I can't help but feel like a proud parent as we get ready for this week's ITEXPO. The team I work with have absolutely outdone themselves and the scope of this event is beyond my imagination. To think this show started in 1999 at the Hotel Del Coronado a stones throw from the San Diego Convention Center -- it's current home.

As you get ready to come to ITEXPO this week there is one request I would like to make of you and that is this event has more content than any previous event in TMC history and it certainly has as much education as any event I have ever been to. The goal of this blog entry is not to brag but to ensure you are spending enough time in the sessions in the conference rooms and/or on the show floor.

My request is that you plan to have enough time to absorb everything -- the exhibits -- there are more exhibits at this show than ever before -- and all the sessions. For example the keynotes at this show should be spectacular -- you won't want to miss them.

There are a few places you may want to you study carefully before coming to the event and I also suggest you make sure you bring colleagues as there is too much content for a single person to ingest by themselves. Some companies are sending more than a dozen representatives and while I admit that is probably overkill it also allows an organization to absorb everything of importance. Nothing is left to chance.

Please spend some time studying the Internet Telephony Conference site especially the conference page and PDFs of the expo brochure and agenda at a glance. Two other items of interest are the dates & times and resource center.

Also check out the special attractions:

Battle for the Enterprise/SMB
Disaster Planning Seminar and Workshop
IPDR.org's Quintuple Play IP Services Track
Ingate's SIP Trunking Workshop
Reseller Solutions Day
Service Provider Shootout
Voice Peering Workshop

Also keep an eye out on the expo blog and pay special attention to entries like Quintuple Play, IPTV Conference" href="http://blog.tmcnet.com/blog/rich-tehrani/video/iptv-conference.html">IPTV Conference, Asterisk Training, ITEXPO Special Attractions, Enterprise VoIP Peering Comes of Age, SIP Trunking Session at ITEXPO, UTStarcom FMC, Maximizing Service Provider Revenue and more.

Consider this entry your pre-show welcome. I look forward to greeting you more formally -- and sharing the full IP Communications Experience™ with you -- this week in San Diego!