ITEXPO

Rich Tehrani gave some interesting ITEXPO facts during his keynote introductions. He also covered Super Wi-Fi, M2M, Facebook IPO causing new millionaires to fund new companies and StartupCamp, which in the past has had actually VCs in the audience write checks to startups after they gave their pitch / demo during StartupCamp. Watch the video:

Good crowd entering the show floor as it opens.

 

ShoreTel just announced they are purchasing  M5 Networks - both companies have been past participants in ITEXPO - I happen to be here at ITEXPO Miami where we have record crowds. And cloud communications is a hot space as evidenced by the interest in the technology by purchasing conferees here at the show.
And this is the reason for the acquisition. Many will credit the simplicity of ShoreTel PBXs as well as their "networking" based approach to design and deployment for some of their success. Obviously they are better at marketing and PR than most communications companies as well.
But the future is the cloud and M5 has been a  regional player for a long time and although they have expanded their footprint they don't have a strong enough brand to be the cloud-communications alternative to a strong brand like Cisco or Avaya.

The PR Vibes newsletters are a great place to catch up on the news and gossip on industry events such as CTIA, MWC and ITEXPO. We are here at ITEXPO East 2012 in Miami and the good people at PR Vibes were nice enough to cover the last major keynote at the collocated StartupCamp which took place in Austin, Texas last fall.

Our keynoter at that show was Bob Metcalfe - a legend and a great speaker whose oratory skills are only outweighed by his massive contributions to tech and networking.

I don't want to steal thunder from Laura Borgstede and her crew so by all means check out the post right now - it is educational and informative and worth a read.

Think of it as an MBA course from a person who really knows how to start and run successful companies. Moreover - it is information from a visionary and executor - we know how rare this combo is not only in tech but in any space.

By the same token you must be at StartupCamp here at ITEXPO at 4:00 pm in room B217 of the Miami Beach Convention Center to hear Sir Terry Matthews speak on Thursday, February 2nd. Sir Terry is an awesome speaker as well - he is the perfectly blend of entrepreneur and visionary having been involved in over 70 companies.

StartupCamp has a lot of energy (maybe not as much as Sir Terry - that is a high standard after all) and is a "can't miss."

Location:Jackie Gleason Dr,Miami Beach,United States

Today at ITEXPO Digium announced three new phones and Tom Keating is really impressed based on his post today. But what really caught my attention is not the obvious - which is that companies are increasingly expanding into new markets. Its that Digium is adding custom features to their phones which can access core PBX functions for not only Asterisk but Switchvox.

So what we have here ladies and gentlemen is an ecosystem play - like the Apple app store or Facebook apps, etc. Open APIs are allowing companies to leverage the development efforts of a community for mutual benefit.

And boy is this great news for Digium - after all don't the developers LOVE Digium?