His book, and his course are based on more than a decade of research into the founding decisions that startups face and how those decisions can impact a business farther down the road. Most hosting company founders have faced some of these choices already, and Monday’s keynote will help you to understand the potential outcomes of those, as well as choices you may yet face.

Some of those include early equity decisions, hiring choices, investment dilemmas and the ongoing conflict between wealth and control.

Hosting is very often an entrepreneurial endeavor, and we’re extremely pleased to offer attendees an opportunity to learn from one of the leading thinkers on entrepreneurship, as well as one of the top business educators in the country – in 2011, Wasserman’s HBS MBA elective “Founder’s Dilemmas” was named one of the top entrepreneurship courses in the country by Inc. magazine.

Don’t miss this one. Monday, July 16 at 4:00 p.m. If you haven’t already registered for HostingCon, here’s another reason for you to get signed up as soon as possible.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

Drawing on 451 Research’s extensive market research on cloud computing, internet infrastructure and hosted services, research director Eric Hanselman will provide you with data-driven, actionable insight designed to help shape your business’s strategic vision for the immediate and near-term future. Hanselman will share market projections, strategies for segmenting a broad market and will pinpoint specific areas of opportunity for service providers.
Don’t miss this opportunity to access some of the best data available on the hosted services market, along with powerful insights from a technology thought leader on how to apply that data to your decision making.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER: Eric Hanselman is the Research Director of 451Research’s Networks practice. He has an extensive hands-on understanding of a broad range of IT subject areas, having direct experience in the areas of networks, virtualization, security, and semiconductors. Eric helps 451 Research’s clients understand how market and technology trends may impact them, and how they can best capitalize on them.

For more than 20 years, Eric has worked with segment leaders in a spectrum of technologies, most recently as CTO of Leostream Corporation, a virtualization management provider. Prior to that, Eric delivered networking security solutions for IBM and Internet Security Systems. At Wellfleet/Bay Networks, Sitara Networks and NEC, he was involved in the introduction of many new technologies ranging from high-performance image analysis to rollouts for IPv6.

Eric is a member of the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers), a Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP) and a VMware Certified Professional (VCP), and he is a frequent speaker at leading industry events.

Don’t Miss This Data Centric Look At The Industry….

Register to Attend Now and Save $200!

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

The program is live today. So head over to the schedule page and see what we’ve got in store this year to help you do business in the hosted services space.

Based on feedback from attendees at last year’s event, and input from our advisory board, the creation of this year’s program focused on a few key points:

• Doing everything we can to eliminate “pitchy” content from the program
• Limiting our reliance on submitted proposals to include more solicited content
• Including panel discussions wherever possible in order to include the largest possible collection of perspectives
• Make the technical tracks more technical; deliver deep dives with practical applications
• Seek out fresh blood; include presenters and points of view we haven’t seen on the HostingCon stage before

Most of the program is now live. As we’ve discussed in previous newsletters and posts, we’ve changed up the tracks a bit this year to tie them a little more to specific roles within your organization – Marketing; Management; Technology and Industry Trends – the idea being that a hosting company might get the most out of HostingCon by having different employees invested in each of those areas attend each track.

We’re also experimenting with new formats. We’re revisiting last year’s lightning talks as a way of packing more info into the program; we’re trying out a “sales pitch” session as part of our efforts to keep the pitches out of regular sessions; we’re organizing a small-hosters “unconference,” to offer attendees a formalized chance to share with, and learn from, one another; and we’re devoting the Tuesday portion of the “issues and trends” track to connecting hosting providers with the software startup community, starting with some local Boston ISVs.

You’ll notice there are a couple of “to be announced” holes in the program as of today. Those are sessions where we’re just working out the details with speakers or content, and we’ll be filling them in during the next week or two, so keep an eye on the program for more on that.

We’ll also be announcing our three keynotes over the next few weeks, so keep an eye out for those.

We’re very excited about the program this year, and the direction its taking relative to what HostingCon attendees have asked us for. There are more than a couple sessions that I’m excited about seeing myself. My hope is that this year’s HostingCon will be the best ever.

If you haven’t registered yet, you can get set up here. Hopefully, I’ll see you there in July.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

Voting for sessions is easy. Here’s how it works:

• Register for HostingCon 2012 (in addition, you’ll save up to $200 by registering today!)
• Head to the session voting page
• Vote on the sessions YOU want included in the program! You are allotted one vote for every session and there is no limit to the number of sessions you can vote for.

View the Session Proposals for HostingCon 2012!

Your votes account for about 30% of the decision making process for each session. The HostingCon Advisory Board (40%), along with the HostingCon staff (30%), determines the remaining input for each session in the 2012 educational program.

Session voting ends after tomorrow…

Register Now & Vote to Have Your Say!

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

The submission window close just over a week ago, and since then, I’ve spent a lot of time going through the speaking proposals – we received more than 170 proposals, more than any previous HostingCon – and beginning the process of distilling some of this content down into what we intend to be the best educational program the hosting business has ever seen.

After spending a limited amount of time going through the submissions, I can say with certainty there are some really great ones, and a lot of very good ones. There are more good session proposals in the system than there are speaking slots at the event.

This isn’t going to be an easy process.

This, of course, is why we need your help. We’ve got our opinions, and we’ve got our advisory board, but HostingCon is the industry’s event, and we want to make sure the community’s perspective is a big contributor to the program. We need you to log in and vote on which sessions you want to end up in the final program.

Voting opens today, February 1, 2012, and closes February 17, 2012.  That gives you a couple of weeks to make your voice heard.

How it Works

Register: If you haven’t already done so, register to attend HostingCon 2012. The nice thing about registering right now is that you can save $200 off the full conference cost with the early bird rate.

Vote: Head over to the voting page on the HostingCon website, and cast your vote for the sessions that interest you. Remember, user voting is going to have a big impact on which sessions end up in the program. The process is simple. Click the vote button if you like it. If you don’t, leave it alone.

That’s about all there is to it, but if you want to spread the word about HostingCon, or potential pieces of the program you think deserve attention, you can certainly do that.

I look forward to seeing what the community likes best out of this year’s crop of submissions. Thanks for attending, and thanks for voting. And I’ll see you at HostingCon.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

As you probably know, we rely pretty heavily (like many industry conferences) on proposals from would-be speakers to generate a part of the educational track, and I wanted to put another notice out there to make sure everybody who might submit a session has it on their mind.

The deadline for submissions is coming up fast – January 20th, which is next Friday. That gives you another week to get that great proposal into the running.

A little bit about what we’re looking for:

This year, we’ve adjusted the tracks a bit, introducing a “management” track and combining the “business development” and “industry trends” tracks from last year. For the management and technology tracks, we’d love to see some real deep dives delivered by experts.

Specific is good. Unique is good. Obviously, great ideas are good.

A bit about sales pitches:

Bad idea. Definitely the best way to ensure your proposal doesn’t get picked up.

A bit about the process:

Once the call for submissions has closed, we’ll be selecting the best sessions through a combination of attendee voting and feedback from our advisory board, who we’ll be introducing in the next week or so.

If you’re not interested in speaking, but there’s something you’d really like to see in the program, feel free to post a comment to the blog post here. If it’s a good idea, on topic and within the realm of possibility (so, y’know, no Tiger Woods golf clinic), we’ll definitely do whatever we can to make it happen.

So, keep those submissions coming. Just make sure you get them in before the 20th.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

Some of you, I’m sure, are familiar enough with the process that you have submissions already prepared. Before you jump right to the submission form, however, I might suggest you peruse this blog post a little further. I’ll offer some advice on what you can do to make your proposal as appealing as possible.

Here’s the link to the speaker submissions page, anyway.

What’s the same?

As with past years, we’ll be using speaking submission to generate a significant (though not firmly set in stone) percentage of the program. After the window for submissions closes, we’ll go through the same rating process as usual. Submitted sessions will be evaluated by the HostingCon advisory board, by attendees via the website, and by the HostingCon team. As always, we’re determined to keep improving the HostingCon program.

What’s new?

We’re going to place a lot of emphasis on making this the best educational program that HostingCon, or the hosting business, has ever seen. That’s not necessarily a new sentiment (we’ve never aimed for number two, that I’m aware of), but it’s the principle that’s going to drive any changes we make this year. One of those changes is a shift in the alignment of tracks. This year, we’ll have the ever-popular Sales and Marketing and Technology, along with a Management track and an Industry Trends track.

One of the most consistent bits of feedback from previous years was the comment that the technical track wasn’t technical enough. This year, we’re planning to make sure the tech sessions are deeper dives into their subjects by real experts in the field. And we’re going to do the same thing with the management track.

What do we want?

Particularly in the case of the Management track, and the Technology track, we’re going to give special consideration to the sessions that promise deep dives into their subjects, particularly by people who have demonstrated expertise in their particular subjects.

So, in the Technical track, we’re looking things like technical evaluations or comparisons of competing tools or services; really instructional how-to stuff; and other practical, instructional sessions around architecture, infrastructure, networking and other technical topics. If it’s not something the average person could walk in, sit down and understand – that’s not a bad thing at all. Ultimately, we want each track to deliver more benefit to a somewhat smaller percentage of the overall audience.

In the Management track, that means we want speakers who are experts  in running a business to deliver some real value – on specific management issues – to hosting business operators whose background may not necessarily be in business, but who are doing what they can to successfully operate a business. That may include hiring and HR issues, sales management, customer service and other subjects. As with the Technology track, the deeper and more specific, the better.

What’s next?

Head over to the speaker section on the HostingCon website, submit your proposal, and hopefully we’ll see you in the program for HostingCon 2012. Remember, you have until January 20 to get your speaking proposals in.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

Our goal is that great content be the number one distinguishing characteristic of HostingCon, and we’re actively looking for new processes and projects to support that.

The session submission system, with user voting, is a tried and true way for conferences to produce content that users are interested in, but it can’t cover all the bases – for instance, you can’t vote for something that isn’t there.

We also do a lot of user surveying (as well as a lot of informal conversing) at the HostingCon event, which is another reliable source of a lot of great session topic ideas. However, it has a few obvious timing limitations of its own, and it only covers past HostingCon attendees, not new ones.

We want to do more to invite user suggestions for great session topics at the 2012 event. We want to know exactly what the audience wants to see. And we want that audience to have as much of a hand as possible in developing the program.

For now, that means an invitation to post your suggestions in the comments section of this blog. And, of course, I’ll throw it up in the HostingCon LinkedIn group, and you can post session suggestions there.

You can also get in touch with me directly. I’ve gone through hundreds of business cards during my time in the hosting industry, so you may already have my info. If you don’t have a card, my contact info is very easy to track down.

Finally, if you’d like to see us build a more robust session-requesting function into the HostingCon website, I’d be interested to hear it. Feel free to post about that in the comments too.

So, let’s hear it. What, or who, do you want to see in the HostingCon program this year? I can’t promise that every suggestion will end up in the program, but I can definitely assure you that every suggestion will be read, considered and put to use in the best way we can (an idea might help us fine-tune another session, for instance).

Thanks for the help.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry

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Be A Part of the Industry’s Premier Event…

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To the hosting industry itself, Endurance is a force of nature – a giant in the SMB space, serving 1.9 million customers, handling 7.7 million domains and operating (approximately) 36 separate hosting brands.

To vendors serving the hosting industry, EIG is one of those big customers – the kind of deal that can distribute a product to millions of users.

To the HostingCon crowd, EIG is the quintessential strategic buyer in the M&A scenario. It’s not an investment bank or a VC firm. It’s the big hosting brand that buys the smaller brands. Most of those 36 brands were acquired at some point.

And within the context of HostingCon, Endurance senior VP of corporate development has been a familiar face, both in sessions of his own, and on M&A panels, where he has offered insight into how hosting acquisitions go down – what the buyer is looking for, essentially.

So how does the acquisition impact the HostingCon crowd?

It’s pretty safe to assume that it will be more or less business as usual for Endurance, following the deal. Warburg Pincus and Goldman Sachs are investors, and Endurance is an investment. There’s no parent company. It doesn’t get rolled into something bigger. And for Endurance, business as usual means more acquisitions (with maybe a little more money to throw around).

For the HostingCon program, well, maybe it means this time Bardenheier has a little more experience on the other side of the M&A table that he can share.

For all the latest HostingCon news and information, visit HostingCon - The Premier Conference and Trade Show for the Hosted Services Industry