By
RICH TEHRANI
President & Group Editor-in-Chief
I have now been asked three times in one day what the trends were from the last
Internet Telephony Conference & Expo last week in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. I would have to say that the fixed mobile convergence and IMS conference tracks had a tremendous amount of energy and were standing room only. These sessions were just about as exciting as it gets and conferees and speakers seemed to feel that the audience was thirsty for more information. We have been asked by more than one speaker to dedicate more time to these sessions just to allow for the large amount of Q&A.
At the opposite end of the VoIP spectrum is IP contact centers, where the sessions were also standing room only. The contact center market had seemed to slow for a few years. Many people told me that exhibiting at call center events made little sense, as people don't come to such events. I believe the resurgence in this track could bode very well for call center equipment and service providers going forward.
The exhibit hall was mobbed and there were people buying equipment on the show floor. ITEXPO has always been a show where service providers and enterprises come to select products and buy. I just never get used to seeing transactions on the show floor.
Virtually every booth was mobbed for all three days—except when the booth personnel were sitting in chairs or had their arms folded (two very bad things to do at shows). I really didn't notice any booths getting less than their fair share of traffic.
Digium swallowed up thousands of people in their booth and their partners seemed thrilled to be at the show.
VoIP Supply, too, seemed to have more than its share of traffic. Beyond that it seems that all sectors of VoIP are blossoming. IPTV, WiFi telephony, IMS; you name it.
If I had to sum it up in one word it would be “frenzy.” The VoIP market is in a frenzy. Exhibitors told me repeatedly that the audience is so much more educated than ever before, and they came to buy. It seems the quality of the 8,000 attendees outweighed the quantity. This bodes well for the industry. Let's hope this buying frenzy continues for a long time to come.
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