The Jeff Pulver Blog: On the Eve of Disruption: Reflections of Spring 2006 VON

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March 23, 2006

On the Eve of Disruption: Reflections of Spring 2006 VON

In the years since our very first VON back in 1997 the event has come to represent the disruptive capabilities of IP Communications, most viably within the telecommunications sector. To kick off Spring 2006 VON, last Wednesday I shared my thoughts on the enormity of the transformation that is already starting to happen to the television/film/broadcasting industry, and the fact that this transformation represents a new opportunity for the existing members of the IP Communications community. Specifically, I spoke about TV’s new status as an application in an IP-enabled world, and how once again IP Communication technologies and the Internet are serving as agents of change in the disruption of a legacy-laden industry. And I spoke about how much I look forward to bringing this new industry sector into the VON fold.

Looking back at the press coverage of my talk at VON, I enjoyed the coverage that Tim McElliot of Telephony Magazine gave to my talk.

I want to thank everyone who contributed to the success of Spring 2006 VON, including: our speakers, delegates, exhibitors, sponsors, suppliers, as well as the entire pulvermedia team. More than 300 companies exhibited at the event, which boasted a community of 9,450+ people (including approximately 100 members of the media). And in comparison to the 2005 event, our show floor grew by 56%.

In San Jose it was great to see our VON Expo take on a life of it's own. After ten years of IP Communications, it was great to see the exhibit floor at VON Expo grow up to a size and a stature that puts it on competitive footing with many other "mainstream" communication industry focused exhibit halls. And while the products showcased inside of our VON Expo directly reflected the state of the IP Communications industry as defined by the community of 300+ companies that exhibited at VON, the VON Conference continued down its own path of showcasing the vision and technology for the future, while not ignoring the trends and issues of the present.

While I was in San Jose for VON, I spent my time balancing between playing host, attending conference sessions, walking around the exhibit hall and sitting in meetings. I tried my best to be available for quite a number of ad-hoc meetings and this approached worked better this time than in the past.

Sometimes when you produce conferences, you just get lucky. Spring 2006 VON was like that in the sense that, last Tuesday, in our Communications Policy Summit, Professor Lawrence Lessig's talk provided a great setup for the discussion of Net Neutrality that became front and center when Dick Notebaert used his platform at Spring VON to share his position on Net Neutrality for the first time. The collective results of the talks from Lessig and Notebaert generated a lot of media coverage. This said, there were quite a number of other memorable talks at Spring VON that left a positive "take away" for the attending conference delegate to act on.

Last Tuesday the VON Coalition held a dinner in my honor, since last week marked the 10th anniversary of the founding of the VON Coalition. It was an honor to just be there and share the dinner with the current leadership and members of the VON Coalition.

We had a record turn out of bloggers at Spring VON. Some of them had registered in advance as bloggers and others were our guests who just happened to blog about their VON experiences. During the past week a number of these people blogged their own reflections/summary of Spring VON including: Andy Abramson. Jon Arnold, Bruce Stewart, Richard Statsny and the Mad Voiper.

Last Thursday night was pretty magical for me as I had a chance to meet and talk with Adam Duritz and then enjoy a 75 minute Counting Crows concert. After the concert, I hosted an after party at Agenda Lounge. The combination of both events made for a pretty cool evening.

Some of my own blog posts from Spring VON include:
- Images from Day 1
- Images from Day 2
- Greg Meffert Receives First "VON Medal of Honor"
- Images from Day 3
- Images from Day 4

Thanks again to everyone who helped make Spring 2006 VON happen. Our VON events are a direct reflection of the industry we serve and the people and companies who support these efforts.

Tags: voip, von, Jeff Pulver