I woke up at 3:30 am this morning after about 4.5 hours of sleep or so. I prefer to get more but it was tough to sleep with all that is going on this week in Ft. Lauderdale. I woke to memories of the previous few days which consisted of a packed exhibit hall and some of the most in-depth networking, deal making and buying I have seen in a long while. The TMC team has really outdone themselves this week as they really put on a fantastic event. Now we still have one more day left but I had a number of exhibitors tell me the first few hours of the show were better than all the shows they exhibited at the previous year.
Conferees seemed equally impressed with the event and I spent much of this week fielding testimonials about how this show is so much better than any other. For all the great things the TMC team did this week we also screwed up. One of the biggest challenges of a trade show is predicting how to order food so you don’t waste it – but also always have enough at every function.
Think of trade show planning as something like planning a wedding that is 10 times as big and you really don’t know if any of the guests will actually show up. That is the reality of this business. Signing up for a show can be free and this means you really don’t know if your guests will decide to come or not.
Suffice it to say we over-ordered many gourmet (I ate 2 of them and they were quite good) breakfasts costing over $10,000. I am told the extra food goes to the needy which makes me feel better. Why? We overestimated how many people would appear at 7:30 am. I guess it is tough to compete with south Florida night life. At the same time we underestimated how many people would show up at the end of the day. So our receptions ran out of food more quickly than we would have liked. So apologies to attendees who didn’t get to eat last night. We will have to up our food estimates for the next show.
We gave away a Harley Davidson motorcycle last night and I think the massive crowds at the drawing had something to do with the food running out. Take a look at the video of the drawing. So far this was the personal highlight of the event for me. I love to give back to the IP communications community and thank them for all they have done for TMC and me personally. So it is just after 5:00 am and after I post this entry I plan on going to work out for a bit (or go back to sleep – I really am not sure) but before I go, here are some things worth sharing:
1) Skype will soon have a calling plans in Europe similar the one in the US and they will call it Skype Pro (I have not confirmed this with Skype)
2) The service provider market seemed soft in Q3 and Q4 according to many of the vendors at the show
3) The service provider market seems to have picked up in Q1 of this year
4) IMS is confusing service providers and slowing purchases (expect TMC and the IMS Forum to work together collaboratively to step-up education in this space)
5) VoIP peering and SIP trunking were alive and well at the show -- lots of interest in both
So while I am at the show I still have only seen a fraction of the news releases that came out of the event. I still am in the trees and haven’t had a chance to come up for air so I can share overall trends and analysis. I hope to have time for this later. But for now, I hope you all plan on being at the 2:00 pm drawing today in the exhibit hall where someone will win a Toyota FJ Cruiser.
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