There are several conventions for the video conferencing technology.  The best conventions in the U.S.A. include: Infocom – www infocommshow.org  Enterprise Connect – http://enterpriseconnect.com and Visual Communications Industry Group, VCIGroup – www.vci-group.org.

Infocom includes all the video conferencing equipment vendors, but this also the big Audio Visual equipment convention.  You will see the major display manufactures like Samsung, LG, and Sony.  You will also see some very interesting integration technology that will make the complicated simple if you have a large conference room using both video conferencing and presentation technology.  Infocom is doing a very good job of sorting out the show floor to make it much easier to focus on your area of interest.  For example, all the videoconferencing vendors are in one area and all the digital signage technology venders are  in another area.  This eliminates walking back and forth. Infocom cycles domestically every year between Orlando Florida and Las Vegas Nevada — This is a very large show.

EnterpriseConnect is a very good show to see how companies utilize unified communications and collaboration.  This is far less hardware oriented like Infocom, however they usually have very good keynote speakers and breakout sessions. Typical sponsors and exhibitors include Avaya, Cisco, Verizon and the other large telecom companies. This show focuses on connectivity.  This is a very good show if you have questions in regard to the “Cloud”, your network, wireless technology, unified communications and other networking topics.  This is a good show for your IT staff or CIO.

The Visual Communications Industry Goup, VCI-Group is a community comprised of End-Users and Vendors focused on videoconferencing, telepresence, Unified Communications and/or collaboration technologies. Their members are anyone within an organization who makes visual communications purchasing decisions or recommendations, creates implementation strategies, and/or supports the technology.  This is a great organization with solid conventions that certainly accommodates end-users.   Their focus is any technology that affects or impacts visual communications. Video conferencing is certainly in this convention’s wheel house.

Each of the above conventions offers a focus.  Infocom is hardware, EnterpriseConnect is the network, and Visual Communication Industry Group is visual communication through technology.  All three are definitely worthwhile to attend.