My blog posts all week have focussed on The 2009 Canadian Telecom Summit; can you blame me for not looking elsewhere for content? This posting may close off my coverage for 2009 and it will be a few months before I get around to promoting the 2010 event (June 7-9: registrations are open).
For the past week, about a dozen of us have been powered by caffeine and adrenaline. The rush of registrations began Monday morning at 7 am and from Nadir Mohamed’s opening keynote on Monday through to the new wireless entrant powerhouse panel that closed the conference on Wednesday, there was a terrific energy.
I found a number of special insights in nearly every one of the speakers’ presentations. The anecdotes from Mike Lazaridis about his start – installing gear at Cantel with manuals not yet translated from Swedish – may have provided some encouragement for self confidence with our student delegates. There were messages from the leaders whose companies are no longer considered broadcasters, but are delivering content; the mobile commerce panel; the systems people; the debates conducted over smoothies, or WiFi Chai, or lattes or cocktails.
It was great to see the participation by non-traditional groups: leaders of smaller ISPs and communications service providers; students; innovative applications developers. The diversity of voices contributed to the broader understanding of the issues.
I am applying advanced communications technology for most of the next little while, escaping to my fortress of solitude to enjoy a different pace. Your cards, emails and phone calls are welcome. Thanks to Canada’s nearly universal access to broadband internet, coupled with decent mobile coverage and some very cool wireline and VoIP technologies, the only reason you’ll know that I am not at my office will be the sound of the waves lapping at my toes.
Using technology to get away from it all. I’ll have to ponder that paradox.