VoiceCon GM talks projected attendance, hot enterprise topics

Speaking to Fierce last week, Fred Knight, general manager of VoiceCon, was cautiously optimistic that the enterprise-focused communications show would have the same number of attendees as it did last year. "We've been at it for a long time and we hope everyone who is signed up can come," said Knight. "In this economic climate, you never know."

Tracking numbers last week were on par with the same as last year, putting projected attendance in the 5,000 to 5,500 range, depending on whether or not everyone who says they are coming is coming, noted Knight. "It's consistent with last year."

Knight believes that there will be little impact upon show attendance because of the big wireless show in Las Vegas going on at the same time. "VoiceCon is focused on the enterprise," he said. "CTIA has enterprise-related stuff, but it's hardly focused at an enterprise market. I think that over the years, VoiceCon has established itself as a location that if you're in enterprise communications, it's one of the focal points; arguably it is the focal point... VoiceCon is targeted at people responsible for enterprise communications. It's been a pretty clear and singular focus."

At least 50 percent of VoiceCon attendees are IT professionals from organizations with a thousand or more employees - this show is not designed for the crowded and sometimes confusing SMB market.

What are attendees looking for when they come? There's still a lot of demand for what Knight called "Traditional IP Telephony" with people looking at how to build the right platform and to make the right architectural/design choices for an IP phone infrastructure, as well as how to leverage an IP communications once it is operational.

"Overall, we're seeing more and more interest in video." said Knight. VoiceCon will have a day-long conference-within-a-conference track focusing on choices for enterprise video and encompassing products, network issues and internal support issues.

Cloud computing also gets a look, with a specific panel to focus on the cloud from the standpoint of enterprise computing. Enterprises have a number of options, ranging from tapping into idle computing resources for an in-house cloud solution, to subscribing to a commercial cloud service on an as-needed basis when computing resources surge on a seasonal or other basis.