The event featured a 3-day conference, which addressed two key strategic areas: "Enterprise Wi-Fi & Wireless Solutions" and "Public Wi-Fi & WLAN Solutions". The conference attracted over 300 conference delegates from all across Canada, and both keynote addresses were delivered to a standing-room only audience.

In the first keynote session, Dr. Michael Binder, Assistant Deputy Minister, Spectrum, Information Technologies & Telecommunications, Industry Canada, described Canada's wireless Internet growth in the networking age; an executive industry panel of Canadian wireless carriers, comprising of vice presidents from Bell Mobility, Microcell Solutions, Rogers AT&T Wireless, and TELUS Mobility, discussed their latest and very influential hotspot initiative; and Robert Blumenthal (VP of Products and Services, TELUS Mobility) outlined how can Canadian businesses get the most of Wi-Fi -now and in the future. In the second keynote session, both Eugene Roman (Group President, Bell Systems & Technology, Bell Canada) and Doug Cooper (Canada's Country Manager, Intel Corporation) focused on the convergence of telecom, computing and wireless technologies, each from their own unique perspective. Mr. Roman discussed how Wi-Fi can enable the world of IP, while Mr. Cooper addressed how wireless will be a "tipping" point for computing and communications convergence. Overall, the Conference, which featured 24 educational sessions, delivered high quality education. It was all about facts - and not about hype. It was all about business applications and benefits - and not just about technology. All delegates also received a special copy of the entire conference proceedings on CD-ROM, which included presentations from all of the speakers who were featured in the educational program.

The Wi-FiPower 2004 exposition featured 36 exhibitors that showcased a wide array of innovative wireless products and services. A unique feature of this year's exposition was the Intel Centrino Solutions Pavilion. The exposition attracted over 1200 qualified visitors. A special survey was conducted on-site by Intel's "Mobile Messengers". These messengers roamed the exhibit hall carrying notebooks computers, that were connected via Wi-Fi to the event's website and asked the visitors to complete a short survey which featured key questions about their participation in the event. A total of 170 visitors were surveyed; here are the highlights from their responses:

• The two main objectives for attending the event were to meet and network with industry players (51%) and to learn about Enterprise Wireless Mobility Solutions (38%).
  
  
• About 62% of the respondents were only "somewhat" or "not familiar" with wireless technologies and applications.
  
  
• Only 49% of the respondents are currently using wireless high-speed Internet or wireless LAN connectivity.
  
  
• The three most valuable benefits of Wi-Fi & wireless LAN solutions selected by the respondents were mobile connectivity (49%), rapid real-time access to information (24%) and increased user productivity (14%).
  
  
• The three most important aspects of Wi-Fi & wireless LAN solutions that needs to be addressed to increase the comfort level with this technology were selected by the respondents as: network security (52%), limited coverage areas (21%) and seamless roaming (12%).
  
  
• The classification of the respondents by company size was as follows: small office/home office (28%), medium-sized business (34%) and enterprise organizations (38%).
  
  
• The classification of the respondents by primary job functions was as follows: Management (32%), Sales/Marketing (25%), Operations (4%), IT / Telecom (24%), Service & Support (5%) Financial (1%) and Other (8%).

A total of 28 accredited media correspondents and reporters, representing various national TV stations, trade media publications and the general press, covered the Wi-FiPower 2004 event.

Two types of special awards were presented at Wi-FiPower 2004. The first set of awards were Industry Recognition Awards, that were presented to companies in honour of their vision, leadership, innovation and contribution to the advancement of the Wi-Fi industry in Canada and as an acknowledgement of their contribution to the success of Canada's first Wi-Fi Show. The second group of awards, the Best in Show Awards, was presented to companies who took part in the event for technology innovation and product excellence. To learn more about the award winners, please visit www.wi-fipower.com/awards. We also invite you to visit the event picture gallery that will be posted on the event website next week on Tuesday, March 9, 2004. Please visit www.wi-fipower.com/gallery.

Wi-FiPower 2004 has been staged, sponsored and organized by Jake Gordon and Associates, Canada's leading IT event management group. Special thanks to the following event sponsors for their trust, support and dedication: TELUS (Diamond Sponsor), Bell Canada (Platinum Sponsor), HP Canada and Ericsson Canada (Gold Sponsors) and Intel Canada, Redknee and Canada's four major wireless carriers (Silver Sponsors).

If you attended the Wi-FiPower 2004 event, we trust that you will agree that it was a very high-profile event that attracted the movers and the shakers of the Canadian wireless industry. It delivered focused high quality education on how to leverage the latest technology innovations and turn them into productive business applications and profitable benefits. But, perhaps most importantly, it created unique excitement and unmatched networking opportunities that helped propel Canada's wireless industry to new heights.

If you missed the Wi-FiPower 2004 event, we invite you to keep in touch and join us next year in Wi-FiPower 2005, which will be held at the Metro Toronto Convention Center, Toronto, Canada on March 21-23, 2005.

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For further information, please contact:

Jake Gordon & Associates
Jacob (Jake) Gordon, P.Eng.
Chairman, Wi-FiPower 2004
jake@Wi-FiPower.com

Legal Notes: Wi-Fi is a registered trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance. Wi-FiPower, VoicePower, CRMPower, eCustomer World, and eCustomerWorld.Institute are the trademarks or registered trademarks of eCustomerWorld.com, Inc.

Copyright 2004 - eCustomerWorld Institute. All Rights Reserved.