SUPERCOMM Show Shelved For 2010

By Richard Martin

Bowing to economic forces and shifting winds in the telecom industry, the organizers of the SUPERCOMM conference and trade show confirmed that the 2010 version of the show, scheduled for October in Chicago, has been canceled.

“Convention planner EXPOCOMM told USTelecom and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) it will not manage the SUPERCOMM trade show in 2010, due to financial projections for the show this year,” TIA and USTelecom said in a joint statement. “As a result, the two associations jointly decided to cancel the event that was tentatively set for this fall.”

America’s largest telecom conference for nearly two decades, SUPERCOMM has had a tangled history of late. Originally jointly owned by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the United States Telecom Association (USTelecom), the show was put on by the two organizations until 2006 when they split it into two shows: GLOBALCOMM (TIA) and TelecomNEXT (USTA). The following year those expos recombined into NXTComm. Last fall the organizations restored the original SUPERCOMM brand, moving the show back from its traditional spring timeframe to October. Held in Chicago, the 2009 show was sparsely attended compared to previous year’s shows.

The economic downturn and turmoil in the telecommunications industry have exacted a toll on trade shows in the sector.