SPOTLIGHT: VON, Pulver move in separate directions

As Virgo Publishing attempts to bring back the VON brand in a magazine and shows, original creator of the franchise Jeff Pulver has moved on to embrace social media.

A whois.net search for von.com and voneurope.com indicates Virgo Publishing picked up the domain names around September 19. Within the telecommunications space, Virgo currently puts out Phone+ and xchange magazines. One source said Virgo intends to resurrect the VON trade show and publish a magazine of the same name.

Meanwhile, Jeff Pulver has moved to the Next Big Thing.  Pulver is actively cultivating Israeli high-tech start-ups these days and building a new franchise around social media; in his blog he indicates he will be producing a social media seminar series around the United States and also has plans for a "special UnConference event" in the works.

At its height, Pulvermedia put on large VON shows in the spring (San Jose) and fall (Boston) in the U.S. and a yearly European event. In April, the operating company abruptly closed its doors and left a vocal community of attendees and enthusiasts wondering what happened.

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