SUPERCOMM 2005 Expo Guide: Insider Tips By Tim E. Young, Industry Reporter

It's here! The biggest and most anticipated expo of the season, SUPERCOMM 2005 runs June 6-9, and what better venue than The Windy City? For the second year in a row, Chicago welcomes over 30,000 telecommunications professionals from around the world for a few days of sheer tech madness. Though, this 'must-attend' telecom event is in its final year, all indications seem to suggest that this year's event will be one for the books. Head to Chicago's McCormick Place, which is bursting with everything on your wish list.

This year, SUPERCOMM boasts an impressive roster of speakers, a huge variety of education opportunities, pavilions showcasing a wide variety of technologies, as well as niche programs to keep attendees abreast of the latest changes in the telecommunications industry. As with any event, SUPERCOMM 2005 has tons of shortcuts, highlights, buzzwords, and pitfalls you should be aware of. Paying attention to these steps can make your experience at SUPERCOMM as grand as the scope of the event itself.

Tip: To make the conference run more smoothly for the throngs, TIA has developed a system called TIAnalytics. This system is available on the SUPERCOMM website, and it helps to craft a conference schedule based on your needs and interests, and allows pre-show contact between vendors and potential customers.

Conferences
This year's conference is massive, with segments covering issues from all points on the telecom spectrum. Ostensibly, there are four smaller events going on simultaneously, each focusing on a different element of the industry. These four divisions, Enterprise Networks, Broadband, Converged Wireless, and Infrastructure, each have elements that are singular to their respective subfields, with a degree of overlap between the conferences. That is to say, while SUPERCOMM is indeed a single event with a single schedule, they have created four divisions to help provide focus direction for the attendees. After all, with an event of this scope, no attendee could capture all there is to see in three days.

Tip: Within the 'Infrastructure' sub-conference is where most OSS professionals will feel most at home.

There are a wide variety of free conference programs available, and other programs that require an additional paid registration not to mention plenty of plenary panels, receptions, and opportunities for matchmaking with diverse and international suppliers. The organizations who own and run SUPERCOMM, USTA and TIA, will be featuring their own sub-conferences on key issues. Likewise, the International Engineering Consortium (IEC), Enterprise Communications Consortium (ECC), and other organizations will be hosting their own sessions, such as:

The Regulatory Landscape (TIA)
With changing definitions, old regulatory mores may no longer apply. "We're living in very interesting times," says Grant Seiffert, VP of External Affairs and Global Policy for TIA, "convergence is changing definitions." While SUPERCOMM's focus historically has been strictly technology and the uses of technology, the TIA Convergence programming, now in its second year, hopes to inject policy discussion into the mix. TIA will be presenting a session called "Convergence: Roadmap to Growth," which will run Tuesday and Wednesday. The event will include speeches and panel discussions by members of the industry and representatives from the FCC discussing the regulatory landscape of the industry.

Tip: Topics especially aimed at OSS types also include:
"Assuring QoS for the Triple Play" -12:30pm, Wednesday, 6/8.
"Metro Area Optical Networks Sweep the Scene" -12:30pm, Monday, 6/6 (Free).
"Operational Support Challenges of Enterprise Networks" -12:15pm, Tuesday 6/7

Supplier Diversity Summit A different issue that will be confronted at SUPERCOMM 2005 is less technical, but in many ways just as important. The TIA Supplier Diversity Summit is in its tenth year, and in that amount of time has gone from a relatively small organization addressing a generally overlooked issue to a vociferous and powerful advocate of diversity businesses in the telecom industry. In addition to panel discussions about the past, present, and future or Supplier Diversity, the summit also includes matchmaking sessions with supplier diversity advocates. "TIA looks at this issue strictly as a business issue," says Maryann Lesso, TIA's Associate VP of Membership. "It's not about diversity in the workplace. It's all about Supply Chain diversity, and giving the minority, women, and disabled veteran-owned companies an opportunity to get into the procurement mix."

Tip: This year, the Summit celebrates its growth and the steady chain of milestones along the way with an all-day conference on Monday, June 6th.

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