I was on the phone this week with the Big Boss Man at TMC, pal Rich Tehrani going over a few things when I realized we’re about six weeks away from IT Expo in Los Angeles in September. With it the IP Communications industry has the start of another eight week period of pretty much non stop expos, conferences, trade shows, meetings at them and more.
What’s it look like for me and people in our VoIP and Mobile world:
IT Expo in Los Angeles September 1-3. It’s bundled in with the 4G Wireless Evolution put on by another pal, Carl Ford. The two events together promise to be bigger and better than ever as its time to buy and the selling on the floor should be as good as the conference was a few months back in Miami Beach, which was outstanding.
Nokia World 2009 in Stuttgart on September 2 & 3. This is where the world of what’s going on next at the Finland based mobile and now services giant gets known and seen for the first time. Last year in Barcelona was a treat, and where the N97 debuted. To see what 2010 brings from Nokia means going to Germany this fall.
GigaOm’s Mobilize 09 in San Francisco, staged by Om Malik, and organized by another friend of some time Surj Patel. My favorite part of Mobilize is Launchpad. Launchpad had its roots inside eTel. Companies like GrandCentral got a big pump at that in 2006, as did Fonolo in 2008. Who will be the star of Launchpad this year. Go to SF on September 10th and find out.
A few days later on September 14 and 15, the TechCrunch 50 rolls into San Francisco, showcasing the unknown who will be the soon be known. Michael Arrington and crew will promise and deliver a no holds barred match up of early stage companies.
Demo happens here in San Diego from September 21-23. The granddaddy of launch events, this years marks the end of the Chris Shipley era, as she passes the microphone and producers baton over to VentureBeat’s Matt Marshall. The two will tag-team up on stage. For companies looking to meet VCs and get in front of media that cares, DEMO without the head to head issues of last year vs. TechCrunch will draw a very big crowd to sunny San Diego.
VoN/Channel Partners happens in Miami Beach, sadly at the same time as DEMO so I’ll miss it. The Virgo Publishing group took over the VON name, and has started from scratch, with VON editor Rick Martin putting a lot of time and energy in on the panels and the speakers. Bundled with the sales lead generation and dealmaking event, Channel Partners, plus offering a Latin/South American track or two may make this event as hot as Miami Beach will be in the fall.
October
CTIA Wireless IT and Entertainment comes to San Diego after its tour of Las Vegas and San Francisco in prior years. Considered the smaller show vs. the spring edition, that will likely change as San Diego is the capital of wireless in the USA with Qualcomm and the whole CDMA eco-system pretty much in the neighborhood.
eComm 2009 Europe wraps up the two months of almost non-stop conference activities, and picks up where this past March’s eComm in Burlingame left off. Expect some blockbuster news from the companies that are making a difference and changing the landscape of communications around the globe. Money meister James Enck, on his Eurotelcoblog reminds us that using ENCK will get you a discount on top of the early bird pricing that runs through next week.
Eagle eye Doug Mohney also brings to light two more conferences of note- Jeff Pulver’s second HD Communication Summit happening in the Big Apple on September 15 and 16. The summit is all about the ways voice can sound better, richer and clearer, picking up on the May event that kicked off the series.
A second and uber-VoIP tech event is AstriCon in Phoenix, AZ October 13-15 , put on by Digium and all about the wild world of open source PBX’s.
Now where did you leave that credit card?