In case you missed the hundred-or-so mentions on the WHIR over the last few weeks, HostingCon 2008 was last week. And we went to considerable lengths to cover the event from every angle – news, blogs, features, WHIR tv. While we’re not quite finished posting HostingCon-related material, I finally finished my own event blogging campaign today. So, I thought it might be a good idea to post a recap of our coverage, in case anybody missed anything that might have interested them.
It seemed to me that the best way to organize the information would be divide things up by format, and then work backwards through the coverage by day. And I suppose I should mention that I’m only go back as far as the start of the show itself, and not go too far into the “HostingCon is coming up” type stuff, as that would be a little redundant.
(I’ve also left out a few posts that don’t need to be recapped, such as the now-irrelevant “win this tv!” post or the self-referential “more blog entries to come” post.)
Wednesday, July 30
HostingCon 2008 Wraps Up Today
Tuesday, July 29
Zeus Adds License Agreement Program
AtMail Adds Cluster Ed. Email Server
Monday, July 28
Friday, August 8
Message Systems Protects the Network Edge
Waxing a little glib, I recap a conversation with Barry Abel of Message Systems, which is on hand at the show promoting its Edge of Network email platform.
Thursday, August 7
AtMail Brings Clustered Edition to Show
Recapping a conversation with Corey Bissaillon of AtMail, who describes the company’s clustered edition. I leave out some of the nuts-and-bolts details, which I promise to cover in an upcoming feature.
MailSite and Your In-House Exchange Alternative
I talk to John Davies of MailSite about the company’s hosted email application, and he describes a model for distributing it that includes offering it alongside the more expensive Microsoft Exchange as a privately branded in-house alternative.
Wednesday, August 6
Microsoft Spreads the Word on Hyper-V
I talk to Microsoft’s John Zanni and Michael van Dijken about their HostingCon mandate of getting hosting providers up to speed on the facts regarding Hyper-V the recently completed hypervisor virtualization component of Server 2008.
Tuesday, August 5
MailChannels Makes the Most of HostingCon
A conversation with Ken Simpson of MailChannels, winners of my informal “coolest swag” award. He discusses how the Nerf guns the company was giving away at the show combined with a compelling product offering to create an enormous amount of interest in MailChannels, and a highly successful visit to HostingCon for the company.
My Hosting M and A Presentation Revealed
Tom Millitzer recaps his “Flip That Hosting Company” presentation from Wednesday afternoon, and offers to send a copy of his presentation to readers if they get in touch with him directly.
Wednesday, July 30
Exhibiting Wraps Up With Giveaways
My last post from the show itself, I recap our TV giveaway, take a bit of a good-natured dig at Ping Zine and spark a bit of debate (a few interesting comments on this post, for sure).
Wendy Pearson and Verio’s New Marketing Effort
I speak to Wendy Pearson, the newly appointed director of marketing and communications at Verio, who describes the effort to re-launch the company’s marketing strategy – with a particular focus on really defining what the company means when it says it serves the “SMB” market.
David Snead recaps the last-day keynote panel he moderated, discussing some of the key points that emerged concerning the sale of a hosting company.
Tuesday July 29
iNET Interactive and the HostingCon 2009 Details
I talk to Kevin Gold of iNET Interactive, the new owners of the HostingCon event, about the company’s plans for HostingCon 2009, and what they intend to do with their presence at this year’s show.
The Parallels Fast Track Program
I sit down with Serguei Beloussov of Parallels, who describes some of the ideology behind the company’s “Fast Track” program which is designed to help ISVs get involved in developing applications designed to be hosted by hosting providers.
The Case for a Professional Association for Web Hosts
I talk to Paul Hirsch, who is at HostingCon on the behalf of the Association of Internet and Hosting Service Providers, the latest effort at putting together an industry-wide association focused on providing smaller hosts with some of the resources they might not have on their own, as well as providing the industry at large with a voice, both internally and in the business and political worlds.
Following the first session he moderated at this year’s event, David Snead discusses the risks that Spam poses to your company, from a legal perspective.
Monday, July 28
Building a Buyer-Friendly Host
Here, I discuss a presentation by Adam Eisner of Tucows, who discusses some of the obvious failings of the sales efforts at a lot of hosting companies vis-à-vis their websites, and offers up a few easy solutions and some more thoughtful advice for selling.
Social Media and Web Host Marketing
Following a sometimes-dull, sometimes-very-interesting panel discussion on marketing, I pose a few questions about one of the sticking points of the session – the value of the social media space to web hosting providers as a marketing vehicle.
The OpenSRS Booth and Tucows New Brand Strategy
After snapping a couple photos of the newly branded Tucows booth, I discuss what I’ve heard about the company’s plans to re-brand their reseller services with the long-standing OpenSRS name.
Where’s the Hosting Association?
David Snead starts things off with some general info about the nascent hosting association and its presence at the show, and explains what you can do to get involved.
Here, I post up a few of my photos of the Exhibit hall during the set-up phase.
Ads Where You Don’t Expect Them
An early-morning post about my room key having an ad for HiVelocity Hosting on it. Pretty cool little promo.
Tucows Eyes Resellers with OpenSRS
At the back of the HostingCon 2008 exhibit hall, directly adjacent from the WHIR’s own Networking Lounge, lies a rather modest-looking, 10′ x 30′ booth decorated with a playful illustration of a ’50s-era ice-cream man.
Here’s some feedback from the exhibitors and attendees from HostingCon 2008.
There will be more WHIR tv coverage of HostingCon to come, so stay tuned.
Check out our Flickr photo set from HostingCon 2008.
And that’s about it. From this point on, this particular blog will be returning to regular non-HostingCon coverage.
