A Walk Among the Bones

Change. Growth. Evolution.

My wife and I took our children to the American Museum of Natural History in NYC this past week, and it was an interesting study of human evolution. I’m not talking about the dioramas and displays, I’m talking about the mass of humanity and the complete lack of consideration for one another. Baby strollers used as battering rams, toddlers used as lead blockers to get through the crowd, I almost felt bad for the other museum-goers. I’m only half-kidding. I’m sure students of anthropology would have a field day just observing the behavior of people who go to museums on national holidays.

On a more relevant note, I could see parallels to the VoIP industry amongst the fossils and bones of the Saurischian dinosaur exhibit (think T. Rex). For me, a walk among the bones was akin to a stroll down memory lane of vendors, service providers, magazines, and trade shows that were once the cream of the telecom crop. Life changes, and industries — much like species of flora and fauna — evolve.

As I put my March issue of INTERNET TELEPHONY magazine to bed this week, a quick glance at the topics in the Table of Contents was proof that we’ve evolved: Fixed/Mobile Convergence, Open Source Development, VoIP Peering, Enterprise Wireless… I certainly wasn’t writing about these things in our first issue of the magazine, and now these technologies are seen as critical to the future of our industry.

As the industry evolves, so do we, and in addition to launching new publications this quarter dedicated to SIP and IMS, our conference team has been hard at work building two new “in-person” offerings: IMS Expo and VoIP Demo. These two additions to our conference/exhibition stable address two very different constituencies, but still retain their roots in our desire to educate as many people as possible regarding the future of telecom.

IMS Expo, to be collocated with this fall’s Internet Telephony Conference & EXPO West (San Diego, CA October 11–13, 2006) will feature a conference program designed to educate attendees as to the how and why of IMS, while the exhibit hall portion will showcase the industry’s early leaders and the products and solutions they have on tap.

VoIP Demo addresses a more pressing need: The desire for attendees to see live demonstrations of products and services so that they might make informed purchasing decisions when it comes to VoIP technology. This event is set to take place in Santa Clara, CA from August 8–10, 2006.

We take our mission to educate our readers and conference attendees seriously. We also strive to be the single best source for providing information for decision makers looking to purchase VoIP products and services. We believe the launch of these two new conferences fulfills that mission. I hope to see you at one of these events.