KELOWNA – It’s hot here in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. And we don’t just mean the weather.
While it was sunny and 32-degrees Celsius Wednesday in this town of 105,000, inside the Coast Capri Hotel was a hot new technical trade show. More than 170 attendees enjoyed the air conditioning – not to mention the 38 vendor tables and six hours of training at the CommTech Trade Show and Training Seminars.
Six more hours of training and vendor tables are on tap for Thursday, too. (Tune in to cartt.ca for seminar coverage later this week.)
This was a busy show with cable and telecom attendees from all over Alberta and B.C., from companies such as Telus, Shaw, Delta Cable, Coast Cable, Wood Lake Cable, Mascon Communications and many others.
"I’m very impressed by the turnout," said Power & Telephone Supply’s national sales manager Jonathan Newman. "The western groups have really supported this and I think it’s great there are so many vendors with so many cutting-edge products here."
"Anyone who attends this is going to come away from it saying there is value in regional shows and for Western Canada there hasn’t been anything for a long time."
While there are a number of purchasers in attendance, also getting some hands-on training were many field technicians and others who generally do not get to attend many of the larger shows to see the entire suite of products that vendors offer.
The show has been "very informative," Coast Cable technician Derrick LaFontaine said. "Lots of information, lots of good, new technologies being displayed by the distributors and the presenters here are giving us good quality information."
LaFontaine drove the five hours in from Sechelt with a few others from Coast because: "We’d never get this anywhere else – just here," he said. (At left is the VOIP seminar led by Tim Penner of Capella Telecommunications).
"It’s always great to talk to installers, line technicians, service and maintenance technicians as well as their managers and supervisors," added Newman.
Show delegates were passing on many kudos to organizer Janice Lee of JLL & Associates and her team. Lee said she was "ecstatic" with the turnout and that "feedback has been excellent and I think we can improve on it for next year.
"So many people have been appreciative that we’ve organized this."
In fact, Telus used the show as a base for regional meetings, meaning a large number of the western telco’s operational staff were here. Telus, along with Power & Tel, were the show’s platinum sponsors.
CommTech 2006 builds upon a much smaller (about 10 tables), yet successful, gathering last year at this time, which was organized by Telonix.
"I think the westerners need something like this," said TVC Canada general manager Theresa Wilson. "I saw a lot of our customers today and I think tomorrow might be even better… Kelowna’s a good venue because it’s close enough to Calgary and to the Lower Mainland."
The attendance in the trade show and the desire for training (the fusion-splicing seminar had 100-plus people crowded into the room) has some thinking regional shows like this could happen in other areas of the country.
While the SCTE has a strong Ontario chapter which does a few tabletop shows each year, Quebec and the east are places where the interest for a regional telecommunications trade show such as this may be just as hot as here in steamy Kelowna.
Story and photos by Greg O’Brien
Left to right: Terry Ward, director, network operations, Telus; Janice Lee, JLL & Associates, Linda Guzman, JLL& Associates; Sharon Shepherd, Mayor of Kelowna; John Nesbitt, general manager, network operations, Telus.
