Last week I was fortunate to be at eComm 2011 here in the Bay Area. Having attended all the eComm’s since the outset in 2008 (except for the Euro installment) I can say that I enjoyed this one most. Whether it was the content or the crowd, or a combination of both, this one ranks as number one.
With this in mind, and while it’s still fresh, I’m sharing my ‘Top Ten’ from the three days on site. But please note that while there are ten (a nice round number) there were surely more good moments, and the ten are listed in no particular order. Picking winners would be too taxing….
#10. The presentation from the guys at RebelVox. Good perspective on the rise of group communications apps and on their experiences to date with their app, Voxer. Some fascinating data (to follow when I get my hands on it) and I love how that these guys are ballsy enough to rent billboards on the 101 highway.
#9. Getting caught in the Twitter crossfire between Voxeo and Twilio. I should have known better..;-).
#8. The keynote from the CEO of Harqen. Apart from it being entertaining and highly insightful on how valuable voice is, and will be as compared to text, it was also delivered by a woman. Any telecom veteran worth their weight will tell you that there are way too many men in this club. Refreshing to say the least.
#7. Seeing the two sides of Skype, in one day. In the morning someone tweeted about how Skype was ready to be ‘MySpaced’. Not a compliment. In the afternoon, the fullest room of all three days was reserved for JC’s launch of SkypeKit. Death knoll may be premature.
#6. Hanging out with the hookflash boys. This dynamic Canadian duo is still in stealth, but it was fun watching people trying to get them to reveal their secrets. No luck.
#5. Getting a sneak peek at PhoneWord. An entrepreneur from Arizona (not known as a bastion of communications innovation) pulled me over out of nowhere to share his vision for phone numbers in our digital, social world. When I least expected it I saw something that may have legs.
#4. Finally getting to hang out with Todd Carothers from CounterPath: Twitter can make you feel like you know someone before you even meet them. Todd shared some of CounterPath’s future with me and it looked bright. Plenty of room for his team and others to innovate in this space. (see ‘MySpaced’ comment above).
#3. A little quality time with a Slovenian comm entrepreneur. The founder of Vox.io was in the house and I sat with him to learn about his background and future. Anybody innovating in voice, and moving to SF from Slovenia, is a friend of mind. Anyone planning to make conference calls as easy as a link in a browser will be a friend of many.
#2. Seeing Lee happy and in his element. Anyone who follows Lee knows that he had a very rough year on the personal side of life. Watching him climb back on the saddle – for all of our benefit – brought a smile to many.
#1. Seeing many old friends. Ok, I lied. There was some order to this list. The number one really is number one. After all, life is dull – even in telecom – without old friends.
Until next year.
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Larry works with entrepreneurial companies in voice & visual communications to help them grow their business. 
