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VoIP Expo Marketing

I had a discussion with my marketing department today. They are about to let the world know that there are still unbelievable deals on airlines and hotels to go to Florida for the Internet Telephony Show next week in Fort Lauderdale, FL. We often have internal discussions about VoIP conferences. So many of them lead with price. In other words they push the discount instead of the quality of the conference.

Perhaps this isnt so stupid. Wal-Mart does the same thing. Then again, people don’t really associate Wal-Mart with the best quality.

Still, the pushing discounts strategy is commonplace and something to date that we at TMC have shied away from. ITEXPO already has competitive pricing but we feel it is more important to tell conferees they will get the best education in the world when it comes to VoIP and we back it up with a conference guarantee – something no other VoIP conference has yet dare match.

We have the best conference. Bar none. That is our position. If you can’t learn it here at ITEXPO, you can’t learn it anywhere. After all, TMC has been putting on telecom conferences for over 20 years!

Still, my marketing department can be quite persuasive and even though I am not a fan of messages that don’t stress the show value first, I realize that attendees are still signing up by the thousand from around the world and they have to get to the show one way or another. So without delay, here is the famous e-mail:

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You still have time to reserve very affordable (downright cheap in some cases) flights down to South Florida for next week's INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO East 2006.

Here in Connecticut, winter returned with a vengeance this weekend. I can't wait to get to Ft. Lauderdale for the first VoIP event of 2006.

Here are some sample fares to Ft. Lauderdale that I found on the American Airlines Web site:

Departure City:
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Boston, Chicago or New York: $138 round trip
Washington, DC: $98
Pittsburgh: $166
Philadelphia: $168
Minneapolis: $241.50
Nashville: $253
Cleveland: $242.50

Some fares from other carriers include:
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Raleigh, NC: $168
Charlotte, NC: $236
Atlanta: $268
Montreal: $293
Toronto: $312

Since you can register to attend the exhibits, networking receptions and keynotes for free, and the Ft. Lauderdale area has literally hundreds of affordable hotels within a few miles of the convention center, there is no reason not to take a few days next week to come down to the show.

Register for your free VIP pass for unlimited access to the exhibit hall, all keynotes, all networking receptions and all general sessions now:

http://www.tmcnet.com/voip/conference/voip-06/fl-06-registration.aspx

Each day at INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO is filled with a remarkable lineup of keynotes, breakout sessions, general sessions, workshops and networking opportunities.

Whether you are a service provider, reseller or manufacturer in the VoIP Industry, or an enterprise, SMB or government agency seeking solutions, I am confident you will find more answers to your VoIP questions at this event than at any other tech conference this year. INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO is truly the world's largest VoIP marketplace.

I encourage you to visit www.itexpo.com now to review detailed descriptions of everything happening at the conference and to quickly and easily register.

You can also download a PDF of the agenda here: http://images.tmcnet.com/expo/voip-06/art/itexpo-east06grid.pdf.

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The Courier

The television networks are really taking a beating due to the advent of TiVo and other DVR companies. In addition they face increasing competition from video games and the web. They are fighting back in a few ways such as selling episodes on the web. A relatively newer way is to launch TV shows that run during commercial messages. These shows will be different than the one you are watching.

The goal is to keep viewers watching commercials so they don’t miss the microseries.

In 2003 NBC experimented with the concept but didn’t think anyone cared so they stopped it.

Now CBS is doing the same thing with a new microseries that will air with a 60 second launch followed by 40 second episodes. The series will be called The Courier and it tells the story of a mystery man looking for his kidnapped wife – of course he is racing against time as there will be little time for the series to set up or even tell the story.

The series has extensive web tie ins (turn your speakers down) and by collecting clues from the program and perhaps the website you can potentially win a Pontiac Torrent. It should come as no surprise that Pontiac is a sponsor of the show. Many analysts predict these sorts of corporate sponsored product tie-ins will be the future of television.

One wonders if the concept will work this time around. If the series is compelling enough it just may. If the idea takes off we many end up with programming that like the Super Bowl gets some people more excited about the commercials than the program itself.

In such an ADD driven world, it wont surprise me if the younger generation falls in love with microseries programming. If so, networks will have to rethink their entire programming logic.

I commend CBS for trying new things. In the end they have to do this to survive but a network that was once considered stodgy could be the one that helps establish microseries as a new genre of television.

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