A worldwide invitation

In the U.S, we'll be celebrating Thanksgiving tomorrow, a holiday that is supposed to have something to do with kindness, gratitude and family, but usually ends up having more to do with gluttony, American football and how families are divided between those of us willing to begin Christmas shopping at 5 a.m. the next morning and those of us who will sleep late.

What we should really be doing is preparing for an important telecom industry trade show to be held in the coming weeks. That is ITU Telecom World 2006 in Hong Kong. That the ITU event, traditionally the world's largest telecom trade show (though I know I'm inviting a debate just saying that), is being held somewhere other than Geneva, Switzerland, is enough in itself to make this go-round interesting. During my telecom coming-of-age years in the 1990s, this event was held in Geneva, where the ITU is based, every four years. (Other cities bid to steal it away, but the supposed competitive bidding process always had the whiff of being nothing more than a public relations campaign).

In rotating sites and changing the frequency to every three years, the ITU likely will produce an event that is much more in touch with the pace of global innovation and much more attractive to a truly global audience. Many of the speakers come from some of the largest and most influential telecom companies on the planet, though I'm hoping we also hear from the firms facing the everyday challenges of building and managing networks in developing countries.

Those of you attending, be sure to look for Telephony Editor-at-large Carol Wilson, who will be on the scene Dec. 4-8 to file daily reports on our Web site and let us know how the food is.

E-mail me at doshea@telephonyonline.com