No Telecom Recession. Yet.

I was lucky enough to go to VoiceCon last week. Not lucky that it was in Orlando but rather lucky to be part of it (...without doing booth duty). And lucky to feel the energy on the inside of the building, a breather from all the economic doomsday talk in the morning papers.

Energy. That is the best word I can find to describe what is quickly becoming 'the' enterprise telecom show. And energy is not often a word we use these days to describe a big, rambling trade show. But this one was full of it, every day. The floor itself was bustling from morning to night, helped in great part by the high-tech, expansive booths put on by many leading vendors. And the keynote sessions bristled with well over two thousand people, especially the one with Al Gore.

So what was different from other shows gone by, I wondered on my long trek home. A few things worth mentioning:

- Microsoft was there in no small way and this time it felt for real, instead of surreal. The first time I saw them last year, I was still in shock from their entry into the telecom space. Now, with their many partnerships including the Aspect announcement, they are part of our fabric;

- IBM joined the party this year with a Billion dollar injection along with plug-in relationships with the likes of Shoretel. Suffice to say that other incumbents are 'motivated to innovate by these two giants;

- Video: Another 'for real' moment. Video was everywhere (or at least it felt that way). The market leaders - Tandberg and Polycom - made themselves known and the incumbent telephony guys like Nortel, Avaya and Siemens all had video corners in their booths, even if not their strength. They clearly felt it would be conspicuous by its absence had they left it out.

- Buyers: Vendors I visited with all said the same thing - there are buyers in the house - a refrain not often heard at these events. Perhaps UC - and IP - have matured enough where people are coming to buy rather than window shop.

So could it be, a recession without telecom as a poster child? Wouldn't that be nice. Let's check in at VoiceCon in August to find out.