Mercator Capital likes TMC's ITEXPO and Internet Telephony Magazine

Rich wrote an interesting blog entry today about Mercator Capital talking about TMC's upcoming (next week) Internet Telephony Conference & Expo, as well as some major kudos for TMC's Internet Telephony Magazine. I head out to ITEXPO in just a few days and I have some good meetings lined up with several vendors in the IP communications space. I'll be sure to post here any interesting news.

In the meantime, I'm going to steal Rich's blog entry about Mercator Capital and paste it below. I don't think he'll fire me for my blatant plagiarism.
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I just got the latest Mercator Capital newsletter and was delighted to see a well-written article on TMC’s upcoming Internet Telephony show. First though a plug on Mercator Capital:

Mercator Capital is a privately-held investment bank focused on mergers & acquisitions, private placements, and strategic advisory services. Mercator's IP Communications Newsletter is a monthly analysis and commentary on the major business stories impacting the convergence of voice, video, data, and wireless communications.

TMC ITExpo Preview

TMC's semi-annual Internet Telephony Conference and Expo takes place in San Diego, from October 10 – 13. As with other telecom shows in the current market, the ITExpo keeps getting larger, and this edition certainly covers the gamut for IP communications. TMC – Technology Marketing Corporation - has been a leading trade publisher for over 30 years, and their flagship magazine, IP Internet Telephony, is one of the most widely read in the industry. TMC also has several other media properties, mainly in publishing, web portals and conferences, but its ITExpo become a one-stop-shop for anyone looking to connect with this market, particularly for the enterprise arena.

TMC's President and Group Publisher, Rich Tehrani and his team have put together an ambitious program that aims to cover many of the most important trends driving telecom and communications today. The first thing of note is show's scope. With some 60 countries attending, the ITExpo will certainly be a global event. This is also an exhibitor-driven show, with over 9,000 attendees expected, and we are hoping for visible signs of commerce and deal-making. We see this as a key barometer for the health of the VoIP sector, as well as a way to validate which companies are really getting traction.

Aside from the business angle, ITExpo's content is broad. The show covers an impressive range of topics from service providers to enterprise communications, which is also reflected in the high profile speaker roster, including keynotes from AT&T, Motorola, Microsoft, Nortel, Toshiba, Inter-Tel, Ditech and Citrix.

Update: The irony of this post is how many past exhibitors have told me since seeing this post ITEXPO is equally good if not better for service provider attendance. In fact it seems the service provider audience at other IP communications events is lacking as of this past month (their words not mine). I can tell you our service provider audience is growing like crazy and a look at the content offering at ITEXPO shows there is no more or better content for service providers than at ITEXPO/IMS EXPO.

The funny thing is that the exhibitors who have been to one of the other IP communications events are afraid to go on the record as apparently they know they will get a phone call (lately these phone calls have been popularized in the blogosphere as "WTF" calls– again not my words) from the founder of this show if they do.

Industry politics can be so much fun.

In the end I can't imagine anyone winning in any competition by using scare tactics. If you must resort to this strategy something must be sorely lacking. Right? Offering customers the best product and exceptional service is the way to keep them as partners in the long run. Let’s hope things stay the same.