I have been a speaker at every single edition of HostingCon since its inception. Thanks to an email that I received the other day my string will be unbroken. The email read in part:
”Congratulations! You have been selected as a speaker at HostingCon 2009! HostingCon 2009, the premier conference and trade show for the hosted services industry, is also where the best and brightest from the industry are coming to learn the latest news, ideas, and technology affecting their businesses. This year we had over 120 speaker proposals! The supply of great topics and the level of expertise among the potential speakers was outstanding and made the selection process very difficult. The outcome; however, is an exceptional program with diverse and timely topics and actionable substance.”
For those of you not familiar with HostingCon – it is a great conference and show devoted entirely to the web hosting industry. I attend every year, and each year the show seems to get even better. The WHIR are also great supporters of the show through their media sponsorship. I asked WHIR editor Liam Eagle what he thinks is valuable about HostingCon and he responded (in part anyway – I had to edit down his answer – sorry Liam), ”As a key media sponsor, we benefit from attending HostingCon in a lot of ways that may not translate directly to the average attendee. On the one hand, we get a lot of great exposure among attendees from being involved as a sponsor. Our magazine is distributed in the attendee packages, for instance. And we have made a yearly tradition of sponsoring a “networking lounge” on the tradeshow floor, which has become a great venue for one-on-one interaction with anyone who wants to come and talk to us.”
In terms of what is a good reason for a hosting professional to attend – Liam added, ”I’ll give one reason, but you can extrapolate it and apply it to whatever other subject you want. I’m going to use cloud computing, because it’s the biggest issue in the hosting business right now. Call it a “sea change” or a “disruptive technology” or a “buzzword” or whatever you want, but this is the thing that’s going to have the biggest impact on the business you’re in (assuming you’re in the hosting business) in the next couple of years – even the next year. But, while a select few people hold very concrete opinions about what that’s going to involve technology-wise or, say, marketing-wise, those notion’s aren’t necesarily the same. And they’re not necessarily easy to pick out of the general media hype surrounding cloud computing.”
Here are what a couple of other industry professionals had to say about HostingCon.
Joe Bardenheier is VP, Corporate Development with Endurance International and his thoughts echoed those of many I have spoken with and contacted regarding this year’s show, ”HostingCon continues to be a great place to meet and greet the important companies in the hosting industry. We were able to conduct many important meetings all with in a three day period in one place.”
Stuart Melling is a co-founder of UK hosting company, 34SP.com. Mr. Melling has attended HostingCon for the past 4 years and had this to say about last year’s show, ”Last year’s event helped us to focus on how we as a company where going to move forward in 2009. While we already had plans, this unique event allowed us to talk with vendors, competitors, analysts and so forth. The varied viewpoints really clarified for us, what the next year and beyond would see in terms of threats and opportunities. We have made some exciting changes and are seeing the benefits now.”
David Snead is a well known web hosting attorney and frequent contributor to The WHIR blog. David and I will be presenting together this year at HostingCon. Here is what David prognosticates for HostingCon 2009, ”There is a renewed energy this year, and a focus on quality speakers. In particular, there will be a nice mix of policy speakers and nuts and bolts advice. As the event has grown, and I assume will continue to grow, the networking opportunities can’t be beat.”
I hope to see you at HostingCon 2009 in Washington, D.C. To learn more about the event or to register, please visit: http://www.hostingcon.com.
