Disruptive Telephony

If you read this blog, the Voxeo blogs or follow my Twitter stream, you know that I very frequently travel and speak at conferences related to VoIP, telecommunications, etc. Often to the tune of 1-2 weeks per month. I enjoy the presenting immensely in that I get to teach people and tell the story about the disruption going on within telephony and communications in general... and also get to learn from some of the amazing people out there about what they see happening all around us.

Yet while I greatly enjoy and find so much value in the large VoiceCon and ITEXPO shows and so many of the others that I attend, one show stands out each year among them all:

eComm

.... eComm 2008 as well as the O'Reilly ETel shows that proceeded it in 2006 and 2007.

Why? Mostly because eComm and the earlier ETel shows were NOT the big conferences. There is no massive trade show. There aren't a huge number of different tracks. It's small... it's focused... and it has some amazing speakers who are truly out on the bleeding edge of how the ways in which we communicate are changing. It's a place to learn from those who are out there leading the disruption... it's a place to forge partnerships... it's a place where many startups have found interested investors... it's a place where you can sit and randomly meet those who are creating the "Post-Telecom Era".

Now if you would like to be one of those amazing speakers at the upcoming eComm 2009 to be held on March 3-5, 2009, at the Burlingame Marriott right near the SFO airport, the Call For Speakers is now open. The deadline for proposals is November 17th, but I expect the speaking slots to fill up before then. I'm on the eComm Advisory Board and we're already starting to see proposals come in by way.

If you've got an idea for a talk you'd like to share, please do submit a speaking proposal - please do note that eComm is very definitely NOT a place for sales presentations and such talks get quickly rejected. As the site says:

This isn't a traditional telecom conference. The eComm audience has very high expectations of speakers. They are both seizing opportunities of the post- telecom era (or re-inventing traditional products and services) and can engage the audience. Rules include a ban on "brochure speak" from stage (overt marketing pitches) and a strict enforcement of the clock.

Plenary presentations lasts just 15 minutes including 2-3 minutes of Q+A. We've found this format of carefully prepared presentations keeps the atmosphere charged. This format also helps us to fit in more than 70 speakers over 3 days. Thanks to the intimate feel of the venue and the energy and attention of the audience, many speakers find it to be a great public speaking experience.

Some of the topics we're looking for include:

• Democratization of communications innovation; anything from VoIP community, XMPP enabled social networking to DIY 12-volt telephony
• Convergence of the media industry with personal communications
• Theme "telecoms is becoming software"
• Telecom restructuring, threats, or new business models
• Telecom trends, particularly Asian
• iPhone or Android applications
• The new old - traditional carriers or vendors who are changing the game
• Mobile Social Software (MoSoSo) applications on any platform; any socio-centric devices or applications will be considered whether mobile or not
• Social Computing
• Mobile leveraging of Cloud Computing or Telco in the Cloud
• Future of Social Networking Applications
• Network Equipment Providers plans for next 1-3 years
• Facilitating business processes with voice
• 4G Technologies
• P2P modes of production or networking

We're looking for all those topics and more... basically any topic related to how what we have known as "telecom" is fundamentally changing all around us... if you have an idea, please do submit a speaking proposal as soon as you can.

And if you don't want to speak - but do want to stay up on where the bleeding edge of telephony is - please do mark March 3-5, 2009, down to join us in San Francisco! (and follow the eComm 2009 blog to know when registration opens).

P.S. If you'd like to help promote eComm 2009, web site badges are available.

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