Conference organizers discover telecom meltdown affects them as well

The belt-tightening in the telecom sector over the past year or so has hit the organizers of industry conferences particularly hard. Sessions are being cancelled or scaled back as it becomes harder to attract speakers and delegates to telecommunications meetings. The most recent casualty is the Wireless Internet 2002 conference that had been scheduled to take place in Toronto later this month. The Canadian Institute, which was sponsoring the event, was unable to draw enough support for the two-day parlay. The Institute is still continuing to host other meetings. Last January, it offered the Competition and Access in the Local Loop forum (NL, Jan. 29/02). Although it has several conferences on other industries planned for the next few months, no telecom sessions are scheduled in the near future. The Canadian Institute is not the only organization to find the telecom market difficult. Britain’s iLocus Ltd. has abandoned all meetings for this year. "Due to continued market slowdown, iLocus will not organise events in 2002," states a notice on the firm’s web site. "Events will start again in 2003." It plans conventions starting next January in the Middle East, with similar meetings in India, Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America throughout the year. Goldberg, Sone team on 92-12 Despite the downturn, Toronto telecom consultant Mark Goldberg is joining with fellow consultant Michael Sone to present a conference on the 10th anniversary of CRTC Decision 92-12, which first introduced competition to the Canadian telephone market. Initially the pair had hoped the Institute would host the meeting, but staff changes and problems with continuity ruled that out. "At the same time Michael and I felt that we didn’t want June 12 to pass without anybody doing anything about it," Goldberg says. "So we started contacting people who I call our friends in the business, folks that we had worked with over the last dozen years who were instrumental in the whole process that led to that decision." The two-day conference will take place on June 11 and 12 in Toronto. It boasts a stellar lineup of speakers and panelists, including David Colville of the CRTC; Bell Canada’s Bernard Courtois, Sheridan Scott, and Stephen Wetmore; Telus Corp.’s Willie Grieve; Call-Net Enterprises’ Jean Brazeau and William Linton; John McLennan and Chris Peirce of AT&T Canada; and Ken Engelhart and David Watt of Rogers Communications Inc. "It’s really gratifying from our perspective, the people who have wanted to get involved and participate and speak at the conference," Goldberg notes. "It’s not only looking back at the past, but trying to get their views on what have we done right, what did we do wrong, are there things we can fix?" He also considers it fortuitous that the meeting will likely be the first one held following the CRTC’s now-delayed decision on price caps. The gathering will be the first opportunity for representatives from ILECs, CLECs, the regulator and other interested parties to discuss the landmark ruling. Goldberg estimates a crowd of somewhere between 200 and 250 people. Although there could be greater interest, the partners are committed to keeping the numbers to manageable levels. Goldberg and Sone have hired Pauline Lau, formerly of SMART Toronto, as coordinator to assist them with the preparation of the conference. While the two consultants have formed GST Conferences to host this session, Goldberg is uncertain if the entity will continue operations after this meeting. "You’ll have to ask me that on June 13," he laughs. For more on upcoming conferences, see the Calendar section on our web site at www.decima.ca/publishing.

Conference organizers discover telecom meltdown affects them as well

News | April 9, 2002

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