TIA Hails New Board Members, Stresses Globalcomm Growth
TIA expanded, adding 10 corporate members and enlarging its board, it said Tues. TIA sees the additions as building on 2005’s debut of the Globalcomm trade show, and presaging a bigger buzz for the 2007 Globalcomm in Chicago.
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Motorola, Nortel, Panasonic and Siemens now sit on the board, said TIA, also enumerating 10 new member companies: Altima, BrokerBin.com, DSS, Everyone.Net, Foundry Networks, Innovative Teknology, Mobile ESPN, Ruckus Wireless, Sparnex and PFU Systems.
“The [Globalcomm] show will grow,” a TIA spokesperson said. More than 200 exhibitors have signed up for 136,000- plus sq ft. of space, said TIA Pres. Matt Flanigan. TIA hopes having AT&T and other industry leaders on the floor will help Globalcomm hit its 20,000 attendance prediction. AT&T is down for 1,600 sq ft on the 2007 show floor, TIA said.
TIA officials hope adding members alleviates concerns over low attendance from carriers at last year’s show. In June 2006, Globalcomm drew 18,343, in contrast to the 30,000 average earlier in the decade at antecedent Supercomm, and far less than Supercomm’s 50,000 average attendance in the 1990s. The June Globalcomm figure reflected the absence from the show floor of Verizon and BellSouth, which opted to exhibit at the TelecomNext conference organized by USTelecom, TIA said.
TIA and USTelecom jointly sponsored Supercomm until 2005, when TIA split off, citing contract rifts (CD Jun 9 p2). The shows have been going head to head since, and many in industry wonder if both can survive (CD March 30 p3).
TIA’s board has discussed the need for a single strong show, Flanigan told us: “There is strong interest from the manufacturing community to have a combined show, and TIA has always been interested in having one show, as it best serves the industry. That being said, it takes two parties to make an agreement,” he said. USTelecom had no comment. Globalcomm 2007 occurs June 18-21 at McCormick Place in Chicago. - Bryce Baschuk