I had lunch a couple weeks ago with George Schussel, the founder and CEO of Digital Consulting, Inc., one of the country's largest IT conference organizers. We compared notes on interesting trends and developments in the field, but he stunned me with the news that DCI's "Database World" conference has shut down. It was the company's flagship conference for over 15 years, and it enjoyed a monopoly for a year after the demise of its only competitor, the massive "DB Expo" conference.