Telephony's Globalcomm 2006 Blog

June 7, 2:01 p.m.: The Pulv is still the king of late-night. I've gotten a lot of response from my "Hot/Not" pre-Globalcomm column in my Telephony Online Update newsletter of May 31, and some of it was from people wondering why I described Jeff Pulver's parties as "not." Well, having attended another PulverMedia's party at the House of Blues during Globalcomm this year, I have to admit he's got the best thing going--a ton of people coming together and lettying down their collective hair in a way that just doesn't happen at other parties (and there were even women at this one). The pizza was good, too. I still don't get the whole Herding Cats phenomenon and what makes 20-song medlies performed with abundant showmanship but somewhat less musicianship listenable, but I guess "listenable" isn't the point, is it? (I guess in addition to being a telecom nerd, I'm also a music nerd. What a jack-ass...) But, everyone I talked to last night who attended other parties and receptions said Pulver's was far and away the best, and that's good enough for me.--Dan O'Shea

June 7, 12:49 p.m.: Overhead on the show floor: "Yeah, there's a lot of confusion about IMS, and no one can tell you exactly what will happen. It kind of makes you remember the very first time that you realized your parents didn't have all the answers, and that they were human, just like you." Thank you for watching this very special episode of "Everwood."--Dan O'Shea

June 6, 4:37 p.m.: Anyone looking to find cool giveaways at Globalcomm is pretty much out of luck. There is a preponderance of pens and bags, and one strange glow-in-the-dark walking stick from Jameson, but other than that the pickings are slim. That's okay, though, because the drunken sailor who numbered the booths in the exhibit hall has made finding specific exhibits into something of a treasure hunt all until itself, albeit one without many prizes.--Carol Wilson

June 6, 2:04 p.m.: What a difference a day makes. The Globalcomm trade show floor--a virtual ghost town on Monday afternoon--came bubbling to life on Tuesday, which had been the traditional opening day for its predecessor Supercomm show.

The stark contrast is being attributed to the shift in show schedule. Monday has long been the “fly-in” day for Supercomm, known more for set-up, conferences and business dinners than for strolling the exhibit floor.

TIA officials, speaking unofficially, concede the schedule shift was a bad idea and are looking to revert to the previous Tuesday-Thursday approach, if that’s still available at McCormick Place.

Those of us who enjoyed the short cab lines and empty shuttle buses of Monday’s show close are apparently in for a rude awakening today.--Carol Wilson

June 6, 9:41 a.m.: Well, it’s only the beginning of Day 2 at Globalcomm, but it already seems official. The breakup of Supercomm is living up to all the dire predictions. The Golden Goose is dead. In the place of one good trade show, we now have two bad ones.

TelecomNext at least had a good conference--USTelecom knows how to do that. But its trade show was seriously lacking in traffic. Globalcomm’s conference is doing OK, but its trade show floor was virtually deserted Monday afternoon.

One senior executive of a manufacturer with large booth space at both shows was questioning the telecom industry’s need for any large shows at this point. This individual, who wasn’t speaking on the record, said her company could probably better spend the half-million or so dollars that a booth costs on wining and dining its customers and developing Web-based marketing materials.

“What the industry needs is a conference, to bring everyone together,” she said. “But I don’t know that we even need one trade show.”

We definitely don’t need two.

Want some Rice with that?

Chris Rice, AT&T’s executive vice president of network planning and engineering, wins Globalcomm’s Marathon Man award. Rice, who is chairman of the IEC Communications Forum this year, not only hosted that event but did a full round of press interviews, was the speaker at IEC’s press/analyst dinner Monday night and provided the luncheon keynote for IEC on Tuesday.

He was looking a little weary at the end of the day Monday, maybe because reporters keep asking him the same questions over and over about AT&T’s possible bandwidth limitations on Project Lightspeed. (And yes, I asked the question and his answer is here.)

Until AT&T has IPTV up and running outside San Antonio, however, there are still likely to be skeptics. To crack Rice’s veneer, it might take the same tactics Sir Lawrence Olivier used on Dustin Hoffman on this Marathon Man.--Carol Wilson

June 5, 6:09 p.m.: Editor screws up staff photo: It's not often the whole Telephony editorial staff gets together in one place. In fact, Globalcomm-nee-Supercomm is probably the only time and place you'll see that happen. So, trying to take advantage of the rare occasion, our managing editor and art department were good enough to coordinate a full staff photo, which was supposed to happen at 5:30 p.m. Monday... Guess who didn't show up--your's truly. M.E. Nikki pointed out you can't have a staff photo without the editor-in-chief, even though I'll be the first to admit I'm largely a figurehead. Sorry guys, maybe next year?--Dan O'Shea