A technology trade show previously scheduled for Las Vegas in August is planned instead to be at the Anaheim Convention Center in October.
Show producer Norwalk, Conn.-based Technology Marketing Corp.’s twice-yearly ITExpo will bring together exhibitors and visitors in the computing, communications, networking and other segments of technology for a three-day run from Oct. 18 to 20.
The show—which holds an East Coast version in Florida in the winter—debuted in 1999 at the Hotel del Coronado in San Diego. It was held in Long Beach and Los Angeles over the course of its first decade and has alternated between Austin, Texas, and Las Vegas in recent years, said TMC Chief Executive Rich Tehrani.
The upcoming show was set for Caesar’s Palace in August, but exhibitors and attendees asked for a switch to California, Tehrani said.
He cited a low cost of travel to the area, and “you get the side benefit to make it a family trip” to local attractions.
“You want to have a show where people want to go,” he said.
Tehrani said the show hasn’t settled on a location for next year’s western region show.
“It’s becoming a rotating event, and we’re excited to be in Southern California,” he said. “At the same time, we’re sensitive to our customers’ requests, so ‘a couple years here, a couple years there,’ might make sense.”
He expects 150 to 200 exhibitors and 6,000 to 7,000 attendees—with about 20% to 30% of the crowd from in-state.
Sponsors and exhibitors pay anywhere from around $6,000 to $25,000 to participate, Tehrani said, and attendees pay $100 to $1,000 .
Aligned
Tehrani said most firms involved in the show are small- to midsize, with sales in the low single- to double-digit millions. The roster is dotted with some large service providers, including telephone carriers and cable companies.
He said Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage—which provides broadband phone services and last week agreed to buy Dana Point-based SimpleSignal Inc. for $25 million—attends the show.
Peter Craig, chief executive of the Mission Viejo-based trade group OC Tech Alliance, said the show fits the local landscape of startups and growth firms.
“It’s … emerging companies [with] a lot of new names,” he said, adding that the show’s seminars look promising.
“It’s some leading-edge thinking [and] a pretty interesting show to have locally,” he said.
Camarillo-based SIP Print has been at the show since 2008.
The company makes audio recording software for clients from doctors’ offices to police departments to state agencies.
Founder and Chief Executive Don Palmer said his company sells to customers through dealers.
The expo, “has allowed us to interact with all these kinds of businesses.”
SIP Print has eight employees and a “couple million dollars” in sales.
Palmer will be an attendee and speaker, and his company exhibits at the show. It also participates in TMC’s eastern regional ITExpo in January in Florida.
More
ITExpo is one of 16 trade shows TMC produces—others cover mobile apps, real-time Web communication, and wearable technology. The company also publishes magazines, maintains the websites, and presents about 200 sponsored webinars a year.
Tehrani said that “constantly adding content” counters cannibalization and keeps the ITExpo current.
The company was founded by Rich Tehrani’s father, Nadji, in 1972.
It’s 100% family-owned with 55 employees, editorial freelancers, and revenue of $10 million to $20 million.
It started in publishing and covered then-new chemical technologies in commercial paint. Tehrani called it the “green revolution” of its day, creating an industry that needed its own information providers.
The company’s search for more efficient advertising sales methods led to launching a telemarketing magazine in the late 1980s, now called Customer.
Telephone technology brought TMC a decade later into “Internet telephony”—an emerging technology of its day involving voice communications over the Internet.
That term also was the first name of the ITExpo.
