July 31st, 2007 |
Congratulations to Adam Weissmuller from ServerBeach. Adam is the winner of this year’s SWsoft Nintendo Wii give away. Thank you to everyone who participated and we’ll see you again at HostingCon 2008.
July 27th, 2007 |
I had the opportunity to be interviewed by Brett Tabke of WebmasterWorld.com on the last day of the show. Here’s the interview:
There is an accompanying article on WebmasterWorld.com.
July 27th, 2007 |
“Wow!”
That was all I could say while watching the incredible fireworks display from the rooftop barbecue at Navy Pier on the final evening of Hostingcon 2007. It pretty much summed up the entire experience at HostingCon this year.
The barbeque was sponsored by CRE Loaded, a company the provides value added ecommerce service to hosting companies. What a great event! A rockin’ band on the roof with a killer view of the entire lake and the Chicago skyline, plus authentic Chicago food, and drinks a’plenty. Thank you so much CRE Loaded!
The final day of the exhibit hall was very exciting as well - seeing tons of vendor drawings and giveaways including a few iPhones, Wii gaming consoles, and skateboards. The foot traffic to the floor continued its strong pace right up until the show staff started tearing up the carpet. In fact, I was having a meeting in one of the booths while the carpet was being ripped up around us!
The keynotes and sessions were informative and productive as well - the details will be published at a later date - and the speaker’s presentations will be available for download here at the HostingCon.com web site.
Many congratulations to George Roberts and his HostingCon staff for pulling off the best HostingCon ever!
A couple of final notes:
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 by August 3, 2007 - 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 here at HostingCon.com.
And finally, if you EVER ride in a car that Frank Spaulding is driving - for goodness sakes - PUT ON YOUR SEATBELT!!
It’s been fun writing about things leading up to the show. I’ll keep touching base here from time to time to follow up on HostingCon 2007 and to look forward to HostingCon 2008!
This content was written by Derek Vaughan and is provided courtesy of the dedicated server experts at The Hosting News.
July 26th, 2007 |
The staff at Interjuncture would like to extend a thank you to all the exhibitors, speakers and attendees who helped to create another great HostingCon!
There are some pictures available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/sirtwist/sets/72157600985561496/. I’ll post more as I get them in.
Thanks again and we look forward to seeing you at HostingCon 2008, July 28-30, 2008 at Navy Pier in Chicago!
July 25th, 2007 |
HostingCon 2007 debuted the exhibit hall yesterday to record numbers of attendees and exhibitors. Along with the second keynote panel of the event, the day’s activities also included the long awaited cruise on the lake sponsored by FastServers.net and Tophosts.com.
The keynote panel featured a lively discussion between panel members Serguei Beloussov, CEO of SWsoft, Lou Honick, CEO with HostMySite.com, David Koston, with cPanel, and Sean Richards, Technical Director with Touch Support. Moderator David Snead directed the discussions through issues of virtualization, how to determine which products to offer, and what the future holds for web hosting companies.
In the exhibit hall many interesting and informative presentations, product demos, and booth presentations were on display. Many of the vendors were accepting entries for a variety of great giveaways including two wii gaming consoles, iPhones galore, tee shirts, a Cooper Mini convertible, $25,000 in services and servers, and tons of smaller, fun toys that you can pick up at most of the booths.
The Tophosts and FastServers.net business networking cruise was the highlight of last evening for tons of HostingCon attendees and exhibitors. A tri-level yacht with an incredible open bar and all-you-could-eat dinner set the stage for both dramatic city views from the lake and great networking with the folks onboard.
There was also a party sponsored by Microsoft - which I will try to get the word on later today. I know it was held at Riva Navy Pier and that they were giving away an Xbox 360 at the reception.
Overall, the quality of people that I have met in the last couple of days and the fun times will be the basis for great memories and successful business relationships.
This content was written by Derek Vaughan and is provided courtesy of the hosting reseller experts at The Hosting News. Derek will be manning the TechPad Agency display in Booth #200 on the show floor.
July 24th, 2007 |
HostingCon 2007 opened its doors yesterday at the Navy Pier, here in Chicago to an enthusiastic and record-setting crowd of web hosting professionals.
The show debuted with a full day of conference and educational sessions which were attended with vigor by the audience which show organizer George Roberts estimated at well over 1,000 first day attendees.
Many exhibitors were spending at least a portion of the day putting the finishing touches on their display booths in anticipation of the opening of the exhibit area at 10:30 am this morning. As I was transporting our booth materials into the exhibit hall I was struck by the central (massive) display booths of the two Platinum advertisers for this year’s show - Microsoft and FastServers.Net. Both booths are in the middle of the floor with impressive teams of trade show experts working for hours to finalize the displays. I happened to bump into Aaron Phillips with FastServers.Net and he graciously gave me a tour of the FastServer booth’s ”inner sanctum” which only rarified HostingCon attendees will ever see!
On the conference front, the educational sessions were concise and impactful. The variety and quality of the speakers was appreciated by the attendees. Yesterday’s speaking sessions included yours truly, speaking on the Future of Web Hosting Marketing, and the likes of David Snead, Neil Patel, Isabel Wang, David Snead, Joe Bardenheier, Jeff Stibel, Hillary Stiff, Richard Rosenblatt and (for reals!) Carson Daly. Yes that Carson Daly (Total Request Live and Last Call with Carson Daly).
Today’s keynote will feature an expert industry panel discussing the Future of Service Enablement. David Snead will moderate as participants, Serguei Beloussov of SWsoft, Lou Honick of HostMySite.com, David Koston of cPanle, Sean Richards of Touch Support, and David Wippich of Ensim discuss the direction that the industry is headed.
I’ll see you out on the show floor today if you’re in town. Otherwise I’ll try to get an update in later today.
This content was written by Derek Vaughan and is provided courtesy of the server hosting experts at The Hosting News. Derek will be manning the TechPad Agency display in Booth #200 on the show floor.
July 22nd, 2007 |
Well I have just checked in once again to the W Hotel on Lakeshore across from Navy Pier to get ready for the next few days here at HostingCon! As I remembered, the W is really awesome and has these spectacular view out over the lake - which has people sunbathing on the beach - instead of the miniature icebergs that I viewed in February during the meeting of the HostingCon Advisory board.
Upon check in I was presented with an overview of the show which I will briefly summarize here:
Registration / The Show starts at 7:30 am on Monday, July 23 at Navy Pier. There is no early registration.
There is a FREE shuttle bus service which will run between the conference hotels and Navy Pier from 7:15 am to 9:15 am each morning.
There is a networking reception on Monday evening at 5:00 pm in the Lakeview Terrace at Navy Pier, sponsored by cPanel, FastServers.Net and Microsoft.
Tuesday evening features events hosted by FastServers.Net and Tophosts (cruise) and Microsoft plus several others. Check the booths in the exhibit hall for more events / parties and details.
Wednesday evening will be the networking ”event to end all events” - an evening rooftop barbecue and fireworks.
The weather in Chicago is a bit warmer (actually a bit more humid) than Los Angeles - the forecast is calling for high temperatures in the 80’s and lows in the mid 60’s for the next few days - and no rain predicted. So great Chicago summer weather!
So travel safely if you are arriving from out of town and we’ll see you at the conference tomorrow!
This content was written by Derek Vaughan and is provided courtesy of the hosting experts at The Hosting News. Derek will be delivering a presentation on the future of web hosting marketing on Monday morning at 11:15 am.
July 19th, 2007 |
The Team here at HostingCon is happy to announce the winners of our Early Bird Giveaway contest.
The winners of a free (up to 4 night) stay at the Sheraton Hotel & Towers:
Ulrika Lindwall, Web Hosting Search
Stephen Smart, Pleth, LLC
The winners of a free Full Conference pass to HostingCon 2007:
Russell Weiss, InfoRelay Online Systems, Inc.
Tony Lucas, XCalibre Communications Ltd
Joseph Mack, HostPC Internet Services
Steven Job, Tiggee LLC
Emerson Nogueira, EWDhosting.com
Congratulations everyone!
July 17th, 2007 |
If you are in the web hosting business - then you need backup solutions…period. So when you’re at HostingCon 2007 why not check out NovaStor in Booth #520? The company provides backup, disaster recovery and data retention solutions.
Specifically, according to the NovaStor website, the company is a leading, international provider of software solutions for data availability and protection. NovaStor provides software and services for the backup, restore and retention of business-critical data which together cover a wide application area -ranging from home, mobile users, SMB users, all the way through Enterprise users, globally. NovaStor’s cost-effective solutions are platform- and hardware-independent and ensure that optimal technological and economical use is gained from the customer’s existing and future IT environment. NovaStor is headquartered in Switzerland (Rotkreuz), has offices in Germany (Hamburg) and the USA (Simi Valley), and is represented in numerous other countries through partnerships.
According to information provided to me by Mayle Li, Product Manager wioth NovaStor, the company is doing some interesting things at this year’s show - which will be the second that NovaStor has attended.
Back by popular demand, NovaStor will be handing a beautiful selection of Long Board Skateboards to the lucky visitors whose names will be drawn from business cards dropped off at the booth.
NovaStor is also debuting its latest online backup solution, NovaNet-WEB, at HostingCon 2007. That means that show attendees will be the first to get a look at the new product.
When asked about the importance of HostingCon to the company, Mr. Li had this to say, ”This is the 2nd year NovaStor will attend HostingCon. Being in the industry for more than 10 years, NovaStor continues to provide one of the best online backup solutions to thousands of partners. Our product adds value to the hosting business, therefore, we see HostingCon is an important channel for us to meet our partners and prospects.”
So if you drop off your card in Booth #520 - you’ll learn about great backup and disaster recovery solutions - and you may just ride off on a cool Long Board Skateboard!
This content was written by Derek Vaughan and is provided courtesy of the dedicated server hosting experts at The Hosting News.
July 15th, 2007 |
I’m happy to announce that our COO Frank Spaulding and his wife Tracy have a new addition to their family!
Trent Gabriel Spaulding was born on Friday, July 13th. Trent was 7lbs, 6oz and 21 1/2 inches at birth.
Congratulations Frank and Tracy!
