First time attendees at The Canadian Telecom Summit always seem to be amazed at the collegial conversations between members of the industry who are fierce competitors in the marketplace, but who sit together at lunch or who work to resolve issues over an espresso in our courtyard cafe.
It doesn’t always show up that way, if you don’t look beyond the show on the stage. For example, I received a note from a colleague who wrote:
From my novice perspective I find the dynamic between the players very interesting. About the only thing there was agreement on was a huge expanding marketplace with an unsaisable appetite for ‘stuff’ be it new devices or more services or data yet even with that there is dis-harmony in the sandbox. It kind of reminds me of the NFL or MLB. Both leagues are hugely successful with a very large pie but the principles, be it players or owners are always at odds on how the handle the largesse. As you may remember the baseball strike in the 90’s damn near killed the golden goose as many fans, myself included blamed them both and swore off supporting them. I understand the ‘bigs’ want to protect their legacy and huge investments but, like it or lump it, that boat has sailed and that is the today reality.
It seems to me that there is far less advertising that pushes the merits of one technology versus another. More emphasis is being placed on overall reliabilty, speed, billing simplicity, customer service. Bashing the other guy may have the unintended effect of confusing customers and encouraging them to stay on the sidelines. Buy my brand ’cause it doesn’t suck as bad as the other guy. I wonder what was going on in the minds of advertisers who use that approach.
With the close of The 2010 Canadian Telecom Summit earlier this week, I am getting ready to move to “summer-mode” for blog postings. Of course, it depends on whether there are issues that arise out of the blue, but you can expect articles to diminish from my regular daily pace down to 2 or 3 per week.
I hope it is a great summer for all of you.