The inaugural Australian edition of the ISPCON exhibition and convention for Internet service providers has exceeded expectations to become the largest ISP show ever held in the country.
The show hosted many meetings of industry heavyweights to discuss current issues like domain names, peering, and content censorship.
“A total of 350 ISP industry delegates attended the two-day conference while 1,274 senior industry executives and decision makers visited the ‘trade invitation only’ exhibition,” said Peter Reid, director of conference organisers Kirby Network Services.
Kirby Network Services and their American partner, Penton Media, announced that ISPCON would now become an annual event in Australia as it is in the United States, Canada and London.
The exhibition and conference was held in the Melbourne Exhibition Centre last Monday and Tuesday, April 19 and 20.
“We have now clearly established ISPCON Australia as the industry forum for the ISPs and telco market,” said Reid.
Themes running through the speaking program included an effort to educate ISPs about offering value-added services, plus a focus on peering between providers.
The conference was endorsed as an On Line Australia “Peak Industry Event” by the government agency National Office for the Information Economy, and also hosted industry meetings of NOIE’s Online Agenda Series (government policy), the au Domain Authority (domain names), AusBone (peering), and the Internet Industry (ISP representatives).
The exhibition floor also provided the backdrop for a fierce debate between ISPs and the Australian government on online censorship, which has continued this week with the introduction of legislation that could mean that ISPs will be forced to filter offensive content out of Internet communications.
ISPCON Australia 2000 will be held from August 14 to16 at the Melbourne Convention Centre.
