Web Hosting Talk : Other Forums : HostingCon : Why are some hosts exhibiting?

[spiv]

Just curious - as I'm browsing thru the HostingCon site looking to see if worthwhile to attend, I noticed that a few (not a lot, just a few) of the exhibitors are hosting companies.

My first impression is that this conference is for hosting companies as attendees and not the public. So other than software, infrastructure, and various ecosystem type vendors, why would a hosting company choose to spend the $$ and exhibit to a conference filled probably 80% or more with their competitors?

[Joseph_M]

At a guess, I'd say that they offer Dedicated Servers or Reseller services and hope to attract some new custom.

[Tyler]

And of course to get their brand known

[sirtwist]

The hosting companies who are exhibiting at HostingCon 2006 tend to provide dedicated servers and/or colocation. Exhibiting at HostingCon gives them an opportunity to speak with the smaller hosting companies who are in the market for these types of services.

[spiv]

Ok, that make sense, but they seem to be "small fry" boutique shops which are more on the order of hosting company jack-of-all-trades that dabble in dedicated servers and colo too - something probably a fair number of the attendees themselves do.

What I mean is, I'm surprised that there aren't more of typical server/colo companies exhibiting such as EV1, ThePlanet, SoftLayer, AboveNet, Equinox, Level 3, etc. (Yes, I saw that Verio is a sponsor).

I guess it takes time for a new show to reach critical mass that the big guys get interested and/or they think it is too small an audience or not enough "corporate" clients for them to exhibit?

[MadroosterTony]

EV1 showed last year, I am not sure why they are not showing this year... The planet had representivities there, but they did not have a booth. As far as the BW providers, they really like to deal with resellers,

[Trophimus]

I think that some hosts also want to see what there biggest competition is, and try to beat that! -- Even though I don't plan to go to HostingCon until next year, I would also just like to meet my competition in general .

[sirtwist]

Originally Posted by spiv

Ok, that make sense, but they seem to be "small fry" boutique shops which are more on the order of hosting company jack-of-all-trades that dabble in dedicated servers and colo too - something probably a fair number of the attendees themselves do.

I don't know that that is an accurate characterization. FastServers.Net, Server Central, Steadfast Networks, Sago Networks ... just to name a few. They all focus on dedicated servers and colo as far as I can see.

What I mean is, I'm surprised that there aren't more of typical server/colo companies exhibiting such as EV1, ThePlanet, SoftLayer, AboveNet, Equinox, Level 3, etc. (Yes, I saw that Verio is a sponsor).

Different companies have different marketing goals. Some don't exhibit at tradeshows. Some may be waiting until the conference gets more established. We're working on them.

I guess it takes time for a new show to reach critical mass that the big guys get interested and/or they think it is too small an audience or not enough "corporate" clients for them to exhibit?

It depends on their target market. Some datacenters may not sell a whole lot to other hosting companies, so it wouldn't be a good show for them unless they were trying to break into that market.