Coming Together at Channel Partners Expo November 2001

By Tara Seals

Posted: 11/2001

Coming Together at Channel Partners
Expo
By Tara Seals

The second day of the inaugural Channel Partners Conference & Expo, Sept. 10-12 in Washington D.C., was off to a great start. Attendees were enjoying coffee, bagels and conversation. The schedule was running smoothly, and the heads of the three top competitive telecommunications associations — the Association for Local Telecommunications Services (ALTS), the Association of Communications Enterprises (ASCENT) and the Competitive Telecommunications Association
(CompTel) — were discussing the future of entrepreneurial telecom.

The high price of monopoly wasn’t to remain the focus for long. Midway into a panel discussion on regulatory issues, Virgo Publishing Inc.’s telecom division group publisher Marla Ellerman interrupted the session to relate the shocking news that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had been attacked.

Partners, vendors and other show attendees came together. Whether they joined the hundreds of people clustered around televisions in the lobby of host hotel Marriott Wardman Park or manned their booths on the trade show floor, attendees, like people throughout the country and world, were shocked.

After much consideration and with the knowledge that airports were closed preventing many of the attendees from leaving the nation’s capital, Ellerman decided to continue the show. Educational sessions were conducted as planned, and the exposition hall remained open under the guidance of masters of ceremonies Paul Silicato, co-owner of Global Systems Telecom Inc., and Bill Power, president, Association Resource Group.

Because of the halt in air travel and the bottleneck caused by traffic leaving Washington, some scheduled speakers were unable to deliver. But that didn’t stop Ellerman’s crew. A hastily called meeting to recruit new speakers from the available pool of resources allowed the show to go on.

Lightyear Communications Inc.’s vice president of agent sales Stu Johnson and PaeTec’s vice president of alternate channels for the northern region John Budney filled in on the partner collaboration panel, conceived as a centerpiece to the show’s new philosophy of cross-channel communication and coalition.

They joined John Veenstra, president and CEO, ZLand Inc., and Bob Loftus, vice president of partner programs for Cable & Wireless Inc.

Likewise, the general session on broadband was a success. Peter
Karoczkai, senior vice president of sales and marketing for InfoHighway Communications Corp. scrambled to put together an informative, hard-hitting presentation in less than 12 hours. After asking Karoczkai follow-up questions, Virgo’s editor at large Fred Dawson delivered a presentation on the market and technology of broadband.

The two men addressed why the DSL market seems to have failed, the demand for high-speed data access and the future for metro broadband deployment.

Session speakers Vince Bradley, president and CEO of master agency World Telecom Group, and Ted Schuman, founder of PlanetOne Communications Inc. and U S Telebrokers Inc., spoke about enhanced wireless and unified communications services.

Keith Ferris, president and CEO, Ferris Communications led an informal roundtable on risk management.

Steve
Hesling, vice president of marketing at American Telesis Inc., discussed private lines, sharing time with Greg
Praske, CEO of Association Resource Group, who gave a low-key, but informative presentation on conferencing that brought up a topical note: In an era of declining business travel, the market for audio, web and video conferencing continues to grow.

At the prepaid panel, Howard Segermark, executive director of the International Prepaid Communications Association, Mike Norman, executive vice president of Strategic Service Alliance Inc. and Pat Bolinger, vice president of sales and marketing for NetworkIP, performed well under pressure.

Most of the nearly 100 exhibitors also stood firm in the face of adversity. While the atmosphere was subdued in the exhibition hall, quiet dignity was displayed as exhibitors came together. They stood by their businesses and waited with the rest of the world to see what would happen next.

Tier 1 carriers ACC Business, Cable & Wireless USA, Sprint Corp. and WorldCom Inc. joined newcomers such as toll-free vanity number provider 500Plus
LLC, datacom provider Astrolink Inc., Data Storage Corp. and Lucent Technologies Inc.

New service companies also were in abundance as billing management companies, hardware vendors, wireless and wireline ISPs, ASPs, purchasing portals, DSL aggregator Astrocom Corp. and others joined CLECs, resellers and carriers, conferencing companies and prepaid providers.

“We truly applaud and appreciate everyone that forged ahead,” said Ellerman. “PHONE+ respects that everyone was able to come together in this time of crisis.”

The Links

500Plus LLC www.500plus.com
ACC Business
www.accbusiness.com
American Telesis Inc.
www.american-telesis.net
Association for Local Telecommunications Services
www.alts.org
Association of Communications Enterprises
www.asent.org
Astrocom Corp.
www.astrocom.com
Astrolink Inc.
www.astrolink.com
Cable & Wireless Inc.
www.cw-usa.net
Competitive Telecommunications Association
www.comptel.org
Data Storage Corp.
www.datastorage.com
Ferris Communications
www.ferriscom.com
Global Systems Telecom Inc.
www.theglobalzone.com
InfoHighway Communications Corp.
www.infohwy.com
Lightyear Communications Inc.
www.lightyearcom.com
Lucent Technologies Inc.
www.lucent.com
NetworkIP
www.networkip.net
PlanetOne Communications Inc.
www.planetonecomm.com
Sprint Corp.
www.sprint.com
Strategic Service Alliance Inc.
www.netvalve.com
U S Telebrokers Inc.
www.ustelebrokers.com
WorldCom Inc.
www.wcom.com
World Telecom Group
www.commerceconsultingcorp.com
ZLand Inc.
www.zland.com