iNET Interactive (inetinteractive.com), which acquired HostingCon earlier this month, will take full control in planning the event from here on out, starting with HostingCon 2009.

The day begins with a keynote presentation entitled "Sealing the Deal," moderated by David Snead, an attorney and fellow WHIR writer, as well as feature a panel of experts which includes HostMySite.com CSO Lou Honick, DH Capital managing director Paul Stapleton, and Cheval Capital president Francis Stiff.

The discussion will pit the hosting industry's top deal makers against each other as they try to determine a company's monetary worth as well as its potential buyers.

Some of the day's highlights will include the session "Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining", where Layered Tech CMO John Pozadzides will present on cloud computing's marketing terminology, upcoming solutions, and overall challnges facing the industry.

The growth session "Best Practices of Support Teams for Better Customer Retention" will see Sojish Krishnan, member of the Bobcares executive team, discuss the importance of an effective support team, as well as how a company can build their team, evaluate their performance and keep them motivated.

In "Flip That Hosting Company", New Commerce Communications president Tom Millitzer will discuss the process of acquiring a hosting company for the purpose of profit.

The exhibit hall opens at 10:30 a.m. through 4:00 p.m., demonstrating over 100 companies in the hosted solutions and related areas sector, including Microsoft, Google, cPanel, GeoTrust, Hostopia, Parallels, RatePoint, Sedo, SoftLayer, and Zeus Technology.

The day will close with a rooftop barbecue party, followed by a fireworks display over Navy Pier.

HostingCon 2009 will take place next year in Washington DC from August 10 to 12 at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center. For more photos from HostingCon 2008, visit Flickr.