SUPERCOMM comes back to life

After two years producing their trade show under the NXTcomm brand, the Telecommunications Industry Association and USTelecom have decided to revive the SUPERCOMM show name they used during the 1990s and earlier this decade before briefly ending their partnership to produce their own shows for one year. SUPERCOMM 2009 will be June 8-11 in Chicago--until today, that event had been slated as NXTcomm 2009 (Around 9 a.m. ET this morning, if you visited www.nxtcommshow.com [1] --the Web home of this year's show, a NXTcomm event page would come up briefly before being redirected to the new SUPERCOMM event page, www.supercomm2009.com [2].)

A few vendors previously had announced events and marketing programs that mentioned "NXTcomm 2009," but the brand change is happening early enough in the preparation for next year's event that it should not introduce much unexpected cost--if any--into anyone's promotional campaigns. It is likely that the return to the SUPERCOMM brand will be embraced by show exhibitors and attendees who may have been confused and a bit agitated by the event's numerous name changes in the last few years. The show was produced by the TIA and USTelecom for 18 years as SUPERCOMM, but after the partners split in 2005, each agency produced its own show--Globalcomm and TelecomNEXT, respectively, in 2006. The groups reunited for NXTcomm 2007 and NXTcomm 2008.

Both Telephony and Light Reading also are reporting that Wayne Crawford, the executive director for NXTcomm, has stepped down. The new interim lead for the show is Jim Forlenza, who was director of public relations and business development for NXTcomm. The TIA and USTelecom are planning to discuss further details of the name change in an informational conference planned for next Monday, Sept. 15.

For more:
- Check out www.supercomm2009.com [2] 
- see this story [3] at Telephony
- read this report [4] at Light Reading

Related articles
Check out our NXTcomm-related coverage from this year [5]