Digital City Expo in Short

The Digital City Expo was last week, and was quite a success. There were enough attendees to fill three parallel session tracks, there was a wide variety of speakers, and the snacks and hors d'ouvres were quite tasty. If not for lingering jet lag, I would have enjoyed every minute.

This year was the first year for the conference, and the organizers admit that the Expo part was a bit weak. I expect that to improve next year as the buzz gets out that this is a pretty good place to meet municipal decision makers.

I did have an interesting conversation with a gentleman from a smaller town who was a bit intimidated by all of the talks on large deployments costing millions or tens of millions (or hundreds of millions) of dollars. He asked if anyone had any suggestions for a small town trying to get started. In fact, there are solutions that are available that are not bank-breaking, offer simplified services (such as internet access only), and can be put in quickly. Perhaps next year I'll try to speak on that subject instead of the overwhelming Japanese example.

Thanks to everyone who attended my session, and thanks for all of the great questions. Feel free to contact me again if you have any others, and I look forward to seeing you all again next year.

Filed in: telecommunications