HostingCon 2007 Review

HostingCon was held in Chicago at the Navy Pier from July 23-25, 2007. The event featured educational and speaking sessions, networking opportunities and events, and a large exhibit hall populated by web hosting vendors. This year`s event had the theme `The Future of Hosted Services` and the speaking and educational sessions supported this directive.

Many of the industry`s best and brightest attend and also presented at this year`s web hosting conference. Below are listed the thoughts of just a few of the people that make HostingCon worth attending.

HostingCon is organized and presented by Interjuncture. One man often responsible for the `behind the scenes` work was Mr. Frank Spaulding, Executive Vice President and COO with Interjuncture. Mr. Spaulding commented, ``We recieved a lot of positive feedback about the amount of sucessfull networking and business that took place ths year. If our attendees and exhibitors are happy we`re happy. Between this year and last, the biggest differences were preparedness and location. I believe this venue was better suited to our`s and our guests needs. As for next year, expect more of the same with attention to some more scheduling modifications to better suit all guests. We also plan to continue to broaden our focus on all aspects of the hosted services industry.``

Gabriel Murphy, Chief Executive Officer with Aplus.Net was also a participant in the conference and could be seen reviewing vendors on the floor of the exhibit hall. Here are Mr. Murphy`s comments, ``HostingCon is always time well spent. The sessions are usually informative and, even as the head of a major hosting firm with a decade of experience under my belt, I often come away with a renewed perspective and some ideas I hadn`t had before. Perhaps that`s because this industry, and technology in general, changes so rapidly, that it’s essential to network within the community in order to get a real perspective on where the industry is, and where it`s going. To that end, HostingCon remains an essential resource to the entire web hosting community.``

Monish Sood is the Director of Marketing for HostMySite.com. Mr. Sood offered the following, `` I thought the best moment of the conference was during the keynote panel. It was when Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft, took an informal poll of the audience. He asked how many people were making money off of grid hosting and one or two hands went up. He followed that question with how many people are making money off of virtualization and several hands went up. However, Lou Honick, CEO HostMySite.com, followed up with a question of his own. How many are making money off of shared hosting? Almost everyone in the audience raised their hand.

This year`s event was well attended and had really useful information for attendees. The sessions were topical and focused on where the industry is headed and what part we as hosts play in shaping the future. Also, there were greater opportunities to network and meet with other industry professionals. There was rarely a time where we weren`t sharing ideas and exchanging business cards with someone at the show. HostingCon is great for meeting others in the industry and discussing how we all tackle similar challenges.``

Amy Armitage is a web hosting industry veteran who also happens to the in charge of Business Development at Lunarpages Web Hosting. Here`s what Amy observed at HostingCon 2007, ``Getting to meet others in our industry who really know what we do is always part of the charm of these conferences, and especially with HostingCon. It gives us a chance to sit down with competitors, industry gurus, and put faces to the names we`re always talking about or to. Specifically, the marketing sessions were informative, as they were the most beneficial, and Derek Vaughan`s session seeing the iPhone get ground in a blender certainly stands out as a memorable presentation. Also all the chances to sit down and have a drink with others within our industry, seeing Chicago and the Navy Pier, and enjoying the chance to network until we passed out – these are definitely all highlights for me.

My impressions of the show events and speakers is: `Great!`. The events were top-notch, and we were invited to so many incredible networking get-togethers that we couldn`t even make it to all of them! But the ones we chose were amazing, especially the cruise and dinners we attended. HostingCon is always a great meet-and-greet and this year was definitely no exception.``

One final thought - if you are contemplating exhibiting at HostingCon 2008 (July 28-30, 2008) when the event returns to Chicago next year, sign up now. If you commit to reserving your booth space within the next 10 days - you will save 10% off your booth fees. That can add up to real money. Also - the best spots and booth spaces are available now - they will start to get snapped up as time goes on. For any further details use the `contact` info at www.HostingCon.com.

This content was written by Derek Vaughan and is provided courtesy of The Hosting News.