As the title indicates, could HostingCon be better?
What's wrong:
1.Attendance good but deserves better. From all indications the show producers, Interjuncture Corp, came close to, or exceeded attendance expectations. So what is wrong? Given the size of the hosting industry, the fact that HostingCon is a generally a better than average conference there should have been greater attendance. It should also be noted HostingCon is about the only pure-play event if it's type out there.
2. The Exhibit floor was fairly crowded. But where was Cisco, Gateway, IBM, HP, Digital Realty Trust, Rackspace, PAETEC and a host of others? Probably not the producers fault - just a mistake by large firms.
What's right:
1. People that exhibited or attended did real business. Do I need to say more?
2. The show is the right length - not to long, not to short.
3. The conferance sessions were well attended and appeared to be relavent.
4. The "fun part" parties, receptions etc. were not over the top and the sponsers of such events appeared to get their moneys worth.
In conclusion:
Go to and/or exhibit at the next HostingCon.
And a general question - who do you think was missing at HostingCon and should exhibit next year?
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Larger firms is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it adds an additional sense of legitimacy to a convention when the biggest players take notice and show up. At the same time, too much of this has the potential to cast a very large shadow over the small-to-medium size businesses who make up the bulk of the exhibit call now, who's services are important and who rely on solid exposure to grow their businesses. If the 10 largest businesses related to Web hosting showed up, this might intimidate a lot of other vendors, possibly into submission.
There's a balance to be struck, that's all. If vendor registration takes place early enough, there might even be enough venue flxeibility to accommodate everyone comfortably. Kudos to Microsoft and SwSoft for their great displays. Negative kudos to FastServers, who basically alientated themselves on the exhibit floor. I'm one of their customers, and I didn't feel comfortable going into their booth (and I didn't).
Thanks for the email exchange Aaron! I stand by my opinions of the FS booth, as I already told you, but I'm genuinely glad you got what you wanted out of HostingCon, and I'm excited to see what direction you decide to take things next year :)