Last year, TMC and its partners launched the first WebRTC conference in the world and the market reacted enthusiastically with a sold out exhibit hall and a standing room only crowd. I tell you this because I haven’t seen so much interest in a new technology in over a decade. It reminds me of the early days of VoIP and SIP and the Internet all rolled up in one.

Interestingly the market that WebRTC plays in is a hybrid of all of the above and more. It is the first technology which allows the browser to do a virtually unlimited number of things. Its more than voice, more than video, more than p2p data communications – it represents with HTML5, the transformation of the browser.

The next WebRTC Conference & Expo which takes place June 25-27 in Atlanta, GA is a veritable melting pot of old and new companies – from telecom, datacom and the web.

The diamond sponsors for example consist of Google, Ericsson, tokbox and Apidaze. Google is the company we associate with the internet and Ericsson with telecom and wireless infrastructure.

Platinum Sponsors are as follows: Alcatel-Lucent, Crocodile RCS, Dialogic, Mavenir, Sansay, Symbee, Vonage, WebRTC Consultants (a Temasys Communications Company), Xirsys. Alcatel-Lucent is the world’s original phone company turned equipment provider to carriers – then we have Sansay who is a next-gen communications infrastructure company making SBCs. Dialogic is the company perhaps most responsible for allowing the telecom and computer worlds to merge and Vonage is the company which really popularized VoIP in the US and elsewhere.

Gold Sponsors are as follows: AudioCodes, Bistri, Digium, GENBAND, Ingate, Oracle, Quobis, StarPound, Teledini, Weemo while silver Sponsors are Apex Voice Communications, Avaya, Exario Networks, Priologic and Symonics. AudioCodes does a number of things but is certainly a major player in the VoIP enablement market… Digium is a major player in open-source communications, Ingate is a huge player in the SIP space, GENBAND is for all practical purposes a smaller version of Alcatel-Lucent but fast-growing, Avaya is a major enterprise and SMB voice provider, Oracle/Acme Packet is the leading SBC player, Apex Voice is a long-running player in the telephony applications space and has been around for decades.

Many of the other companies are new – some of them were started as a result of the first WebRTC show in Santa Clara, last year where people saw how immense the opportunity is in this market.

My point here is obviously to not only thank the sponsors for participating but highlight how different they all are. This diverse group shows us how important WebRTC is. It truly connects the old world of telecom to the new world of interconnected computing and in doing so will enable a massive shift in the way communications and computers work.

It could potentially eliminate the need for Skype if Microsoft doesn’t adapt. It could eliminate the need for phone numbers if the telcos don’t adapt. It could allow new p2p business models to be created overnight like file sharing, computer to computer payments and a slew of other ideas no one has devised as of yet.

We expect all sponsorships to be sold out soon and we will likely run out of room for attendees at the show so please register as soon as you feel comfortable doing so to avoid disappointment and we look forward to hosting you in Atlanta.