INFOCOMM11; and what it might mean to us...
13 July 2011
Before attending this years show, held at the Orlando Conference Centre, FL I was asking myself 'ISE or INFOCOMM which is best for us?' after all, ISE now boasts attendance figures similar to INFOCOMM and ISE 2011 included the Wainhouse Summit. So, what could "the show" do to warrant more miles, money and man hours? Before I boarded flight 73 from Manchester, I had no idea...
After only the first hour of the show, I was starting to get a good idea why a trip to INFOCOMM is great for our business. Everybody was here in force and we were already aware of a number of exiting new product announcements. So, our first question was 'how to get around all exhibits, but still understand the important announcements from our current (and future) strategic suppliers?'
(A) We don't!...
Much of our INFOCOMM experience was spent in and around the Conferencing Pavilion, with some additional time with specific audiovisual guys and a small number of networking opportunities / meetings. Our first visit was to the Extron booth (you couldn't miss it) and a number of friendly faces. This was time very well spent, looking in detail at the new GC-
Pro platform and iPad control (below)
The Extron gang were also very excited about the new XTP Crosspoint Systems.
A Single Cat-5 HDMI matrix switching, scaling solution that was worth all of the fuss. But, need to take more time to understand where and how this is sold. But, Extron assure me (with some level of confidence and prior knowledge) that this is a great set of products for us.
Then, a bit of a floor walk where we caught up with more exhibitors on the Conferencing Pavilion. Took a look around the Polycom Pavilion, who seemed to have no interest in European Partners (ho hum), RADVisions new immersive offering looked good & LifeSize were... Cheap! We were also asked (internally) to look up ZTE and while the visit was an experience and even somewhat informative, however, this was not one for us. One highlight from the Conferencing Pavilion was Vidyo:
Vidyo, for me. A clear indication as to the future shape of the video communication industry. A great demo, from people who were well informed and passionate about their solution and with scalable video coding & iPad integration due, why not?
Talking of people with a passion for their products and giving us a glimpse into the future of Conferencing.... StarLeaf had a relatively small stand, but their impact was huge. We were greeted by the software design engineer, who gave us a 'four to the floor' demo. I really can't wait to see more of this offering......
Friday Morning and it was time for our Pre-arranged Cisco booth tour, where the highlight (for me anyway) was the new Cisco Telepresence Conductor which sits in a VCS type box and for a managed service provider, as we are this tool is a must have. Took another look at the Compositor Tool for C90 & C60 ad we were given a brilliant demo, which served to inspire how we should integrate our shiny new C60.
More interesting discussions and demos with Cisco included:
• Telepresence Integration with Interactive White Boards
• Jabber
• CallWay (a $99 per month service)
So, with the exception of all of the above, what else would take up 3 days locked away from the sun?
Panasonic were at it again, launching the
worlds largest Plasma (again!) at 152" and somewhere close to $500,000.00 each, never mind own one, I want to sell one!!! (see pic)
We met with some current and pending strategic suppliers (no names) and I managed to fit in my own INFOCOMM Certification & CTS Marketing Committee meetings, which were very productive and great to put some names to faces.
To summarise, what did INFOCOMM 2011 really bring to my ability to do my job?...
I'm now better informed, have a great idea of who wants to work with us in growing the business for 2011/12 and have a bunch of ideas that I just need to take time to implement.
Oh, and what is the point of Light Beer? Regardless, I'll be back....
