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Behind the scenes at NXTcomm 08 - largest telecommunications show in the US

Monday, June 16, 2008

Steve Bell at Nxtcom 08 Monday June 16 2008

I arrived a day early at the
NXTcomm 2008 show , formerly known as Supercomm and now merged or operated in concert with several other telecom and wireless shows - including Infocomm, Broadband Wireless World, and Light Readings' Wireless Conference - making it the largest telecom show held in the United States.

nxtcom 08 under construction

NXTComm was moved from Chicago to Vegas this year, to take advantage of Vegas larger convention facilities and to attract silicon valley types like myself.

Although I may not fit that demographic, as am a former East Coast Bell Labs "Bell shaped head" kind of attendee -- even after moving West, I used to fly East for Supercomm:) Anyway here's a brief glimpse behind the scenes from here at the Las Vegas Convention Center (photos below).

Steve Bell at Nxtcom 08 Monday June 16 2008

Ever wonder how the big companies set up their large and complex, multimedia multi-story "mini-city" trade show booths at shows across the US, sometimes only a week or two apart? Well, here's the answer - they DRIVE their booths right onto the show floor using a custom semi-trailer rig. In this case, Sun Microsystems - and I would hate to see the insurance tab if that particular 18-wheeler were to get into an accident :)

At this outscale, Comdex-like telcommunications trade show and conference I am, among other things looking forward to attending Scott McNealy's keynote; to Sprint's session on "the rollout of XOhm", which is Sprint/Clearwire's newly reinvigorated US Nationwide 4G/WiMax service, and a number of other sessions that look to be enlightening on key topics in tech. And, of course, to my panel discussion Thursday, on "Next Generation Mobile Computing Applications". Here are two of my slides (