What a week it's been! I just got home from ITEXPO, and had some time to reflect on the show during my trip home. 

 

After filming close to 50 videos during the past three days, the overwhelming impression I was left with as I left the Miami Beach Convention Center was that, having come to Miami with some level of uncertainty about what was to come, nearly all of the exhibitors and sponsors at the show left with a sense of overwhelming success. Take a look a images from the show to see what I mean.

 

In particular, the CALA region was well represented - a comment made to me more than once. Of course, knowing the growing interest in VoIP in the region, that comes as no surprise. But, more importantly, the success of the show -- underscored by a group of attendees still in a session at Ingate's SIP Trunking Workshop as I left (see picture below) -- serves as notice to the entire communications industry that the struggling economy is not something to fear, but to leverage. 

 

Attendance at the show was great but, more importantly, the quality of the attendees was what stood out for the exhibitors I spoke with. As Allworx' Chris Talbot told me, the tire kickers stayed home, leaving a show filled with people truly interested in finding solutions that will help them grow their businesses in a cost-effective, practical way. For Allworx, he also said it was a fantastic event that brought significant business opportunities -- more than they could have expected.

 

I also had a chance to chat with SIP Print's Don Palmer and Jon Fuld back at the hotel after the show. They, too, were overwhelmed with the amount of real business they conducted at the show. In fact, in addition to signing up for the next ITEXPO, SIP Print is also going to sponsor a Call Recording community on TMCnet. 

 

SIP Print, by they way, won a Best of Show award for Most Innovative Product, for its SIP call recording appliance. In addition to offering an SMB solution, it has now built out that offering in an enterprise-class version, and is working on a service provider version for the near future.

 

Allworx won an award for Best SMB Solution. For the complete list of winners, check out Greg Galitzine's blog entry.

 

And of course, to cap the show off, we gave away a new Jeep as the end of the show. Rich Tehrani was quick to post a picture of the winner, Frank Schirrmeister the director of product marketing at Synopsys. Here are a few more.

 

I've got a lot more to talk about from the show tomorrow, but for now, thanks to everyone that attended ITEXPO this week and helped make the show a resounding success. As Greg wrote, "See you in Los Angeles!"