As part of our renewed focus on technologies that matter, we are launching a series of events called GigaOM PM, occasional meetups at which we will gather to discuss topical and important technology breakthroughs. I will host these gatherings, and we will keep them small and focused.

To kick off the series, we will hear from Hadoop, which is quietly turning into one of the more important open-source projects out there, especially for startups looking for new ways to handle high-volume data processing. Hadoop is sponsored by the Apache Software Foundation, and is subsequently able to take advantage of huge clusters of computers to produce fast results for queries and more.

Here are the details of the event:

When: May 1, 2008, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Where: GigaOM office at Pier 38 in San Francisco

Who (the speakers):

1. Doug Cutting, head of the Hadoop Project

2. Eric Baldeschwieler, VP of grid computing at Yahoo

3. Larry Heck, VP of search and Advertising Sciences at Yahoo

4. Chad Walters, director of engineering, search and platform at Powerset.

The event is free; click here to sign up. We can only host 50 people, and spots will be reserved on a first-come, first-serve basis. Our thanks to EventBrite for providing the event registration services.

If you’re interested in becoming part of the GigaOM PM series — that is, if you want to suggest some technologies on which to focus — please get in touch with us at info at gigaom dot com. For other inquiries, such as sponsorship opportunities, e-mail events at gigaom dot com.