Is there a way to change max_allowed_packet with the Hibernate XML configuration file?
This is my Spring injection for Hibernate
<bean id="dataSource" class="org.springframework.jdbc.datasource.DriverManagerDataSource">
    <property name="driverClassName"><value>com.mysql.jdbc.Driver</value></property>
    <property name="url"><value>jdbc:mysql://localhost:3306/surveysmart</value></property>
    <property name="username"><value>root</value></property>
    <property name="password"><value>xxx</value></property>
</bean>     
<!-- Session Factory -->
<bean id="sessionFactory"
    class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.annotation.AnnotationSessionFactoryBean">
    <property name="dataSource">
        <ref local="dataSource" />
    </property>
    <property name="configurationClass" value="org.hibernate.cfg.AnnotationConfiguration" />
    <property name="packagesToScan" value="com.sdl.contacts.vo" />
    <property name="hibernateProperties">
        <props>
            <prop key="hibernate.dialect">org.hibernate.dialect.MySQLDialect</prop>
            <prop key="hibernate.show_sql">true</prop>
            <prop key="hibernate.current_session_context_class">org.hibernate.context.ThreadLocalSessionContext</prop>
            <prop key="hibernate.hbm2ddl.auto">update</prop>
        </props>
    </property>
</bean>
<bean id="hibernateTemplate"
    class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTemplate">
    <property name="sessionFactory">
        <ref bean="sessionFactory" />
    </property>
</bean>
 <bean id="transactionManager"
    class="org.springframework.orm.hibernate3.HibernateTransactionManager">
    <property name="sessionFactory" ref="sessionFactory" />
</bean>