For the Record, This Was the Best VON Ever
Garrett Smith asks “Was the fall VON show a disappointment?”, and points to my comments about the blogger panel to indicate that I was dissatisfied with the show.Â
For the record, this VON was the best VON I have ever attended.
From the opening buzz around iotum at the voice over IM panel on day-1 right through the exhibits, presentations, panels and social gatherings …. the message was clear: VON is where VoIP, Voice and Vision, happen!
For iotum, it was a stellar show - the fruit of three years of hard work - and a lot of behind the scenes good faith, planning, preserverance and vision that is slowly coming to reality.
Thanks to the work we’ve done, and to the help we’ve had from our advisors, people couldn’t talk about presence and real-time communications, without referring to iotum.
And, for the record, my comments on the blogger panel were simply intended to provoke a discussion about whether that particular event could be improved, or whether (like many sessions at similar shows) it should be replaced in the future.Â
Congratulations to Jeff Pulver and his team on a job, well done. We certainly feel that VON created opportunities for us.
September 16th, 2006 at 5:42 pm
Wow! That was a lightining fast response. Did you hack into my site and write a response as I wrote my post? :)
My intent was not to bash Jeff and his show…I really want to hear what everyone thinks about the show.
Again, I was divided on the show, but then again every show has it’s pros and cons.
September 16th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
I just happened to be at the computer at the right time, Garrett :)
September 18th, 2006 at 11:31 am
[...] Alec Saunders and his Iotum crew were omnipresent; I musta seen their shirts walk by me like 284,322 times. From all reports he had a very successful show, and congrats to him for that. It’s always nice to see “good Canadian kids” doing well. Presence is the future of communication, and Iotum has a pretty spanky tool for presence. [...]
September 18th, 2006 at 3:40 pm
Apparently the vision was primarily of empty aisles, furious exhibitors and purple clogs.
September 20th, 2006 at 4:20 pm
Hiya Unhappy,
What I didn’t mention, of course, was the amount of prep we did before the show. One thing I’ve learned about trade shows is that they’re an opportunity to cement relationships, to solidify deals, and to create news. What they’re most definitely not very good for is prospecting, although ironically, that’s what most companies spend the money on. So, we firmed up all our meetings in advance, met with the people we wanted to see, cooked the deals we wanted to cook… it rocked!
A
October 12th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
[...] http://saunderslog.com/2006/09/16/for-the-record-this-was-the-best-von-ever/A major part of what made the trip so enjoyable (or so I hear–I was not personally in attendance) was meeting and working with the team from AOL. In a demo booth that was one of the busiest at the show, everything was run professionally, smoothly, and with a real sense of comraderie. The following photo trickled into my hands a short while ago, taken by VON event photographer Jerry Hirsch: [...]