John Lazar and Graeme MacArthur took the stage and kicked off the sixth annual MetaSwitch (News - Alert) Forum taking place from April 6 to April 9, 2009 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas by discussing the economic climate and how telecom and broadband are the last things consumers will stop spending on.

 

As TMCnet reported earlier today, Lazar, the former president and chief operating officer of MetaSwitch’s Carrier Division, will become chief executive officer, taking over executive responsibility for the entire company from founder Ian Ferguson. At the same time Ferguson is remaining on board as chairman.

 

In this role Lazar will oversee MetaSwitch's Network Protocols and Carrier Divisions, and is expected in the coming months to help consolidate its products and business operations, including the Network Protocols Division, under the MetaSwitch brand.

 

MetaSwitch seems to be doing very well with an increase in attendance at the user forum from 550 last year to 625 this year. Do I have to tell you that pulling this off in this market is something to be proud of? Oh and did I tell you the show was in Vegas? Did I mention the president of the United States told the nation indirectly to not go to shows in Vegas?

Apparently no one in these photos gets CNN which is likely very good for MetaSwitch and the Las Vegas convention business.

It is amazingly. A survey shows people will cut spending on personal care before broadband!

So far some of the people I saw were Rich Williams, Carol Daniels, Jon Arnold (News - Alert), Doug Mohney and John Lazar, company CEO. Here are shots of the opening night reception.


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Rich Tehrani is President and Group Editor-in-Chief of TMC. In addition, he is the Chairman of the world’s best-attended communications conference, INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO (ITEXPO (News - Alert)). He is also the author of his own communications and technology blog.

Edited by Tim Gray