May 16, 2008
Life After VON
These are three words I never expected to be stringing together, but for those of us with some VON history, it’s pretty clear now that we need to be thinking this way.
Several bloggers, myself included, have been commenting about the messy scenario that has sadly been unfolding around Pulvermedia over the past few weeks. I say ‘sadly’ from a personal perspective, but also for anyone who has been touched by the VON experience and community over the past few years. It’s safe to say that includes just about everyone in my circle, and probably yours too.
I’m sad because VON was one of the few constants in my calendar that really mattered, and as we’ve all figured out by now, it was as much for the community as it was the vision we were looking to hear. I’m also sad because Jeff gave me a great opportunity to transition into independent consulting in 2005, and participating in the shows was one of the best ways for me to give back.
The ‘facts’ and post mortems have come and gone, and I’m not going to go there. It’s pretty clear that the Pulvermedia folks are either not willing or able to comment, so aside from Carl Ford’s recent short but telling sign-off from last week, we really have little of substance to go on. So I’m not going to speculate on whether the show or the VON brand will survive, and what Jeff will do next. To keep things simple, though, I’ll steer you to Thomas Howe’s post from this week, which elegantly summarizes the sense of loss that I and many other have felt with VON’s demise. Not much for me to add, really, so I’ll leave that sentiment now, and move on.
The analyst in me has to ask ‘why’ and try to understand where we go from here. Why did VON come undone? I don’t have the definitive answer, but it’s certainly a mix of a few things, including internal management, unfortunate timing, impatient investors, lack of internal vision/focus and changing market conditions.
Like many of you, I attend and participate in lots of industry events, and change is a constant. Show business is risky business, and it’s just as easy to make a ton of money as it is to lose a ton of money. Perhaps more importantly, all shows have a life cycle, and unless you stay ahead of the curve, it’s very tough to survive long term. VON had a fantastic 10 year run, and by any standard, they’re in the hall of fame – if there is such a thing for shows.
More importantly, they were there at the beginning for VoIP, and arguably, first mover advantage gave them a seat at the table for shaping the space, virtually ensuring that VON was a must-do event for anyone who was serious about this technology. Disruption and innovation were constants in the VON lexicon, and there was no better place to not only learn about it, but to create it and make it real. To me, that was the magic of VON, especially at a time when VoIP was dangerous, and you couldn’t be middle of the road about it. You either embraced it or feared it.
In the last few years, though, the market has evolved considerably, and VoIP is no longer a four letter word. It’s become so mainstream that the early disruptors and innovators like VocalTec, Net2Phone, Vonage, Primus or Voiceglo are either marginal players or historical footnotes. There’s nothing to fear anymore, and the name of the game is about doing business, not reinventing the world. In this environment, it became increasingly difficult for VON to remain leading or bleeding edge. VoIP had matured and was becoming much like any other communications technology.
Guy Kawasaki talks about jumping curves as a strategy for longevity. You have to recognize when the next innovation curve is coming and be prepared to bet the farm on that shift. Cisco likes to talk about market transitions, and they’ve done a great job catching some of these, such as video conferencing and video, and are reinventing their business around them. It seems to me that VON has not been able to do that. The recent shift to video was the right idea, but it’s a different market than VoIP, and perhaps more importantly, it’s a different community, and it doesn’t look like the VON experience translated that well into that space.
So, there seem to be just two scenarios here. Either you continue to serve a dwindling market with a scaled down event, or you jump the curve and move to the next transition. The former is tough to do, and is a bit like the incumbent telcos trying to squeeze every last dime out of their landline LD customers. Not much innovation or disruption happening there. For the latter, you first have to identify what the next curve is, and then figure out how to reach the community around it. And guess what – if you don’t, someone else will. Law of the jungle, I guess.
This brings me to eComm2008 - Emerging Communications Conference - and a theme I’m going to revisit over the next while. There’s a lot of ground to explore here, and as mentioned in one of my posts about this event, established shows like VON strike me as being a bit like the PSTN. Before going any further, I’m not trying to single out VON here. My thinking applies to any established show, and could be said equally for the likes of IT Expo or NXTcomm. I see a lot of PSTN in these events in that they are relatively large, relatively inflexible and relatively expensive to operate. These shows are difficult to reinvent, although VON has certainly tried with things like the Unconference.
The important thing for me is that these shows really aren’t the locus for disruption and innovation, so jumping to the next curve is going to be tough to do. This begs the question – what is the equivalent of VoIP today? There are lots of things out there to consider – video, social networking, mashups, mobility, Web services, etc. Tons of innovation and disruption happening here, but the community isn’t really going to these established events. So where are they going then? That’s a great question, and anyone attending eComm will tell you a lot of them were there. They’re going to other events too, no doubt, but given how eComm was created from next to nothing, this tells you that there’s still a hunger for this type of community. There are still lots of people out there who see not only evolution happening, but revolution, and they want to be part of it.
In short, the VoIP chapter has largely been written and the smart money has moved on – jumped curves in search of the next wave. I still think there are many of these waves, and have no doubt that events like eComm will thrive as they seek to address them. Why couldn’t VON do that? Well, I go back to my PSTN analogy and say they took things as far as they could, but the market has moved on, and has found other forums and communities for the next curves.
I’ll leave it at that for now, and welcome your comments. Lots more to talk about, and I’ll have another post along these lines soon.
Technorati tags:
VON, Jon Arnold, eComm
Posted by jonarnold at 09:23 AM | Comments (3)
May 05, 2008
Is VON GON? - Reprise - Sure Looks That Way...
Microsoft and Yahoo may be the big headline story today, but down here closer to Earth, I'm thinking more about the latest updates on VON. In late March, I had a post about this titled Is VON GON?, and was one of several people commenting on the unhappy events that seemed to be unfolding then.
I'm not nearly as involved with Pulvermedia as I used to be, and fellow blogger Andy Abramson is much closer to their world these days. Andy's post yesterday about VON is the most conclusive I've seen to date, and just wanted to share it with you this morning.
His citation of Carl Ford's most recent blog post on Friday afternoon seems to say it all, and if that's not a sign-off, I don't know what is.
Ugh. What else to say? It sure looks done now, as Andy's post concludes. I sure feel for Jeff, Carl, Scott, Jason and all the Pulvermedia people I've worked with since 2001. Doesn't look good at all - I guess it's not 100% certain, but it's gotta be pretty close.
Not much else to say or add to Andy's post at this point, but I can only hope for the best. I certainly agree with Andy's comment that so much of the VON brand is in the people, and Jeff's public voice - his blog - is almost totally focused on video and social media now. Of course, Jeff is not really in a position to share his thoughts and vision with us now, and for that reason, all I can really do is share what's happening today. It's way too early to say what the future might hold for all those concerned, so beyond Carl's post and Andy's comments, I'll leave it to you to decide, and will revisit this when there's something tangible and new to talk about.
Technorati tags: Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold, VON, Pulvermedia, Andy Abramson
Posted by jonarnold at 09:37 AM | Comments (0)
May 02, 2008
eComm Presentations
For those of you who couldn't/didn't attend eComm2008 this March - and that's probably most of you - I just wanted to say that the content is slowly making its way to the eComm website.
The quantity of presentations was overwhelming, and the quality was excellent, and despite seeing almost everything, it's impossible to really digest the whole ball o' wax. Lee was forward-thinking enough to video tape the presentations, and he's even gone to the trouble of getting some of these transcribed. Wow - that's impressive! He's not doing this to get rich, folks - it's there for anyone to access, no charge. I've been talking with Lee about this, and he genuinely feels the communications sector is undergoing an historic transformation, and he simply wants to chronicle the proceedings.
So, to see what's there, go to the eComm Blog, where he's got a few of the presentations - video and text - up now. More will be coming in time, so come back soon if you haven't found what you're looking for.
Lee - friendly suggestion - put a Tip Jar on your site! This stuff is great, and I'd like to think at least a few people would like to send something good your way for all this hard work!
Technorati tags: eComm, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh
Posted by jonarnold at 04:13 PM | Comments (0)
April 25, 2008
Pulvermedia News
I've been away from the blogs most all week, and am just getting a chance to see a few this afternoon. Here's a big one, and at this point, I no doubt am late to the party, but it cannot pass without mention.
In short, yesterday Jeff Pulver announced his resignation from Pulvermedia, which speaks volumes about the state of things since their investors made some drastic moves just after Spring VON.
As far as I know, Jeff still maintains control over Pulver.com, which is a distinct entity, but at this point I can't add anything to the mix. This kind of news takes a life of its own, especially in the blogosphere, and I'm just going to let you draw your own conclusions.
There are too many unknowns and variables to speculate further, and I just hope there's a silver lining in this somewhere. Like you, I'll be watching for news, but whatever comes along, always consider the source. Am sure there's more that we don't know than what we do know, and we may just need to be patient and see what unfolds.
Technorati tags: Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold, Pulvermedia
Posted by jonarnold at 04:41 PM | Comments (0)
New Orleans - the 2 Hour Tour
It's impossible to visit New Orleans and not play hooky at some point - that's why it's The Big Easy. Way too many diversions for all the senses - there's just no place like it in the U.S. So, I ducked out for 2 hours yesterday morning to wander about town and make sure I didn't come home empty-handed.
Always nice to start with a Canadian connection! Statue of Jean-Baptiste Bienville, the city's founder - who was born in Montreal. Learn something every day...
Street scene around the French Quarter, mostly Jackson Square - very familiar stuff, but just can't help taking a few photos on such a gorgeous day...
I had an Andy Abramson-inspired moment while walking about. I'm no globetrotter, but one of Andy's signature blog posts is a photo of the coffee cup he's enjoying at the various cafes and bistros he frequents overseas. So, here's my homage d'Andy, New Orleans style. Cafe du Monde is the obligatory place to do this in the Quarter, but even at 9:30 there was a lineup, so I made do a few blocks down at another cafe. It's a bit like having your Montreal deli at The Main, which is a very good Plan B when the lineup at Schwartz's right across the street is too long...
From this angle, the spoon makes a pretty good sundial in my cup...
Check this out. I love to rant about oversize SUVs, but y'know, before compact cars came along, everyday cars were pretty big too. Here's a big black Caddy, and it's as long as anything on the market today. Look a little closer and you'll see why. It's got THREE side doors! I did a huge double take when I saw this - never seen that before...
Ok, enough of the Quarter. Time to head over to the river walk. Here we go again - the river, the bridge, the train - all staples of life here and Southern folklore. You just can't escape it here, and now I can't get Proud Mary out of my head. Rollin' on the river...
Rip Rap - sounds like a good name for a rap song, but this is the stuff that saves live in this part of the world. I'm no Army Engineer, but something tells me you need a whole lot more than this to stay dry when the river swells up and crests over the banks and levees.
The river walk is a great public space, and there's no better place to walk about on a day like this. Quite a few monuments along the way, and I came across the Holocaust Memorial. Really nice to see this, and was another reminder of the contrasts and contradictions of New Orleans and the South in general. You don't generally associate the Jewish community with New Orleans, but there's a strong presence here, and the Jews actually have a very long and important history in the city's economic development. The same is true, actually for other important Southern cities like Charleston, which in fact is the first place that Jews settled in the U.S. Believe it or not, there were Jewish slaveowners before Emancipation - the world was a very different place then. Given that it's Passover now, I couldn't help but think how this is yet another quirk of Southern culture that could not have existed anywhere else.
The Canal Street ferry, making its way to Algiers on the other side. Can't help but try and channel Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn here, wondering what this must have looked like 150 years ago.
Wrapping up my walk at the foot of Canal Street, which is truly the great divide in New Orleans - another contrast in cultures, attitudes, religions, etc. Historically, the roots of the city lie on the right, which is where you find the French Quarter and the early heritage of both the French and the Spaniards. No business is done here other than tourism, but this is definitely where the good times roll. On the left is the "American" side, which is more recent and where you find most of city's commerce and nicer residential areas.
So, there you go. N'awlins in 2 hours, and I got back just in time to pack, check out, and get on my way home. Can't wait til next time...
Technorati tags:
MetaSwitch, Jon Arnold, New Orleans, Andy Abramson
Posted by jonarnold at 11:01 AM | Comments (2)
April 24, 2008
MetaSwitch Forum - Day 2
Just wanted to share a few highlights from today. More good sessions here, and I was a speaker on the "Drumming Up Business' session, which was fun and well attended.
David Axam's keynote about BT's 21CN plans...
Archie Manning - yes, local hero of NFL fame - gave a great lunch time motivational speech. He's not in my good books, since his kids have knocked out my Patriots 2 years running, but hey - they've also won the last 2 Super Bowls, so you gotta tip yer hat there!!! Boy, was he great, and the buzz about his talk was everywhere after lunch. Aastra was the sponsor of the lunch, so Yves Laliberte had the honors of introducing Mr. Manning.....
The session border controller panel...
The show floor, which was pretty hopping...
Aastra doing a demo in the presentation theater....
Technorati tags:
MetaSwitch, Jon Arnold, New Orleans
Posted by jonarnold at 11:10 PM | Comments (0)
April 23, 2008
Mardis Gras World - a Little Fun, N'awlins Style
Not only does MetaSwitch put on a great customer event, but they know how to have fun, and there's no better place for that than New Orleans. Last year's Harley-Davidson party was a blast, and this was even better and way more colorful. If there's one word to describe New Orleans, esp at night, it's colorful. Here's a taste of what I mean....
Crossing the Mississippi River Bridge from Riverside to Algiers, where Mardis Gras World is located. It's quite a bridge and really dominates the local skyline.
Mardi Gras World - site of the party. Having never been there before, I had no idea what to expect - I don't think anybody did. Nothing prepares you for how colorful, fun and so N'awlins this place really is.
Mardis Gras World is actually a 3rd generation family business that's world famous for designing props and floats for parades. Before getting too caught up in the good times, though, we were just a stones throw from where the locals live. This is actually quite a respectable house, but I can tell you it's much nicer than most of the houses we saw as the bus meandered through the sidestreets once we got off the bridge enroute to the venue. I don't hold any morbid fascination looking for remnants of Katrina, and no doubt, with a few detours we would have found much worse. This house is a very plain reminder that New Orleans is a huge bundle of contradictions and constrasts, with race and income being right up at the top. It was literally on the other side of the tracks from where we were, and you don't have to look far to see how our party is not their party. I'm being both figurative and literal here, as there is a live set of train tracks embedded in the road running right by the front door of Mardis Gras World, and this house was on the other side of the street.
Once inside Mardis Gras World, this kind of goes away, and you're immediately overwhelmed by an endless stream of garish, oversized heads and figures - some more famous than others. Call it what you like - macabre, tawdry, honky-tonk, folk art, surreal, circus-like - once you see it, the spirit of New Orleans make so much more sense. Reminds me of the chase scene in Broadway Danny Rose which takes place in an abandoned old movie studio on Coney Island, I think. While that was in B&W, this stuff is what color photography was invented for...
Not quite done yet. This is N'awlins right? What party wouldn't be complete down here without a parade? We got one, alright - never seen an INDOOR parade before. What a riot - complete with a police escort motorcade, blaring police sirens, kings and queens, festive floats, and of course, a local high school marching band...
Thanks to all the folks at MetaSwitch who worked so hard, no doubt, to put this together. Not sure how you're going to top this one next year, so we'll just have to wait and see!
Technorati tags:
MetaSwitch, Jon Arnold, New Orleans, Mardis Gras World
Posted by jonarnold at 10:10 AM | Comments (0)
April 22, 2008
MetaSwitch Forum - Day 1
The MetaSwitch customer forum kicked off today in New Orleans. They really put on a great event, and it works so well because they have such a great customer base and partner ecosystem. Everyone is very friendly and seems real glad to be there.
Much of the day featured keynotes by MetaSwitch executives and then some breakouts later in the afternoon. Being a vendor event, the focus is very much about MetaSwitch's roadmap, both as a company and their ever-evolving technologies. Being a relatively private event (as best I can tell, there are only 2 other people here from the analyst or journalist world, and in total there are more than 500 people here), I'm not going to share the details here, but suffice to say, they are heavily committed to R&D and innovation, and have moved well beyond the Class 5 switch replacements that are pushing out legacy switches from the likes of Nortel and Lucent across the Tier 2/3 sector. In addition to the standard fare of VoIP and hosted services, they are enabling the full gamut of IP for their customers, including SIP apps, mobility, unified communications, IPTV and mashups.
View from my hotel room, overlooking the mighty Mississippi. It's quintessential New Orleans - the bridge, the river, the boat and in the foreground, the train tracks.
Andy Randall
Graeme MacArthur
Chris Mairs
AT&T's Joe Weinman
Gary Kim's mashup panel
Technorati tags:
MetaSwitch, Jon Arnold, New Orleans
Posted by jonarnold at 10:13 PM | Comments (1)
April 21, 2008
Next Stop - New Orleans
I'm off to New Orleans today for MetaSwitch's 5th customer event. They put on a very good conference, and I'm looking forward to attending again. It will also be my first visit to New Orleans since 1990, so it's been a long time.
I'll be speaking on a roundtable panel on Wednesday at 2pm. It's titled Drumming Up Business, and is about how service providers can more effectively market IP telephony services to their subscribers.
Will blog as I can, and will be back in Toronto on Friday. It's the last trip on my schedule for a while, and after this week, I'm looking forward to staying put and getting some new project work underway.
Technorati tags:
MetaSwitch, Jon Arnold, New Orleans
Posted by jonarnold at 08:38 AM | Comments (0)
April 17, 2008
Dialogic Analyst Conference Review
I attended Dialogic’s analyst conference this week in New York and wanted to summarize my thoughts here. It was a pretty short event, but well worthwhile on a few fronts. It’s a manageable amount of time to get the key messages and network with their key execs, but not be away for too long. New York is always a great location, and for most of us, the highlight was the Yankee Stadium tour on Tuesday. I have a separate post coming about that along with some photos, so let’s move on.
CEO Nick Jensen did a nice job updating us on their business, and how the integration of Cantata is coming along. They had a series of exec presentations as well as partner presentations from Ascendant and Sonus. No major news, but very helpful for getting beyond the standard analyst briefings. It was also an interesting mix of industry and equity analysts, and they did a good job of speaking to each audience. We want to know about market forecasts and they want to know about earnings.
One of their key messages was that Dialogic may have many elements, but the business focus is clear. Their basic positioning is to be a leading provider of converged communications building blocks at the network edge. More specifically, media gateways, signalling gateways, media servers, etc. Nick made it clear they were not in the applications business. Dialogic’s value comes from enabling carriers to increase ARPU via nextgen services – ultimately provided by other vendors. He also noted consolidation as a key driver for their acquisition of Cantata. I’m with him there. Tier 1 vendors are consolidating their partner base, and Dialogic needs to scale up to stay at the front of the line with the likes of Sonus, Ericsson, Alcatel-Lucent, Nortel, etc.
Nick also made a couple of other comments that I found interesting. First is that service providers are migrating to IP slower than we’d all like to see, and cited how 85% of AT&T’s enterprise traffic is still TDM. The PSTN has a lot of life left, and he sees it being with us at least another 10 years. From this, the key idea is that we’re going to be living in a world of hybrid IP/TDM network deployments for a long time. This means lots of complexity to sort out, and media gateways aren’t going away any time soon. This is all good news for the likes of Dialogic.
The second comment was his view that session border controller vendors cannot last as a standalone category. There is some truth to this, and it’s certainly consistent with their product mix. I don’t fully agree, at least in the case of Acme Packet, and to a lesser extent, NextPoint and Covergence. If TDM really is sticking around this long, I can see his logic, as the ramp up time will simply be too long for most of these vendors to make it.
I also enjoyed the update on Dialogic Media Labs. They’ve got a strong focus on video, and it was nice to hear some concurrence about what I’ve been saying about Cisco’s heavy push in this direction. It’s all about bandwidth to support QoS across multiple formats and endpoints, and their view is that by bringing the cost per port down, they can do their part to drive the growth everyone is expecting. When this happens, their vision for video becomes practical – video SMS, video conferencing, video gaming, video IVR, etc.
On the enterprise side, they reiterated that fax is still a big and growing business. It’s hard to believe in this day and age, but I certainly heard this both in the presentations and over drinks, dinner and the shuttle to and from Yankee Stadium.
There was also some discussion about unified communications, definitely the flavor du jour in IP. I’m on the UC bandwagon, and what I heard here was similar to the messaging earlier this week at the Dimension Data event. They’re both saying that Cisco and Microsoft are driving this market, but neither has all the pieces. No argument there, but nice to get the double validation. Nick added the next layer, saying that the opportunity is for other vendors to build UC applications that integrate with either or both vendors. This isn’t rocket science, but it’s tacit recognition about how hard it’s going to be to go up against these guys.
My only question is about the apps. Jim Machi explained how the market is going to need more SOA-capable products/apps to “address the collision” of Web 2.0 and voice services. It’s clear to me they see the market opportunity around apps, and am just wondering if they’re limiting themselves by staying out of that arena. If they are poking around the edges, they weren’t saying much about it. Time will tell, I guess, but on the whole, as consolidation plays go, I came away feeling that they got this one right.
Coda – I usually post photos of these events, and I actually took quite a few. Inexplicably, my Nokia N81 is acting up in ways I don’t understand, and even though the photos are in memory, they’re showing up scrambled or not at all. This has never happened with any of my Nokia phones, and I’m losing a lot of sleep over it. Photos of the event would have been nice, but it’s the Yankee Stadium photos I’m really P-O’d about. As you’ll see on my upcoming post, I salvaged quite a few good ones, but there are many others that may never come back.
Technorati tags:
Dialogic, Jon Arnold, New York
Posted by jonarnold at 11:52 AM | Comments (1)
April 16, 2008
Dimension Data Analyst Day
UPDATE - this post was written on Monday to summarize this analyst event. Due to the unavailability of broadband at our hotel, I'm only now able to get this posted...
Am in Boston for Dimension Data's analyst conference. It's the first time they've held an event like this in North America, and is part of their efforts to become better known here, especially among the analyst community.
Dimension Data is based in South Africa, but is truly a global IT services player, with revenues in the $4 billion range and customers in about 45 countries. They have quite the global footprint, and offer a complete set of solutions to help enterprises do the right things with IT. We've been hearing executive presentations about their full range of capabilities and their vision of how they pull all these services together and create value for their customers.
They're a public company, they're profitable, and are growing fast. Their solutions are heavily based around Cisco and Microsoft, with a lot of integration between them. Over the course of the day, they've been sharing lots of case studies across various geographies and vertical markets. There isn't much they can't do, so it's a great story in terms of what IT services providers need to be doing today to really add value for enterprises.
Was also nice to hear about their recent expansion into Canada. Their presence is small, but growing quickly. I'll certainly be spending more time with them locally once I'm back.
Good time to be here, and a good day to keep our attention. I was here over the weekend, and it's all sports right now. Last night, both the Bruins and Red Sox were playing here, and the street scene around the Fleet Center nearby was a blast. There's hasn't been this level of intensity around the Bruins for ages, and it was great to see a sea of Bruins and Habs jerseys everywhere. Bruins finally beat Montreal, and I think they've solved them, and just might make this a memorable series. Sox beat the Yankees again, so all is good here. And there are no games today, so Dimension Data truly has my undivided attention!
Jere Brown, Americas CEO
Brett Dawson, Group CEO
Technorati tags:
Dimension Data, Jon Arnold, Boston
Posted by jonarnold at 06:15 AM | Comments (0)
April 11, 2008
Next Stops - Boston and New York
Am in the middle of a 3 week run for 4 industry events. IT360 finished this week - and things can only get better from there! I'm flying to Boston later this morning enroute to two events next week in Boston, then New York.
Sunday night through Monday I'll be attending the analyst event for Dimension Data, a company I'm quite keen to get better acquainted with. Following that, I'm off to New York on Tuesday for Dialogic's analyst event. Am quite looking forward to this one as well. My IP Communications Insights Partner, Marc Robins will be at Dialogic as well, and we'll be spending some time together on IPCI business, which so far has been going very well.
Technorati tags:
Dimension Data, Jon Arnold, Dialogic, IP Communications Insights
Posted by jonarnold at 09:00 AM | Comments (0)
April 09, 2008
IT360 Conference Recap
The IT360 conference finished up today, and over the course of the past 3 days, Henry Dortmans and I saw through the 8 breakouts and 2 half-day tutorials on Unified Communications that we've been putting together for the event.
The quality of the sessions was very high, and we're quite pleased with how they turned out and are very thankful to all the speakers who put quite a bit of time and thought into their presentations. Thanks as well to the moderators who did their piece to help run the sessions and engage the audience.
Unfortunately, the sessions were very lightly attended, but let's just leave it at that. Canadian telecom conferences are by nature small and low key, and the experience is visibly different from comparable US events on many levels. For a change, that's all I'm going to say - it's just different. It's done. Time to move on to the next events - more on that later.
I'll just leave you with a few photos, courtesy of my Nokia N81...
Matthew Glotzbach, Google Enterprise
Ernie Wallerstein, Zeacom
Technorati tags:
IT360 Conference, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications
Posted by jonarnold at 08:52 PM | Comments (1)
April 01, 2008
IT360 Conference Coming Next Week
Time flies when you're busy, and I've been one of many people working in the background for the past few months on my part of the IT360 Conference coming here in Toronto next week. There aren't many conferences here in town for me to participate in, so I'm glad to have a chance to be part of the programming mix for this event.
I've posted about IT360 before, and along with Henry Dortmans, I'm co-chairing the Unified Communications track.
We've got a great lineup in place, and across the 3 days, you'll learn more than you need to about UC. If you're attending, I sure won't be hard to find, and I'll be most visible during two sessions in particular.
On Monday, I'm running a UC Overview tutorial from 1pm to 4pm, along with Simon Gwatkin of Mitel. Complementing my presentation, Simon will be doing some live demos of UC in action, so this should prove to be a very hands-on, multimedia session. Sort of like UC....
I'm also moderating a panel on Wednesday, bright and early at 8:30, on Vertical Market Scenarios. Simon will be with me on this one as well, along with Jeff Lowe from Telus. This will be another multimedia session, and by having both a vendor and carrier on the panel, we'll give the audience a pretty complete perspective on how UC can be tailored to add value for a specific line of business.
If you're in town, I hope you can make it!
Technorati tags:
IT360 Conference, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications
Posted by jonarnold at 04:56 PM | Comments (0)
March 27, 2008
Is VON GON?
Following from my post last night, the word is starting to get out this morning about the reported demise of VON. This is an incredible and very sad development. I really can't believe it's happening, but you don't have to look far right now to hear what seems likely to unfold in the next 48 hours. I wish someone would pinch me and say it's a dream..... Andy, Phil, Marc, Jim......
Technorati tags: Jeff Pulver, Jon Arnold, VON
Posted by jonarnold at 09:00 AM | Comments (1)
March 26, 2008
Squawk Box - Telecom Conference Roundup/IP Comm Insights Launch
Marc Robins and I were guests on today's Squawk Box call, hosted by Alec Saunders. This was my first time on as a guest, and it sure was fun. The turnout was great, and the discussion lively - and quite earnest, especially regarding the state of the VON conference.
We went on almost an hour, first talking about our new venture, IP Communications Insights, and then about the recent conferences we've been attending - eComm, VON and Voicecon.
Many in the audience had been to these events as well, so if you want a good roundup of how a mini-sample of the market is feeling about them, the podcast is time well spent. Alec has posted the link to his blog, and I sure hope you give it a listen.
CODA: given the circles many of the people on today's call travel in, today's conference roundup was eerily timely given what a number of well-informed sources tell me is unfolding as I write with one of them --- and by the time you read this post, this won't seem so cryptic.
Technorati tags: Alec Saunders, Jon Arnold, Marc Robins, Squawk Box
Posted by jonarnold at 08:11 PM | Comments (0)
March 24, 2008
Max's eComm Chronicles - Show Highlights/iPhone Review
I promise this will be my last post about eComm2008. It may be the best of the bunch, and is definitely the longest, so hopefully worth the wait.
Max had quite the experience joining me during March Break for this conference, and he finally got all thoughts organized for a post on his blog. It's a whopper - almost 6,000 words, but if you want to understand how telephony, disruption, innovation, etc. looks to a 15 year old, then you'll want to read this. There's a great mix of genuine wonder from being part of such a grown-up event, classic teenage attitude, and of course some pretty sharp insights about what all this means to Max. I sure wouldn't have come up with all this stuff when I was 15, but hey - back then, the PC was many years away from even being invented.
Anyhow, aside from him being my son, I think there are a lot of great take-aways here, and I've long felt that our space needs to hear more from the youth market. Based on how quickly Max has integrated the iPhone into his everyday routine, the big idea for me is that teenagers are willing and able to change their behaviors on a dime, and can adapt to new technologies just as quickly. This is a scary thought considering how we love to preach about how mass market innovations will only succeed if behaviors don't have to change. There may be truth to this, but clearly, it doesn't hold across the board.
Lots of food for thought here, and by all means, I encourage you to keep a dialog going here, and if needed, I'll certainly pull Max into the mix.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold, iPhone
Posted by jonarnold at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)
March 17, 2008
eComm2008 Reprise
Most people I work with are at VON this week, and must be feeling pretty green in the spirit of St. Patrick. Today, Jeff can be an honorary Irishman, and I'm sure he's wearing a green Hawaiian shirt. Any confirmation would be appreciated! :-)
Not wanting to shift the spotlight away from VON - and Voicecon for that matter - I do have some unfinished business to share from eComm. My recent posts provided some written highlights and thoughts, along with a few photos and a video clip of Max's presentation.
I'm going to round out the multimedia coverage of eComm now with some audio and photos.
First, I'll steer you to fellow blogger Ken Camp. He's at VON now, and there's a minute-by-minute summary of his schedule for this week on his blog, so this will be a good place to catch up on the show. Ken regrettably couldn't make eComm, but he did the next best thing via a series of podcast interviews from people who were there. There's a whole bunch of them on his blog, so if you want to hear what eComm was like, have a seat, and give these a listen. I would be remiss if I didn't steer you to the pod he did with me, and if you like that, just keep on scrolling and give the rest a listen.
Second is a photo gallery of Duncan Davidson's shots taken last week. He's posted them to Flickr, and it's a great way to share the experience.
I should also add that the conference was videotaped in HD, and this will be made available soon, along with audio files and the speaker presentations. Lee had a brief post about this yesterday, so watch the eComm blog for updates.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh, Ken Camp
Posted by jonarnold at 03:47 PM | Comments (0)
March 14, 2008
Max's eComm Debut
Well, Max just got his 2 minutes of fame at eComm, and delivered his presentation on why the senior citizen market is important for VoIP. I think he did a great job for something so ad hoc, and he's well on his way to making a name for himself. Thanks so much, Lee, for giving him the chance to get up on stage where so many smart people have been presenting all week long.
You can watch Max's presentation here, video-taped on the fly using the Nokia N81. We weren't quite ready to go when Lee called him up, but it turned out just fine.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Max Arnold
Posted by jonarnold at 06:36 PM | Comments (1)
LeeComm2008 - Template for Conference 2.0???
I've got two basic takeaways to share with you about eComm2008. We're well into Day 3 now, and my impressions are pretty well set at this point.
First is the content. Generally, the presentations have been quite good, and some have been really strong, both in terms of creative graphics and the messaging. A few that have stood out for me include:
- David Isenberg - driving home the net neutrality message and the need for developers to be more aware of the regulatory climate and how it will impact the state of competition
- Dawn Nafus of Intel - talking about the importance of context-awareness, and how this adds value to data and mobile applications - BUT - it's no as simple as "add GPS and stir" - it's too easy for these services to be intrusive and neutralize the added value of mobile services
- Thomas Howe - voice is a spice - it's hard to make a commodity more valuable. Farmers grow commodities like corn, but cooks use the commodities to add value and create something new and interesting. Voice has no intrinsic value, but it does have value in making applications more useful. Bottom line - we need more cooks than farmers - that's what developers need to be doing - thinking of voice as a spice - not a main course.
- Bob Frankston - his usual provocative insights about networks. For him, the value lies not in the networks themselves, but how you use them. Broadband is very inexpensive infrastructure - cheaper than roads, electricity, etc. So, make it accessible and open as possible, and the applications will come. Telcos don't think this way, and in his mind, they're going to be on the outside looking in before long. He also had a very clever take on the conference name - calling it eConn - not eComm. For him, this conference is more about connectivity than communications. Good call. He's quite a character, and it's not hard to see why his photo hangs in the Hall of Fellows just outside the main room here at the Computer History Museum.
- Martin Geddes - great insights and research findings about what's wrong with the "one-sided" business models used by telcos today. He fleshed out the "two-sided" business model idea, explaining how telcos are better off being services platforms than gatekeepers who control their subscribers.
Many other good presentations here, but overall, far too much to really absorb. That's both a strength and a weakness, of course. Once you become saturated with presentations, you tune out speakers much more quickly, which isn't really fair to them, but we're all kind of captive here, with there only being one track in the conference.
Ok, enough. Let's move on to the second takeway. So, why LeeComm? Well, this is totally Lee's baby - he's done a great job putting this together as well as pulling it off. Pretty impressive labor of love for a first-timer. He's learning as he goes, and while there have been small snafus here and there, he's got the basis of a pretty strong idea here. He's very forthright about all this - he's not in it for the money - he just wants to create a forum for dialog and to keep the spirit of innovation moving forward.
There's a fair bit of noble idealism here, but it isn't misplaced. This is not a carrier-bashing event or an anti-Microsoft gathering - it's about making communications more meaningful, and there's a lot on offer here. Not a lot of carriers here, but there were some, and aside from the dozens of small, up and coming companies, there were big names too - BT, Vodafone, Embarq, Skype, Google, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, Motorola, etc. And quite a few cerebral presentations from academics and researchers.
My conclusion from all this - whether he knows it or not, Lee may have hatched the template for Conference 2.0 in our space. I look at this, fittingly, in terms of IP vs. PSTN. eComm the IP side of the equation - it's open, fluid, flexible, not expensive to deploy, disruptive, embraced by early adopters, etc. You with me?
Before I go further, I'd like to site Andy Abramson's post from today about the Conference Calcutta. He talks about some things that are not right with conferences today, and that ties nicely into where I'm going here.
If eComm is IP, many of the more established telecom/IP conferences seem very PSTN by comparison - they're complex, expensive to run, less flexible, more mainstream, etc. This can be a dangerous analogy, but that's what strikes me about what's happening here. eComm is a one-track show - no exhibitors, and just one room where it all happens. Simple, very open and collaborative. Lee has been adapting the format on the fly, and I can say this first hand. He's been nice enough to give my son, Max, a 2 minute speaking opportunity for later today. Totally out of the blue. Max is sitting next to me cooking up a short preso right now, and he'll be up on stage in about an hour.
I could go on, but you get the idea. There's a lot of potential ahead for eComm, and if they can figure out how to make this conference of interest to those who matter the most - the carriers - then Lee could have a real business on his hands. Right now we're among friends, preaching to the converted, so the trick will be taking it to the next concentric circle outside the core.
It will sure be interesting to see what unfolds once this wraps up, especially since so many people here will be going straight to VON next week. I won't be there, but would love to hear comparisons from anyone attending both events. You know where to find me....
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh, Andy Abramson
Posted by jonarnold at 04:09 PM | Comments (0)
March 13, 2008
eComm2008 - Notes and Photos
Busy, busy. Totally over-stimulated with ideas from the non-stop presentations here at eComm2008. Way too much for anyone to really absorb, so you just try to catch what you can and think a lot about what it all means.
I'd love to comment further - and I will - but right now, about all I can do is share some photos, and say a few things.
Day 2 is just about done, and things are going pretty much to plan. Lee has a very ambitious agenda of speakers, and the pace has been very fast. It's a pretty smart audience, though, and I think everyone is doing a good job of keeping pace. The overall focus is about telecom innovation and re-invention - from 1,000 different directions. Not much here about video or multimedia. Lots of Web 2.0, but not really social networking. It's in the mix, but most of this is about voice and telephony.
Lee's basic thesis is that telecom is dead, and voice is now being reinvented to fit into a hyperconnected, social world. There's not much room here for traditional telcos, so there's lots of dialog about what it all means. Lots of interesting companies here - some are familiar, and many are not. Great forum for broadening your perspective and getting a taste for what's coming. Lots of European speakers - mainly due to Lee's home base - but lots of Canadians too - alright!
I'll have more to say later, but I'm out of headspace right now. Andy Abramson is doing a great job running the press room, and his post today is a handy roundup of the media coverage of the event. Bye...
Welcome to eComm2008
Lee Dryburgh welcoming us and getting things going
Jonathan Christensen, Skype
Martin Geddes and David Isenberg
Thomas Howe
Max and James Body, who just unlocked Max's just-bought iPhone - he's a very happy guy - thanks James!
Mobile Voice Mashups panel that I moderated this afternoon
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold
Posted by jonarnold at 08:08 PM | Comments (0)
March 10, 2008
Spring VON.x Preview
I don't often post about shows I'm not attending, but the buzz around Spring VON - now VON.x - is starting to build. As readers of my blog would know by now, I'm only able to attend one event over the next 2 weeks, and the way the calendar falls, it won't be this one. I feel badly about that, so the next best thing is to blog about what's coming.
There are two items I want to draw your attention to about the show. First is the news the other day announcing the VON Magazine Innovators Award. This is the inaugural award under this banner, where a panel of VON Magazine contributors selects the top 65 innovators, all of whom will receive formal recognition at the show. Am not sure where the number 65 comes from, as this intiative succeeds the Pulver 100, which I have posted about in previous years.
Anyhow, the press release lists the winners, and there are lots of promising companies in there. A few that stand out for me based on what I'm familiar with include BroadSoft, Dialogic, Intelliverse, Iotum, LifeSize, M5, MetaSwitch, Pactolus, Sangoma, SightSpeed, Sonus, Sylantro, TalkPlus, TalkSwitch, TelcoBridges, Thomas Howe Company and VoIP Logic. Special kudos to the Canadian companies which are underlined in this list!
Now I'll make a clever segue to my second item around VON.x. Iotum is one of the Canadian companies I follow closely, and most recently, they've been focused on their free conference calling application - Talk-Now - that runs on Facebook. It's been a nice success, and to keep this visible and valuable for the IP community, CEO Alec Saunders has recently initiated an ongoing concall forum called Squawk Box. He's been building this into a really nice forum for everyday commentary and thought leadership about the latest IP/telecom news and events. I've been wanting to contribute to these calls, but just haven't found the time yet. Hopefully after eComm.
Anyhow, on his March 6 Squawk Box segment, Alec's guest included Jeff Pulver. They had a great chat, and you won't find a better way to get a preview of what to expect at VON.x, as well as where Jeff is at in his latest thinking and projects. Jeff is Jeff, and he never stands still - if you don't know why, then you need to give this a listen! Sorry I won't be there, and after listening to this, I know I'm going to miss being there even more.
Technorati tags: VON.x, Jon Arnold, Jeff Pulver, Alec Saunders, VON Magazine
Posted by jonarnold at 09:04 AM | Comments (0)
March 07, 2008
eComm2008 - Last Call
As the week winds down and I tie up loose ends before next week - and March Break - I just wanted put out a final call for eComm2008.
I've posted about it previously, and if this is news to you, have a look, and hope you can make it. And if you want the 15% registration discount, the details are in my last post.
I'll be moderating the session on Mobile Voice Mashups at 2pm on Thursday, and if you're coming, please drop by. Otherwise, I won't be hard to find, and will blog as time allows.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold
Posted by jonarnold at 02:39 PM | Comments (0)
March 04, 2008
eComm2008 a Week Away/Discount Registration Offer
Time sure flies and I just realized eComm2008 is only a week away. I blogged about it last week, and since then I wanted share this promo video message that one of their sponsors just put together - it's a good 2 minute take on why this event is shaping up so well.
There's also a press release that went out today with conference updates, including a preview of what Skype's Jonathan Christensen will be talking about during his keynote as part of an interview he did with Lee Dryburgh. The full transcript is posted on the eComm blog if you want the whole thing.
As mentioned last week, I'm happy to extend a 15% discount on your registration if you haven't done so yet. Just drop me a line, and I'll pass along the code you'll need to get that. Hope to see you there!
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold
Posted by jonarnold at 10:15 AM | Comments (0)
February 28, 2008
eComm2008 - Q&A with Lee Dryburgh/Discount Offer
Got two updates to share with you about the eComm2008 conference, which I did a background post about on Monday.
First is an interview I did with Lee Dryburgh that just ran on IP Convergence TV the other day. Lee mostly talks about his views on convergence technologies, but also a bit about what you can expect to experience at eComm2008. Hope you enjoy it, and comments are welcome.
Second is a special discount offer I can share with you to save 15% on registration for the conference. Hopefully, you've heard by now from many sources how promising this event will be, and if you're thinking about going, please drop me a line, and I can pass on the information you'll need to save 15% on your registration.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh
Posted by jonarnold at 10:55 AM | Comments (0)
February 25, 2008
Next Stop - eComm2008
Next conference for me is eComm2008, coming up March 12-14 in Mountain View, California.
Got a few things to convey about this event in my post...
For background, eComm has picked up where eTel left off last year, and is largely the vision of Lee Dryburgh, who I have recently gotten to know a bit, and am looking forward to meeting next month.
I'm late posting about eComm as it's taken a while to formalize my participation, which I'll get to in a moment. So, if you haven't been reading up eComm, you should start with the press release, and then move on to some of the recent blog posts, including today's from Thomas Howe and Andy Abramson, and earlier ones from Martin Geddes and Alec Saunders' Squawk Box interview, which includes Lee Dryburgh as a guest.
Myself - I've got small part, but at least I'm there, and am really looking forward to hearing from such a first-rate roster of speakers. I'll be moderating the Mobile Mashups panel, which currently includes Tom Howe (oh, what a surprise!), Dean Bubley, Irv Shaprio, Boaz Zilberman, and James Body. If you're coming, the session is on Thursday, from 2:00 to 3:00.
Finally, being on the West coast, I was really hoping to participate in Spring VON - now known as VON.X - which is the following week in San Jose. Very hard decisions to make here, but my circumstances just don't make it possible to do both. Turns out eComm takes place during our March break, and the plans have unfolded such that my 15 year old son, Max, is coming with me and will be with me at eComm, at least for as long as he finds it interesting. So, if you've ever wanted to meet Max, here's your chance. He'll be with me at eComm, but we're flying back after that so he can get back to school. Will have to miss VON this time around, but I certainly plan to be there in the fall.
Technorati tags: eComm2008, Jon Arnold, Lee Dryburgh, VON
Posted by jonarnold at 11:00 AM | Comments (0)
February 12, 2008
IT360 Conference Agenda Posted
Been meaning to post about this for a while. The IT360 Conference is coming here in Toronto from April 7-9, and the agenda was recently posted to their website.
It's still a work in progress, but will give you a good idea of the range to topics being covered. I'm Co-Chairing the Unified Communications track with colleague Henry Dortmans. Most of our program is set, but we still have some adds and changes coming. We've been at this for a while, and have a strong roster in place, and you can get a sense here for what we'll be talking about. I'll have more updates as we get closer to the date, but can tell you now it's a strong program, and should be a great opportunity to get apprised on where Unified Communications is going in Canada.
Technorati tags:
IT360 Conference, Jon Arnold, Unified Communications
Posted by jonarnold at 09:04 PM | Comments (0)
January 25, 2008
IT Expo - Day 2 Highlights
The show wraps up today, and I'll be busy moderating a panel on the state of IPTV. Got 6 companies speaking, and I'm sure it will be lively. Things wind down after that, and by 3, this place will be pretty quiet and by 4 am sure it will be deserted.
Wanted to share a few photos from yesterday. I had my hands full with briefings and video interviews, so I have nothing to report on the sessions. I was also involved in the reception hosted by the Government of Ontario and the Consulate General of Canada. That was a lot of fun, and it was great to showcase some strong and emerging companies based in Ontario, and get them in front of such a large audience. Of course the Apple/Bose prize draw had something to do with that, but hey, it worked, and I think everyone went home happy.
Dialogic's Jeff Dworkin showing us the next wave in how to be a 2.0 exhibitor - the "blounge". It's a cross between a booth and lounge. Notice how their space is just sofas and easy chairs. No bouncy balls or pens, and no boxes to touch or flashy lights to entice your inner geek. Just come in, sit down, and let's talk. Gee, why didn't I think of that???
Ron Reddick of Talkswitch with Justin Tarrants, Canada's Trade Commissioner in Miami
I think Justin took this one of me making my opening remarks for the reception
Good crowd on hand....
Full moon on the beach - very relaxing way to walk off dinner...
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, TMC ITExpo
Posted by jonarnold at 09:30 AM | Comments (1)
January 24, 2008
ITExpo - Day 1 - Dell and Fonality Team Up
Got time for a quick post before heading over to today's sessions. Had a full day yesterday at the show, and the turnout looks strong so far. I moderated two sessions - one on peering and one on hosted VoIP, and they went well. All the presentations were great, and if you're interested in any of their slide decks, let me know.
I also did a bunch of video interviews that are being co-produced by IP Convergence TV and TMC. Am doing these wearing my Portal Editor hat for IPCTV, and these interviews will be posted on both of their websites once they're ready to go - hopefully starting next week. Am doing a few more of these today, so we'll have a good backlog of thought leader perspectives to share in the next little bit.
Perhaps the most interesting news item from yesterday was the Dell/Fonality announcement. As you can probably surmise, Dell is incorporating open source PBX - via Fonality - into their PCs to support VoIP. As Russell Shaw notes, the Fonality VoIP Phone System is a PC-based, hosted SMB solution. Russell's post also has some great screenshots of the interface.
Totally makes sense, and it sure puts open source into the mainstream. Dell is a huge channel for Fonality (trixbox), and will give SMBs another reason to keep buying from Dell. Not sure how this will impact Fonality's existing channel relationships, but this looks like a great move all around.
Tom Keating has two in-depth posts about the news - here and here, and he also refers to Rich Tehrani's post, which includes a Q&A podcast with Fonality's Chris Lyman. Tom has some bang-on comments on the implication of this deal for Dell's relationships with Nortel and Microsoft, as well as the need for the Asterisk community to get behind SIP. This could be the biggest story of the show - let's see what unfolds from here on in.
Would you buy a car from this man? Nadji - Mr. T - and the Ford Mustang that some lucky person - not me - will win Friday afternoon.
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, TMC ITExpo
Posted by jonarnold at 08:12 AM | Comments (0)
January 22, 2008
Miami in January - What's not to like?
This may not mean much if you're in San Diego, but coming from Toronto, Miami Beach sure is a nice change of scene this time of year. Mind you, the weather was crummy here when I got in - cloudy and rainy. Am sure it will be much nicer in the morning.
Anyhow, just a quick note to say that that ITExpo starts tomorrow, and I've got a full day ahead - and for that matter, a pretty busy week. Here's a shot of the view from my hotel window - another hotel! The Sorrento, in fact. But if you look off to the right you can sneak a peek at the surf. Am right at the top of Collins Ave./A1A, so the ocean is very close by.
Sure hope I can find some walk-about time during the show. South Beach is Art Deco heaven, and I'd love to steal a few hours and take some pix. Otherwise, I'll update you on the show as time allows.
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, TMC ITExpo
Posted by jonarnold at 09:58 PM | Comments (1)
January 17, 2008
IT Expo - IP Convergence TV Interviews
One last post about next week's IT Expo in Miami.
This time I'm wearing my Portal Editor hat for IP Convergence TV, which readers of my blog be aware of by now. We produce content in a variety of formats, including video interviews.
During the show, I've lined up a series of video interviews that I'll be conducting, and will eventually make their way to our portal as well as TMCnet. Am really looking forward to doing these, as events like this are a great gathering place for smart people, and with a bit of planning, you can get a lot done and still have time for everything else.
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, TMC ITExpo, IP Convergence TV
Posted by jonarnold at 10:25 PM | Comments (0)
Next Stop - Miami - ITExpo
This is post 2 of 3 regarding TMC's ITExpo next week in Miami. I'll be pretty busy wearing a few hats there, and in this post I'm just letting you know what I'll be doing wearing my analyst/moderator hat.
I'll be moderating 3 sessions - 2 on Wednesday, and 1 on Friday. I posted earlier today about the Canada/Ontario pavilion reception I'm speaking at on Thursday, so I've got something scheduled each day beyond the briefings, meetings, floorwalking and catching up with people.
On Wednesday, I'm moderating a session on Peering at 11:00, and then one on Hosted VoIP at 12:30.
Friday's session is a bit more ambitious and should be a lot of fun. It's a roundtable on the State of IPTV, and runs from 12:30 to 2:15. We've got 6 speakers scheduled, so we'll be covering a lot of ground.
So, now you know where to find me, and if these sessions are of interest, I sure hope you come out - and better yet, ask some tough questions during the Q&A!
Technorati tags:
J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, TMC ITExpo
Posted by jonarnold at 10:09 PM | Comments (0)
Meet Some of Ontario's Best IT/IP Companies - in Miami
This is the first of a few posts I'm trying to get done today around the ITExpo that runs next week in Miami.
For this post, I'm focusing on a pavilion being run by the Government of Ontario and the Consulate General of Canada. It's a showcase for leading IT/IP companies based in Ontario, and on Thursday, they're hosting a reception that's open to all exhibitors.
I've been asked to be the host, and will be making some opening remarks to welcome everyone to the reception. If you can make it, I'm sure you'll come away with a good feeling about the quality of companies coming out of Ontario in our space.
To learn more about the reception and the companies being showcased, have a look at their announcement, which I've posted here.
Technorati tags:
Government of Ontario, Jon Arnold, ITExpo
Posted by jonarnold at 03:05 PM | Comments (0)
January 03, 2008
2007 Highlights - Part 2
Yesterday was Part 1 of my 2007 highlights, and here's my review for the second half of the year. Hope you enjoy these, and maybe you were at some of these.
That's it for my 2007 review. Time to move ahead and get going on 2008.....
My Kitchener/Waterloo Mini-Tour, Waterloo - with John Tennant and Mark Whaley (he was on the ICF panel from the PTC event that was in yesterday's post - and now winner of world's most intelligent broadband community!)
Telus/RIM launch of their worldphone BlackBerry, Toronto.
Baseball Hall of Fame, Cooperstown. We all need a break, and this was one of mine this summer. The "Red Sox Holy Grail" was a personal highlight for me, and I just had to put it in here - the bloody sock, Curt's cleats (say that one 3 times fast), and the ball, all from their 2004 WS championship. I can die happy now.
Fall 2007 TMC ITExpo, Los Angeles. Chris Lyman, enthusiastically telling me the virtues of his company, Fonality!
IT Expo, Los Angeles - Andy Abramson's client/blogger dinner.
Ottawa Venture Technology Summit, Ottawa
BroadSoft Connections, Phoenix. Scott Wharton moderating a session, and a view of the grounds where the event was held at the Biltmore. I sure could get used to that...
Fall VON, Boston - Jeff Pulver's keynote
My Skype Mobility session
Happy Town - talk about being in the right place at the right time...
Nokia Siemens Mobile Experience Demo, Toronto. Very cool FMC apps, done here in real time.
Avaya Canada Analyst Day, Toronto. CEO Mario Belanger kicking things off.
Cisco C-Scape Analyst Conference, San Jose. John Chambers doing a Telepresence demo on stage with 3 different speakers.
Technorati tags: J Arnold & Associates, Jon Arnold, blogging
Posted by jonarnold at 09:03 AM | Comments (0)
January 02, 2008
2007 Highlights - Part 1
Am slowly getting back to a working groove, but really won't be fully back til Monday once everyone's out of the house and back at school. Don't know about you, but I've been using some of this down time to not just reflect on 2007, but also about where I'm looking to go in 2008. It's both easy and hard being an independent, and a priority for me this year will be to deepen many of the relationships that I built in 2007, and that's already happening in the first few days of the new year.
I'm also trying to find a better way to balance all the proprietary consulting work I do for clients along with the public things I do that keep me visibily involved - conferences, blogging, podcasts, etc. With all the back and forth with my recent posts about whether the Facebook phenomenon is good or bad for blogging, I've really got to consider this more closely and see if FB can help me manage that balance. All suggestions are welcome!
Ok,enough self-reflection - time to move on to the scripted part of this post. I've been off the blogs for most of the break, but have seen a few year-end summaries, predictions, etc. I could spend a lot time doing the same, but I've decided to do a photo review instead. Others have already done the same - really liked Jeff Pulver's photolog post - and I'm doing mine in two parts.
Over the course of 2007, I've mostly been using the Nokia N93 and Nokia N95, and that's what these photos were taken with. The fun part of being an indie is attending a variety of events - some are very analyst-centric, and some are very media/press-centric. I'm a bit of a chameleon, and work out of both camps, so I get to a wider range of things than a straight-up analyst or journalist would get to. And sometimes I get to go to things just because I'm a "blogger" - although these days I'm not really sure what that term really means.
This is especially true since I'm based in Canada. Most of the industry people my paths cross up here are only focused on the home market, whereas I try my best to keep on top of the U.S. as well. So, this is one of the few blogs where you'll see a healthy mix of what's going on in Canada as well as the U.S.
Whatever - listen - I'm just one guy. I don't have a company sending me places - it's up to me to make all this stuff happen, and I'm grateful to have been able to see so many things in 2007. I can only hope that the song remains the same in 2008, and I look forward to sharing my adventures with you as they happen.
So, in today's post, here's Part 1 - my year in pictures - basically the first half of 2007. It will give you a flavor of the events I participated in and the places I was lucky enough to travel to. I could tell you a lot more and show you a lot more pictures about any of these, but not here. By all means, feel free to search my blog for the original posts these came from for more. Otherwise, maybe there's a book in this somewhere.....
Aloha! Can't think of a better way to start 2007 being based in the Great White North, eh - the Pacific Telecom Council conference in Hawaii. And, yes, I got an authentic Hawaiian shirt there that I hope will come in handy one of these days...
The ICF panel at PTC. This is the Intelligent Communities Forum, where they were announcing the finalists for their annual awards. As it turns out, Waterloo, Ontario came out the winner, chosen as the #1 intelligent community in the world. Go Canada.........
TMC's ITExpo, Fort Lauderdale. I chose this photo of colleague Moshe Maeir (with Rich in the background)since he was nice enough to post it on his year-end review - thanks Moshe!