1,000 Web hosting enthusiasts gathered at the Phantasialand in Bruhl, Germany for two days (March 12,13) of hosting hoopla.

“Welcome to Fantasy Island,” the cabbie said. “That will be ten euros.” So in a sleep deprived, jetlagged state I briefly picture the white-suited Mr. Roarke and his sidekick Tattoo. That smile never left my face and I found myself chuckling as Dr. Jens Bocker delivered the opening address for Europe’s largest Web hosting event. He got to a pie chart quickly that displayed the largest chunk of the 1,000 registrants (a new attendance record) come specifically to ride the roller coaster under the disguise of a business trip.

It was all serious Web hosting business from then on as another Jens, Mr. Schneider, Executive Director of Hosting Business at visionapp delved into, “The easy way to be a SaaS provider”. Hosting providers have to participate in this roller coaster market, we’re told, as apparently 80 percent of companies want to adopt SaaS by the end of this year. Opportunities exist in providing infrastructure services, application hosting services and managed services in what will be “a billion dollar industry.”

Then Q-layer’s CEO, Kristof De Spiegeleer, veered into Data Center Virtualization as service providers took notes on how virtualization will lower total cost of ownership, creates revenue generation opportunities and will lower yearly downtime per machine.

This set up the next session quite nicely as Microsoft’s Director of Web & Application Hosting, Michael Korbacher, addressed the SMB Opportunities of Next Generation Hosting. Korbacher hit the nail on the head when he said that “hosting is being transformed by disruptive technologies and new business models.”

He rightly argued that service providers must evolve to win and indicated that Microsoft supports this evolution by providing the hosting solutions, go to market support, programs and the licensing required to succeed.

This message of the necessity of partnering was driven home by Serguei Beloussov, CEO of Parallels, whose company benefits from more than a thousand partnerships currently, including the likes of Microsoft, Apple, Intel, and IBM.

Beloussov, as always, brought tips that hosters have to abide by: Stay competitive. Be paranoid about efficiency. Improve service levels with automation and keep up with service offerings including business class email and office applications.

That was the lion’s share of Day One which was handily accompanied by several workshops and exhibitions from 30 participating IT vendors.

You’ve got to hand it to intergenia’s President, Thomas Strohe, on putting together an enjoyable yet informative program. He might do well to invest in a nice white suit. Welcome to Fantasy Island, indeed.