It’s yet another conference week for me. A circuit that seems to almost never end. Starting today I’ll be at IT Expo, the west coast edition of the twice a year mega-event that has become more than just VoIP with the addition of too many other events under one roof including StartupCamp Communications, the Cloud Computing Conference, 4GWE and the SmartGrid Conference. Down in San Diego today, and where I’ll be this week starting tomorrow is Wireless Health 2010, hosted by the Wireless Life Science Alliance and up in San Francisco is CTIA, plus sideline events ShowStoppers and PepCom. I’m sure somewhere there are more conferences and likely not geared towards only IP based communications of some sort.
All this activity, in a word, is simply, crazy. Too many shows, in too many places, overlapping and none will have everyone in every place at the same time. A few years ago I suggested to pal Scott Kargman, then with PulverMedia and now a partner in two events co-located within IT Expo, that video conferencing between events is the solution. The idea was simple. Set up a suite of “video” booths and beam in the speakers, the experts and the media to the event. Not only does it cut down on travel, it would increase productivity and include those who couldn’t or wouldn’t normally travel to an event. What’s more, they could still keep their schedule without leaving wherever else they needed to be. Last week at Mobilize I saw many an executive who was speaking hanging out for the entire day, but some, zipped in and zipped out, meaning they spoke, but didn’t stick around to be “social.” The idea of conferences is interaction, but if you’re just going to speak, video from wherever to wherever is getting good enough.
I for one would love to be tuned into what’s going on elsewhere at times, and video conferencing and streaming are the solution to conference craziness.