Looking Back and Charging Ahead

By Rich Terhani

Blogger and TMCnet contributor Doug Mohney recently had the big scoop that Supercomm will be cancelled. He blogged it as a rumor, which was subsequently confirmed by the TIA and USTelecom (News - Alert).

As a show organizer myself I get a lot of questions regarding what this news means to our industry. Rather than continuing to opine on a person-by-person basis, I thought it made sense to put my thoughts in writing. Before I begin, however, I would like to say thanks to the TIA (News - Alert) and USTelecom associations for holding this show, which I have faithfully gone to for decades. I have always held the show in tremendous regard.

Some of my most memorable moments from the expo are around 1997 or so when it was held the same week as COMDEX, which took place in Atlanta. I had to get from Georgia to New Orleans in record time to attend meetings at both shows. When I finally got to the show, a behemoth of an event, I was yelled at by an advertiser. But I digress.

Sadly, this colossus of an event split into two, changed names and dates and locations as a result of an internal disagreement. The situation sadly continued for years resulting in shows with a lack of attendees and terrible ROI for exhibitors. This had a negative effect on the entire industry, as many companies counted on this expo for their livelihoods.

The trade show business has changed dramatically, and what most people outside this industry may not understand is that 15 years ago if you wanted to hold an event, you typically went out and rented targeted mailing lists from magazine publishers. Magazine lists were the absolute best names and still are because regular mailing and address changes keeps the addresses up to date. I have seen 50 percent of a list become undeliverable over the course of one year, meaning that a six-month old list is likely 25 percent inaccurate.

But those days are gone. The main magazines that used to support this event were America's Network and Telephony, and neither is printed anymore. To make matters worse, direct mail continues to be less effective, meaning even the best list is far less effective than it used to be.

This gets me to the TMC (News - Alert) philosophy on events – in order to have a successful conference, you need to have community interaction with your audience every moment of the day of every year. You need to be a media company with a strong Web presence and magazines. Trade show companies have limited days ahead of them if they don't own their communities 24/7. This is exactly why you shouldn't think the demise of a show alone can predict the health of an industry.

Sure the economy is bad but Ethernet, wireless backhaul, 4G, M2M and smart grid are some of the hottest areas I have ever seen in the communications space.

We have seen the death of COMDEX, and as far as I can tell there is a tech industry. Then we experienced the death of VON (twice now) and the last I checked, IP communications is alive and growing. Also – anyone remember Internet World – a great show before it died; guess what, the Internet is still around!

Shows – especially tech events – are cyclical; they rise and fall in popularity, and if you aren't reinventing yourself always, you die. While Supercomm should have been reinventing itself instead it was busy changing its name, postponing the show and dealing with infighting.

But back to the carrier CLEC/ILEC/ISP/rural telco/cable/wireless community that TMC has been doing its best to serve all these years… In order to continue fostering community among this group, TMC will continue to cover breaking news, foster online communities, run Webinars and publish magazines focused on the topics of interest to the industry. In addition, ITEXPO (News - Alert) has seen increased carrier attendance, and we continue to focus on this area of the market with collocated events such as 4GWE, M2M Evolution, Smart Grid Summit and a plethora of content aimed at telco 2.0 topics.

Dear carriers, ITEXPO will continue to be your home, now more than ever. We continue to listen to you and provide you with leading-edge information.

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