. "This event gives business and technical professionals a unique opportunity to network with their peers and share insights on important computing trends such as virtualization, software as a service, 'green' hosting and more."

The two-day, free event will focus on hosting and software as a service, as well as feature topics such as 'green' hosting, virtualization and open platform.

The company says this year's event will feature keynotes by industry leaders and innovators, as well as in-depth product, strategy and networking sessions for business and technical professionals. Parallels is also holding "hands-on labs" for its product portfolio, including Parallels Plesk Control Panel, Parallels Virtuozzo Containers and Parallels Plesk Billing, sponsored by HP.

Some of the other major partners for this year's event include platinum sponsor Microsoft, gold sponsor Intel, and silver sponsors spreed, Open-Xchange, e.pages, Mesh Solutions and SoftLayer.

The Summit program concludes on May 20 at 5 p.m. following a closing ceremony that is highlighted with giveaways from Apple, Microsoft and Magellan. There will also be three evening networking events for attendees, says Parallels.

Within the industry, there has been a growing trend for companies to hold events for their clients and partners. Within the next few months, Web hosting control panel software provider cPanel will be holding its third annual 2008 cPanel Conference and Layered Technologies will be holding its third annual LTPact event.