New Speakers and Sponsors Added

By
Lee S Dryburgh
on March 12, 2010 3:05 AM | | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

New Speakers and Sponsors Added

Last week I'd said:

...I see a migration of value away from basic [telecom] services ever more towards interfaces, ones far more agile, "air like", fluid and rendered on the fly according to social circumstances and precise Cartesian coordinates.

As a response I was sent a link this Curious Displays video. It helps to conceptualize the "air like" direction I was referring to. As a result Julia Tsao is being added to the conference schedule.

I'm also pleased to announce that the opening back to back keynotes on day one has now been finalized with the addition of JP Rangaswami (Chief Scientist, British Telecom and Chairman, Ribbit). JP was invited because of his decision to acquire the 2008 lanyard sponsor (Ribbit) in the months following the event for 105 million USD. I was recently speaking with JP and had said that people were asking what BT is doing with Ribbit, i.e. why the purchase, does it still seem a good decision two years later and where is it going? The subsequent purchase of the 2009 lanyard sponsor (JaJah) for 207 million USD by Telefonica has only served to underline interest. People are wonding if acquisitions of nimble communication innovators (i.e. "core eComm") for huge sums by major carriers is beneficial and if so, why and should we expect more of it? I'm looking forward to JP sharing his answers and his vision with the eComm audience next month.

I'm pleased to announce new sponsors again. Our friends at Skype have taken a Platinum sponsorship position. Skype's unwaivering support the past year has been much needed by the community. RebelVox and Ringio have kindly taken lunch sponsorships. Others interested in sponsoring should complete this form. We're still slightly short of necessary sponsor revenue to break-even (my time is gratis to the community). It would be very easy to get sponsors if we let the companies set the content and send their marketing VP etc. But we don't. In fact a major phone manufactuer wanted to buy a keynote day opening position. The proposal was turned down on content grounds. This reminds me what Andreas Constantinou (VisionMobile) put on his feedback form last year:

"Much more attention to detail on the format and facilities and much better at getting together thought leaders rather than people with impressive titles"

Principles are great but they don't cover costs.

So please help spread the word in order to keep the event "pure" and thought-leadership driven rather than slipping towards the tradeshow direction. At a minimum this means email at least ten people who may have interest. Tomorrow I'll send another update with a list of the scheduled talks (so far).

Thanks!

Lee

PS The hotel has only reserved 400 room nights for the event (we used more last year) and the cut off date is soon (to get the 159.00 rather than 239.00 room rate). Details here, online booking here

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]
  • Technorati
  • Add to Delicious!
  • Add to Digg!
  • Add to Furl!
  • Add to Spurl!
  • Newsvine
  • Reddit
  • blogmarks
  • YahooMyWeb

Categories:

0 TrackBacks

Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: New Speakers and Sponsors Added.

TrackBack URL for this entry: http://ecomm.ec/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2473

ID = 2733; $post->blog_id = 9; $post->guid = "new_speakers_and_sponsors_added"; $post->comment_status = "open"; function get_option($option) { $settings = array( "disqus_forum_url" => "ecommconf", "disqus_api_key" => "JPTlQ8TwrMbJcxH60mb8OTGGjAZ4ndS6gTKjBRZGtIM2FwYzqt4W9VqbDqWo2x6L", "disqus_sort" => "", "disqus_partner_key" => "", "disqus_disable_sync" => "0" ); return $settings[$option]; } function get_permalink() { return "http://blog.ecomm.ec/2010/03/new-speakers-and-sponsors-added.html"; } function get_the_title() { return "New Speakers and Sponsors Added"; } function get_the_excerpt() { return "

New Speakers and Sponsors Added

\n

Last week I'd said:

\n
\n

...I see a migration of value away from basic [telecom] services ever more towards interfaces, ones far more agile, \"air like\", fluid and rendered on the fly according to social circumstances and precise Cartesian coordinates.

\n
\n

As a response I was sent a link this Curious Displays video. It helps to conceptualize the \"air like\" direction I was referring to. As a result Julia Tsao is being added to the conference schedule.

\n

I'm also pleased to announce that the opening back to back keynotes on day one has now been finalized with the addition of JP Rangaswami (Chief Scientist, British Telecom and Chairman, Ribbit). JP was invited because of his decision to acquire the 2008 lanyard sponsor (Ribbit) in the months following the event for 105 million USD. I was recently speaking with JP and had said that people were asking what BT is doing with Ribbit, i.e. why the purchase, does it still seem a good decision two years later and where is it going? The subsequent purchase of the 2009 lanyard sponsor (JaJah) for 207 million USD by Telefonica has only served to underline interest. People are wonding if acquisitions of nimble communication innovators (i.e. \"core eComm\") for huge sums by major carriers is beneficial and if so, why and should we expect more of it? I'm looking forward to JP sharing his answers and his vision with the eComm audience next month.
\n
\n I'm pleased to announce new sponsors again. Our friends at Skype have taken a Platinum sponsorship position. Skype's unwaivering support the past year has been much needed by the community. RebelVox and Ringio have kindly taken lunch sponsorships. Others interested in sponsoring should complete this form. We're still slightly short of necessary sponsor revenue to break-even (my time is gratis to the community). It would be very easy to get sponsors if we let the companies set the content and send their marketing VP etc. But we don't. In fact a major phone manufactuer wanted to buy a keynote day opening position. The proposal was turned down on content grounds. This reminds me what Andreas Constantinou (VisionMobile) put on his feedback form last year:

\n
\n

\"Much more attention to detail on the format and facilities and much better at getting together thought leaders rather than people with impressive titles\"

\n
\n

Principles are great but they don't cover costs.

\n

So please help spread the word in order to keep the event \"pure\" and thought-leadership driven rather than slipping towards the tradeshow direction. At a minimum this means email at least ten people who may have interest. Tomorrow I'll send another update with a list of the scheduled talks (so far).

\n

Thanks!

\n

Lee
\n

\n

PS The hotel has only reserved 400 room nights for the event (we used more last year) and the cut off date is soon (to get the 159.00 rather than 239.00 room rate). Details here, online booking here

\n\n
\"Reblog
"; } function get_the_offset() { return -8; } function start_mt() { include('/home/ecommec/public_html/cgi-bin/mt/php/mt.php'); $mt = new MT(9, '/home/ecommec/public_html/cgi-bin/mt/mt-config.cgi'); return $mt; } function trackback_url() { return "http://ecomm.ec/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/2473"; } include('/home/ecommec/public_html/cgi-bin/mt/plugins/disqus/php/disqus.php'); include(dsq_comments_template(1)); ?>