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I wanted to alert my readers to some exciting news happening at TMC. As you likely know TMC is among a handful of media companies growing at a time when the media landscape is in dramatic decline. As you might imagine this growth is primarily online. Over the last decade and especially in the last few years we have focused on building online communities (Channels and GOCs) for customers who sponsor these areas as they rapidly attract focused decision-makers from around the world.

The visitors who come to these communities benefit from a massive amount of free content which helps them make informed purchasing decisions. For example people looking for products in Call Recording, Smart Data Centers, IP communications, HD Voice, Fixed Mobile Convergence or Next Generation Communications can come to the respective communities focused on these topics and have access to hundreds and in most cases thousands of TMC written articles detailing the news in their specific area of interest. Our business model is straightforward; aggregate massive amounts of focused and quality content using custom-built content targeting technology - make it relevant and pertinent so as to attract the right readers who need this information as they research the products and services they are looking to buy.

For our sponsors, these communities allow them to rank high organically on search engines to get their message out to a focused audience while simultaneously being able to measure the traffic to ensure they can justify their spend to the sales and executive management teams.

Basically, this suite of communities replicates the trade show model online and just like a trade show that attracts more attendees as the exhibitor base grows; the 120 monthly sponsored communities on TMCnet attract a massive audience which in turn attracts more sponsors.

In short, I am very confident we can continue to provide free quality content in all the areas we enter. Meaning while other media companies are beginning to charge for their once free content and many others are reducing their editorial teams, TMC is adding to its editorial, sales and marketing teams as we have a model which works exceptionally well for our readers and sponsors.

We are growing our team as we enter a slew of new markets with our business model of providing laser-focused content - backed by over a decade of proprietary content targeting technology; essentially building targeted online communities which rank high on search engines as they attract large amounts of focused traffic.

Here is my quote from a press release we put out today mentioning the hire of a brand new position - VP of Business Development. Matt Weiner is filling this position and his background of working for Penton and Yahoo! make him a good fit for the position."Over the last decade, TMC has invested in the technology and people necessary to build a next-generation media company which creates communities online, in-print and in-person," Tehrani continued. "By providing our audience with top quality news, training and information, we have attracted global purchasing decision-makers to our communities. As TMC's global communities have increased in size and quality, they have attracted hundreds of advertisers and sponsors who receive regular measurable results for their marketing and SEO budgets. Our future strategy involves continuing to build communities which draw large amounts of targeted traffic as we continue to connect buyers and sellers -- and adding Matt to the team is an integral element of that strategy."

Aside from Matt, we have added a number of other positions and just as importantly we continue to ink partnership after new partnership as we enter new spaces where we leverage our community building engine in combination with the thought leadership of individuals and/or corporations in new markets.

Thank you for continuing to support our rapid growth - thanks to our readers and existing and news sponsors - we look forward to helping all of your companies grow with ours.

In the last two weeks I drove (well I was in the car anyway) for more than 1,500 miles meeting with tech companies in Montreal, Ontario, Massachusetts, Rochester, NY, Los Angeles and San Diego. The last stop on my latest trip was at CTIA where I saw dozens of companies from around the globe.

Most of my travels involve learning about companies in the communications and technology space and often advising them on how they can be more successful. Sometimes I get to see some very innovative solutions which I can't share at the time for a multitude of reasons (embargos, etc) and other times I get a firsthand look at things which I share as soon as I can. In many cases, companies ask me about TMC's experience in helping companies with their thought leadership, branding and lead generation activities.

As CEO of a media company which builds online, in-person and print communities for millions of global purchasing decision-makers each month, I have an unusual role of also writing about many of the companies, products and services I see. What is fun for me is finding new ways to bring buyers and sellers together. Buyers want to quickly learn about which products they should consider before purchasing and sellers are looking to sell as much as they can while spending the least amount in doing so.

It is an amazing place to sit because extremely often I see industry-changing technology which languishes because an engineer sets the marketing budget and has the corporate communications skills of sheetrock. Remember, I have an engineering degree so I feel I am uniquely qualified to beat up my brethren. Then there are the companies I visit where their products shouldn't be accepted for free, yet they sell in volume and make massive margins because they are able to communicate the benefits properly.

Then there are a slew of "Hail Mary" companies which have really cool products but no business model to speak of. Sometimes I can convince the founder of such a company to modify their offerings to actually make money but other times the companies die on the vine because they think they know best - after all, I just meet a thousand companies plus like them a year - what do I know?. Sometimes though the amazing happens and they  get purchased by a Google, Cisco or Oracle and thus the "Hail Mary" designation.

I am thrilled to act as a trusted advisor on PR and marketing issues and I figured it is unfair for me to only share information with people I choose to visit and subsequently I spoke on a webinar a month or so ago about hosted SEO which was well-attended and generated lot buzz in the industry. So many companies wonder about search engine optimization and what the trick is to ranking high. While there are lots of factors to consider, the basic premise is to write lots of content which people want to read and share with others.

SEO consultants get paid to help companies rank higher and in some cases they can boost a company's search rank for a while. But in the end, steady and relatively large amounts of content are what companies need to generate to rank high on various terms.

I could go on about building communities and improving SEO for hours - I am truly passionate about figuring out how to instantly bring a group of people with similar interests together on a single web portal. Coming from the world of magazines, it used to take TMC six months to build a mailing list and in many cases you really needed 18 months to do it right. Oh and did I mention you had to mail at least half a million subscription offers and it would cost you about $400,000 at a minimum to rent lists, print and mail your subscription forms? To show you how much things have changed, TMC has been involved in projects in the past few months where we built communities on new topics which are up and running and attracting hundreds of thousands of people in a matter of a few weeks. It is truly amazing to see how media has evolved through the use of news-generated, laser focused community building.

Again, these topics are a major passion of mine and something my team at TMC has gotten great at focusing on. The next webinar I will speak on takes place Thursday of this week, October 15^th at 12:00 PST and on it I will discuss how you can partner to boost your search engine marketing. I look forward to seeing you there. Be sure to register now so you don't miss it. As a reminder, you can view the archive if you aren't around at this exact time. Just be sure to register. Also, be sure to bring any questions you have. I look forward to answering them this week.

Leveraging Ecosystems Eclipses Developing Products

Widgets for TVs, application stores for wireless phones, applets for the connected home and automobiles... The trend is clear as smart ecosystems have emerged on the scene as a new way to generate revenue while locking in customers to specific hardware/software solutions. For many manufacturers such as Avaya, Cisco, RIM, Nokia, Apple and makers of televisions, it is no longer adequate to focus exclusively on the products your company develops. Now you have to figure out how to build a smart ecosystem around your offerings in order to leverage an able and willing (hardware and software) developer community who will evangelize your platform and develop long-tail applications, services and add-ons which boost the value of your ecosystem.

In order to help educate the emerging smart ecosystem community, TMC has partnered with Crossfire Media and distinguished college professor Mary Cronin PhD to launch a smart ecosystem portal containing news, thought leadership and analysis called SPEC which stands for Smart Product Ecosystems Connection and located at www.specosys.com.

As you may recall, Crossfire Media is home to Carl Ford and together we have already partnered to build online and live communities (4GWE and M2M Summit) in the 4G and M2M spaces.

This partnership also includes Mary Cronin, a professor in the Information Systems Department of Boston College's Carroll School of Management. Mary is a true thought leader in the space and you can expect to hear her prescient thoughts on how ecosystems will take root and evolve. Her first article is titled Five Rules for Smart Product Ecosystems.

The coverage areas will extend into a variety of industries and for now they include Telecom & Mobile; Health & Medical; Automotive & Telematics; Home Automation and Connected Home Entertainment Devices; Energy Monitoring and Personal Energy Management Solutions. We are open to adding new areas so drop us a line with suggestions.

It is evident that as time goes on, companies in all industries will be looking to tie their products and services into more and more ecosystems. They will either develop their own and/or leverage others on the market. In order to stay up to date on the investment, partnering and other opportunities ahead, be sure to bookmark the new SPEC smart ecosystem site and check back often.

It's just what you have been waiting for - the 76-page show directory for ITEXPO which will give you lots of needed information regarding the show (Sept 1-3 in LA) . Virtually everything you need is in here - sponsors, floor plan, exhibitor list, TMC University, Trixbox training, Ingate's SIP trunking workshop, Reseller solutions day, keynotes, Asterisk Training, WiNOG, Sipera SIP Security, Wireless Broadband training, M2M, Smart Grid Summit, 4GWE, agenda and Q&As with industry thought leaders. Get it while it's hot and download it to your smartphone or laptop/netbook so you can refer to it often.

Be sure to check out all of the exciting news happening at ITEXPO. In order to get up to date news be sure to bookmark the show news page and check out the three show dailies which have already been produced. Check this page often to stay up to date.

August 20 show daily: SIP security, next gen IMS, VoIP boosts small biz, smart grid progress, Brightcom, Octasic, SIP trunking seminar, Digium open source Asterisk workshop, Terry Matthews keynote, cash for phone system clunkers etc.

August 25 show daily: Smart grid as global trend, mobile communications, Amdocs, 4G, mobile devices, consumer unified communications, Cbeyond and pretzels, Spanlink, wholesale and enterprise VoIP.

August 27 show daily: home energy management/smarthome, networking alternatives, open-source communications in Europe, Multi-Tech, WiMAX dead again, telepresence worth $4.7 billion, fax over IP survivability, SIP trunks

We have been seeing a surge of registrations for TMC's ITEXPO, the hotel room block has been oversold for over a month and we feel the industry getting more excited than ever for ITEXPO - the ultimate event which brings global buyers and sellers together in the communications and tech spaces. Carriers (wired and wireless), enterprise decision-makers, resellers, developers and industry all will be at the show in numbers close to last year. It is virtually impossible to determine show attendance in advance but based on the numbers I saw in the registration database this morning, we could have a show at least as busy as least year if not even busier.

Remember that earlier this year TMC had a record show in Miami - ITEXPO East 2009. The event was up 15% in attendance thanks to you and it was the most qualified mix of visitors ever according to exhibitors.

This is the show's tenth anniversary and the 20^th show! Our goal is to make every one better than the last and it seems based on the numbers we have so far this ITEXPO will be as good as all the other ones which draw purchasing decision-makers from over 110 countries each year.

For more, here are comments (video) from Michael Genaro Executive Vice President of Operations at TMC and below is an email which I sent to TMC's readership earlier today.

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I Keep Finding More Reasons to Attend ITEXPO:
Smart Grid and M2M Conferences; Avaya Social Networking

One week out from ITEXPO West 2009 in L.A., and each time I visit the show Web site, I see more and more  compelling reasons to make a trip to LA for the show.

Here are three more collocated events where you can learn and network - all in an effort to expand your
business and take advantage of growing segments of the communications market.

1. Smart Grid Summit Conference

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Sponsored by Redline Communications - Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Just added to the program a few weeks ago, The Smart Grid Summit is the first event of its kind to address the unprecedented opportunity coming from the intersection of two core building blocks of our
economy - utilities and communications.

The Smart Grid Summit is devoted to a sector poised for the same fundamental transformation that telecom  experienced with the advent of IP communications.

Come understand the role that IP communications technologies will play in how the Smart Grid evolves - not  just for making utilities more efficient, but also for enabling the Smart Home and a new generation of  communications innovations.

2. M2M Evolution Conference

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Free one-day conference sponsored by MultiTech Systems - Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Telemetry has been changing to take advantage of the Internet, where WAN and LAN systems were points of aggregation in the past, today's machines benefit from the ability to connect worldwide. And as the machines continue to look to network, the wireless world represents a large growth opportunity for data communication.

Today, machine to machine solutions are driving data demand with tight vertical integration for specific industries like healthcare, refinery or transportation or supporting the general IT needs and cross industry requirements associated data centers, facilities and security.

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The Social Enterprise - Are you ready for it?

Free Workshop and Reception for all ITEXPO Attendees Monday, August 31, 2009, 7:00pm - 9:30pm - Westin Hotel

This is where you can learn how to integrate Facebook, Twitter and other platforms into your enterprise and customer communications.

You will have a chance to listen to and meet Paul Dunay, the author of "Facebook Marketing for Dummies", and get a chance to check out Avaya Labs innovations.

Social media is becoming a more important element in corporate marketing and communications and I really give  Avaya tremendous credit for choosing to educate companies on the topic.

As an added bonus the event will conclude with some handcrafted ales from the Bonaventure Brewing Company.

Here are more details and event registration.

OK, let's recap. Here is the complete list of Top Reasons to Attend ITEXPO that I've circulated over the past two weeks.

There is a great resource page on the ITEXPO site with links to the pages describing every event, workshop, session, keynote and reception at the show: What's Happening at ITEXPO

• INTERNET TELEPHONY is TELEPHONY; and IP Communications are Communications
• New! Sipera's UC Security Workshop
• TMC University Courses - Microsoft OCS and Network Security
• Free Reseller Solutions Day Workshop
• New! Avaya's Social Enterprise and Contact Center Workshop
• Free Keynotes: ShoreTel - Aspect - Paetec - Alvarion - Clearwire - Interactive Intelligence
• Ingate's Free SIP Trunking Workshop
• Meet More Than 250 Important Vendors
        Exhibitor List
        Speaker List
• NEW! Three Collocated Conferences - 4GWE, Smart Grid and M2M Evolution
• New Jeep Giveaway
• Sir Terry Matthews to Keynote ITEXPO & 4GWE Conference - Wednesday, September 2, 2009
• Asterisk Training
• Fonality trixbox Open Communication Certification (FtOCC)
• Wireless Broadband Training
• Smart Grid Summit
• M2M Evolution Conference
• Avaya's Social Networking Workshop

The complete conference brochure has just been updated to include all of the newest content.

Use this link to Register now.

While at ITEXPO, please visit our sponsors on the exhibit floor:

Platinum Sponsors: Applianx, AudioCodes, 8x8, Inc, Fonality, VoltDelta,

Gold Sponsors: NetSapiens, IntelePeer, Touchstone Technologies, Telco Bridges,

As a follow-up to the ITEXPO interviews I posted links to last week, here are the latest responses from the industry. Of particular interest are answers from Doug Mohney who explains how he got into the business by being employee number 11 or 12 at DIGEX. I also found the responses from Eli Katz of XConnect enlightening... If you are interested in peering or IP communications you want to give them a read.

There is so much great information here and I suggest you click all the interviews and read them - these are some of the true thought-leaders in our spaces and they have a wealth of useful information to share. I hope to meet you as well as all the speakers and exhibitors very soon at the show. We are officially 13 days away.

Be sure to register now if you haven't already.

As you probably know I am extremely enthused about the idea of the smart grid as it is not only necessary for the next generation of power generation and consumption in the world but just as importantly because the new grid will interface using communications and networking protocols. What this means is massive, unprecedented opportunity for our industry as a smart grid is developed.

It further means telecom and datacom players who are paying attention are also salivating at the prospect.

To further educate the market on the smart grid, TMC has partnered with Intelligent Communications Partners (ICP) to put together an event in the space and a web portal which will be the leading source of information in the space.

Recently Jon Arnold who is part of ICP interviewed Marc Robins the Executive Director of the SIP Forum regarding his views on the new grid, emerging specifications and how SIP will play a role in communications. To me the potential for the communications market here is beyond staggering.

Imagine how many devices will be sold if products which work in communications also work in the electrical grid. Imagine the potential for customers to have applications which merge the best of both worlds allowing granular control over devices. Think about an enterprise able to idle devices which aren't in use - or turn off phones and computers when presence indicates the user is not nearby.

Imagine. Wonder. Be Amazed. I certainly am.

I hope to see you September 1-3 in Los Angeles for the Smart Grid Summit (press release on program) which takes place at the same time as ITEXPO in Los Angeles. See you there.