More than four in 10 preregistered attendees of the Interop trade show said they plan to spend more on technology within their organization this year compared with 2008, a survey released Thursday showed.

In addition, 95% of the respondents said they're active IT buyers within their companies and are interested in technology related to virtualization, cloud computing, IT energy conservation, mobility and wireless, and network infrastructure and data center upgrades.

Interop organizers used a third-party research firm, Decipher, to poll more than 900 preregistered attendees via e-mail. The survey was conducted from April 15 to May 1.

The survey found that 80% of the respondents had IT budgets that would either increase or remain flat this year. The remainder said spending would decrease. Fully 42% planned to increase spending.

In addition, 41% of the respondents said their organizations had larger budgets for Enterprise 2.0 technologies, while 7% said they would spend less. Enterprise 2.0 refers to social-networking software used in business.

The poll also found that almost nine in 10 of the respondents have direct involvement with vendors, up from 68% last year. In addition, 59% are currently using, planning to use, or considering cloud computing, and 70% are interested in learning more about IT energy conservation.

Finally, the top three reasons for attending the event were to meet with a variety of vendors in one place, to see new products, and to stay up to date on technologies.

The trade show this year will highlight cloud computing through the concurrent Enterprise Cloud Summit, which joins Interop at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas. Interop, which runs from May 17-21, is owned by United Business Media, which publishes InformationWeek.

Learn more about all the latest products and technologies at TechWeb's Interop Las Vegas, May 17-21. Join us (registration required).