Keynote Lineup Announced for ISPCON Fall 2006, "The Internet Industry Event"

Business Wire, Oct 4, 2006

GOLDEN, Colo. -- The Golden Group today announced details of the keynote speeches for ISPCON Fall 2006, "The Internet Industry Event," being held at the Santa Clara Convention Center from November 7 - 9, 2006.

Unlike other industry events that offer cookie-cutter keynote presentations, ISPCON has developed a well-earned reputation for featuring unique, provocative and lively conversations between the most successful CEOs, journalists and investment professionals demonstrating thought leadership and successful business strategies. This year's Fall event continues that tradition, with the following keynote sessions, open to all attendees:

Internet Service: The Fifth Utility?
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Tuesday, November 7: 2:00 pm
Featuring: Doc Searls, Senior Editor, Linux Journal
Elliot Noss, CEO, Tucows Inc.

The telco/cableco duopoly continues to see the Net as gravy on their basic services (and are more motivated to get into each other's business than do anything new with the Internet). Meanwhile, communities, competitors and customers are creating their own bypass while treating the Net as a "fifth utility" alongside water, waste treatment, roads and electric services. To make matters even more interesting, giants like Google and Microsoft are building massive computing clouds to support a shift toward on-demand services.

How is this all going to play out? Doc and Elliot will discuss the range of issues surrounding how this kind of accessibility to the net changes everything and why it matters; such as changing patterns of use, new applications, shifting adoption and behavioral habits to altering the landscape of competition while favoring different services, unique models for varied applications and insight on how one should build a business around this redefined service relationship.

Who Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?
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Four Providers You Wish You Were (and How to Get There)
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Wednesday, November 8: 10:00 am
Featuring: Rich Bader, President and CEO, EasyStreet Online Services
Dan Hoffman, President and CEO, M5 Networks, Inc.
Dane Jasper, CEO, Sonic.net
Jonathan Snyder, President and CEO and Director, KeyOn Communications
Moderator: Paul Stapleton, Managing Director, DH Capital, LLC

In a perfect world, each provider would have similar customers that could be served via established best practices and standards that follow a common path, create economies of scale and eliminate barriers to success in a somewhat turnkey and systemic fashion. However, in the read world, that's just not so. Increasingly, the industry has spawned a million strategies for delivering different services to different markets in different ways. As a result, growing and building a powerful, sound business is still a bit of an art form with few common themes that apply to many and even fewer who can articulate some of the "how" behind their "wow". Rather than focus on impractical and unrealistic examples, this carefully chosen cross-section of the Internet Industry includes providers from varied backgrounds, markets and strategies who will come with their "guards down," an open mind and an open spreadsheet ... and most importantly, a willingness to help peers by shedding light on strategy, financials, customers, challenges, solutions and secrets of success.

"Although we strive to create unique keynote sessions structured around important issues from the true innovators in our space, our illustrious speakers really only tell part of the story at ISPCON," said Jon Price, CEO, The Golden Group. "The full scope of the issues at hand begin to reveal themselves when our attendees join the conversation, which is what makes ISPCON truly unique. Our audience consists of those who "do" rather than the "observers". It is their participation in the heated discussions that follow is what completes the picture and makes our keynotes much more than the typical canned slideware speeches."

For complete event information and registration, please visit http://www.ispcon.com. ISPCON is now accepting registration requests from members of the media, with press registration accessible at http://www.ispcon.com/press.php

About ISPCON:

Now in its thirteenth year, ISPCON (www.ispcon.com) is the Internet Industry Event where thousands of the true innovators and pioneers who build, host and deliver Internet services and applications converge. Alongside a world-class conference, faculty and networking program, attendees such as ISPs, Web hosts, MSPs, ASPs, WISPs, ITSPs, CLECs, developers, technologists, entrepreneurs, VCs and press get the first look at the industry's hottest Internet services, applications, strategies and technologies during the event before they reach the enterprise or consumer markets. The massive exhibit hall highlights the very best of VoIP and IP-PBXs, Hosting and Web 2.0, AJAX email, collaboration, security and e-commerce tools, SaaS, Managed Services, Municipal Broadband and Mesh networks, datacenters, open source solutions, blade, virtualization, utility and grid computing platforms and leading-edge content and connectivity systems from unlicensed wireless, WiMAX and DSL to Metro Ethernet, CDNs, IP Video and other innovations.