eComm 2009: Final WrapUp and Thoughts

A few final notes on eComm 2009.

First, conference organizer Lee Dryburgh and the Comunicano team need to be commended and thanked.

With the termination of the eTel conference two years ago, Lee took it upon himself to organize an Emerging Communications conference that would serve to keep a broad audience of communications specialists and evangelists updated on topics that demonstrated the benefits of IP-based communications. Lee did this at his own personal risk; in fact, I believe he took a bit of a loss last year. While he passed break-even this year with a 20% increase in registrations at a new venue, I don’t think his surplus was anything that could come close to appropriately rewarding the time and effort he has put into this event.

Andy Abramson’s Comunicano team provided marketing communications support at no charge to Lee. Many of his team members provided support at the conference; many of his clients made presentations (iotum, Voxbone, Global IP Solutions, Mobivox, Fonolo, IfByPhone). These presentations either outlined an evolving technology or were case studies demonstrating Voice 2.0 in action; none could have been considered as being close to “commercials”. And therein lies the value of eComm; it is an educational and networking forum.

About three months ago Lee, who lives in Europe, sent an email to the eComm Facebook group members asking for suggestions for a Bay Area charity to whom he would present a donation covering 10% of any surplus. I had submitted Shelter Network, providing housing support services for distressed families in Silicon Valley, as a candidate; a few days later Lee sent me an email saying he wanted to support Shelter Network. On Thursday, Amy Wright, a Shelter Network manager, accepted a check for $2,000, a number which Lee had, in the interim, guaranteed as a minimum donation.

Check out Duncan Davidson’s entire eComm 2009 Flickr photostream; the photo above is included.

Lee will continue to post information about content availability on the eCommConf Twitter feed.

Other posts covering eComm 2009:

• Saunderslog: eComm – strong stuff
• Andy Abramson’s VoIP Watch: eComm Was a Hit
• Jon Arnold: eComm 2009 Posts and Photographs
• Martin Geddes: My eComm Presentation with a link to the video we viewed due to his “Error 24: Insufficient Hours In Day” situation at BT.
• Richard Sprague WebLog : eComm 09 virtually
• Dean Bubley’s Disruptive Wireless: Thoughts from eComm
• Fierce VoIP: eComm 2009: Ditech Networks announces toktok voice-enabled web apps service

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• eComm Conference Wrap Up (ubergizmo.com)