From Technology-Centric to Customer-Centric

Jake Gordon and Associates' New Events Strategy Reflects a Changing Industry

First, the industry is growing now at a much slower rate than it did in the previous decade. In light of the over-capacity buildup at the turn of the century, both service providers and large enterprise users have drastically cut their capital expenditures. According to financial industry analysts, corporate tech spending has declined to the mid-single digit - less than half the double-digit gains it enjoyed during the 1990s.

The continuous search for new venues for growth has accelerated M&A activity and powerful consolidation among industry players. This is evident across the telecom, software and hardware industry sectors. New acquisitions are announced almost weekly in the business news - the merger of Oracle & PeopleSoft, Verizon & MCI, AT&T & SBC, Symantec & Veritas and McAfee & Network Associates are just a few examples. When it is all over, the end-result will be the emergence of fewer and more powerful industry players.

Second, rapid technology evolution has also wreaked havoc with standard industry business models. In the telecom industry, for example, traditional revenues from long-distance voice services have almost evaporated. New technologies, such as IP Communications, are now allowing industry players to re-invent themselves and generate new revenue streams by re-focusing their operations on a new set of products & services that include data services, Internet and web-services, integrated wireless & wireline networks, and other value-added service offerings.

In their search for growth, many players have turned their attention from the enterprise market (characterized by few customers & high profit margins) to the untapped small & medium markets (characterized by many customers & low profit margins). Since it is more difficult to gain substantial market share and high profit margins in this market, they are facing new challenges in branding, product repositioning, marketing, and distribution strategies.

All of this sea of change is happening in the backdrop of slow global economic growth. In the developed world, the US is the only true engine of growth. Europe is still trying to recover from anemic growth within the Euro land and Japan has just entered into another recession. But even in the US, nobody expects the economy, whose GDP grew by 3.8% in 2004, to accelerate in any meaningful way. In the developing world, China is the main engine of growth (9.5 % GDP growth rate - the fastest pace in eight years) followed by India (6.9% GDP growth). However, most experts agree that the Chinese economy cannot sustain its current rate of economic growth and expect it to slow down this year. What is important to realize is the "China Effect" has been felt all over the globe, and the "China Price" has been the source of strong deflationary pressure affecting the pricing power of global computer hardware and networking gear manufacturers. It is no wonder in this environment that most high-tech CEOs are cautious about the prospects for growth in 2005 and beyond, since many of them are concerned that the economy may appear to be stronger than it actually is.

As always, the main beneficiaries of a changing industry are the customers. Competitive pressures combined with the lack of pricing power are resulting in the delivery of many innovative business technology solutions at lower cost. Furthermore, as the market contracts, customer value rises, and all customers - large, medium and small - are getting the industry players’ attention. As the disparity in the level of services between SMB and Enterprise customers disappears, SMB customers are being offered new state-of-the art solutions that are designed to their specific needs. Deployment of these solutions allows them to improve productivity, and thereby gain and maintain their competitive edge.

In response to this new industry landscape, Jake Gordon and Associates has made a fundamental, strategic shift in its event portfolio and go-to-market event strategy. Starting at the beginning of 2005, Canada's leading IT Event Management group has added two new series of customer-centric shows to its Signature Event Portfolio. We are moving away from being product-focused to solution-focused, from focusing on the technology to focusing on who is using it - and how.

Over the last 15 years, our events have always been 'technology-centric' in nature; they evolved with the IT and Telecom industries and provided Canadian executives with an excellent educational venue to learn and to discover how to harness the most powerful and innovative technologies to their business benefit.

Our new "Go-To-Customer" event strategy will allow us to focus on a specific customer segment and on vertical markets within the Canadian marketplace. This new strategy will bring customers, industry players and experts together to share knowledge, to witness technology solutions, and to discover how they meet specific customer business needs.

We are proud to announce that our 2005 Signature Event Portfolio includes the following new events:

• SMB World 2005 - A customer-centric event that focuses on the Small to Medium Sized Business Market in Canada and will be staged in five major cities across the country - Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax.
  
  
• Canadian Industry IT Days - An industry-specific event series geared towards the Medium to Large Business Marketplace that will focus on five specific industry segments: banking and financial services, education and research, health care and life sciences, retail and wholesale, and travel and hospitality.

Our new events are based on extensive market research and foresight. They represent a powerful and innovative platform that will allow us to continue our driving objective: to meet the ongoing, changing needs of our customers for years to come.

We look forward to your participation in our events throughout 2005.