ISPCON Spring Focuses on Hot ServicesBy Justin Lee, theWHIR.com
May 25, 2007 — (WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — ISPCON Spring 2007 (ispcon.com), the largest Internet service provider conference and tradeshow, returned to Orlando, Florida this week after a seven year-long absence.
Held May 23 to 25 at the beautiful Rosen Centre Hotel, hundreds of ISPs, telecos and Web hosts gathered this week to attend the 14th year of ISPCON for conference sessions, exhibits and networking.
Featuring the theme, “What’s Hot in Internet Services”, ISPCON Spring 2007 offered more than 50 seminars, presentations and panels relating to topics such as managed services, hosting, data centers, SaaS and Web services, messaging and collaboration, voice services, municipal wireless, open source and hot verticals.
The event also marked the first ISCPON held since Jupitermedia (jupitermedia.com) acquired the conference organizers, The Golden Group. Despite the acquisition, Jupitermedia GM of events Jon Price says the transition was painless, with no real changes made to the game plan.
“It’s the same crew that has worked on this in the past. There’s maybe a little more help and less responsibility,” says Price. “It’s a little bit of a relief not to be running the whole entire business, but to focus on the stuff that’s interesting.”
If there is one noticeable change that the acquisition brought along, it was that of a significantly larger budget for the conference and trade show. Despite this, attendance was noticeably lower compared to previous years for both the exhibit hall and conference sessions.
Still, Price did not seem bothered by the drop in attendance, and instead, concentrated on the positive side of things. “Perception-wise, it really boils down to what really matters,” he says. “It’s always been about quality. We’re not trying to be what we once were.”
The conference featured a variety of sessions, ranging from such pertinent topics as “Trends and Opportunities in the SMB SaaS Market,” to “Exploiting the Hottest Virtualization Trends and Technologies,” to “The Big Power Struggle: Blades, Virtualization and HVAC Strategies.” There were also free vendor-sponsored educational sessions from companies including Hostopia, Tucows, Verio and Linux Magic.
Also featured were two keynote addresses. Day one offered “Grids Gone Bad,” presented by Clarence Briggs, Advanced Internet Technologies CEO and president. In the address, Briggs talked about the dangers of click fraud then surprised many attendees by announcing he would be leaving his ISP and hosting responsibilities, and instead, concentrate his efforts on his new Internet search company, tyBit (tybit.com), which just launched this week in beta release.
The second day saw M5 Networks (m5networks.com) president and CEO Dan Hoffman’s “Jack of All Trades or Master of VoIP?” which discussed the benefits of mastering a solitary strategy for achieving success in VoIP services.
The exhibit hall included executives from Motorola, Tucows, Userplane, SWSoft, Apptix, InfoStreet, Hostopia, Procera Networks, Mirapoint, Verio and Checkpoint, where some of the most innovative IT companies showcased their products and services.
The conference also had a handful of networking events, including the “Topic Tables” Conference Luncheons, WISPA and FISPA member meetings and the always-exciting CEO EXCHANGE, where some of the industry’s biggest players get together for an informal exchange of ideas.
“We focus on what’s making money,” says Price. “If people are making money doing that, then that’s what well focus on. If people are making money doing VoIP, that?s what well focus on. If people buy hosting or people buy some solution to solving Exchange hosting. If it makes you money, we should do a session on it.”
Price says he plans on taking away from the strengths and weaknesses of this conference when he and the rest of the Jupitermedia staff holds ISPCON Fall 2007, which will take place in San Jose, California.
“I just come here with an open mind and I try to absorb as much as I can — just be a sponge — then turn around a month after that, and try to start programming based on what those things are,” he says. “I get a lot of feedback from the CEO sessions, just in terms of what everyone’s saying, what’s making money, and try to focus on those things.”
