December and January Conventions

Indie Telco Local Content Workshop Information

December and January Conventions

by Ken Pyle ([email protected]), Viodi, LLC

November 30, 2004 Issue

December will be a pretty slow month for conventions, but then January really picks up the paces with a significant show a week. From NTCA’s IOC Wireless Symposium to the NATPE convention, there will be something for just about everyone in the next two months.

Cable Television Broadband Expo 2004 – a virtual tradeshow that is attempting to take the place of the Western Cable Show. The organizer is CED Magazine, so it is probably worth a visit, as the price is right, no travel is involved and these folks always do a bang up job on these sort of things.
The DV West Expo in Los Angeles is a great show for any independent telco that is considering the purchase of equipment for the creation of local video content. In addition to the exhibition hall, there are also numerous educational sessions on lighting, editing, high definition and many other topics. If you are an independent telco that will be at this event, please let me know so we can get together.
The IOC Wireless Symposium is set for January 5th through the 7th in Phoenix and it promises to be another timely event from NTCA. I had the chance to record NTCA’s previous wireless show and I highly recommend it for any independent telco that wants to stay up on alternative ways of connecting to a customer. The big news from this event is that FCC Commissioner, Jonathan Adelstein is set to be a keynote panelist at this three day event.
Consumer Electronic Show – always a must-see for anyone looking to see the latest gadgets. I am honored to be moderating “The Telco-Entertainment Partnership - From TV to Broadband Services” as part of the Digital Hollywood at CES conference on January 7th. I look forward to hearing from the other panelists, such as Jonathan Hurd of Adventis. Jonathan gave a great presentation at Telecom 04 last month regarding the importance of opening up one’s networks to potential competitors.
OPASTCO Winter Convention – The warm winter sun of the California desert will keep OPASTCO attendees warm from January 15th through the 19th. Always a good mix of presentations and networking, I am looking forward to participating on a panel with Geoff Burke of Calix and Karen McKee of Horizon Chillicothe Telephone regarding the importance of local content as a competitive advantage.
Mid-State Consultants Annual Training Week (aka, BobComm) is a very organic conference that started out as a way for Mid-State Consultants to stay abreast of the latest technology trends from the vendor community. Several years ago, they started inviting their independent telco clients and it has grown into a mini-tradeshow, complete with booths and multiple presentations. I am looking forward to making the trek to Provo, Utah for this event. The dates are January 18th through the 20th and you can find more information at http://www.mscon.com/.
Closing out January will be the National Association of Television and Programming Executive (NATPE). NATPE is a great place for meeting content producers and distributors. The 2005 event will be in Las Vegas from January 25th through the 27th. To read the review from last year’s show, please click here.

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