FISPALIVE 2019 was a three-day trade show held in Nashville, Tennessee from February 20th to February 22nd. FISPALIVE is an opportunity for industry leaders, operators and business owners to teach, learn and network. The event is put on by the member organization group, FISPA.
At FISPA you can find FISPs (Fiber Internet Service Providers). They are vendors of broadband and fiber and our goal at FISPA was to show them the benefits of selling VoIP! Want to hear how FISPALIVE went? Keep reading.
Q: Has Bicom Systems attend FISPALIVE before?
A: Yes! This was our second year attending.
Q: As a repeating attender, how was this year’s show different from in the past?
A: This year we noticed there was a decrease in attendance. However, there were many presentations and speakers. It seemed like everyone who attended the show had their own booth.
Last year there were scheduled times on the agenda to go visit booths and exhibitors. This year there was no time allocated to talk to the different exhibitors. We noticed that attendees would end up skipping information sessions to come to talk to us.
Another change to this years event was the ability to use the app called ‘Whova’. We downloaded the app onto our phones and it kept us in the loop the whole conference! We could see who was presenting at what time, you knew when meals were being served and we could use it to network with other attendees. Whova lets you talk to anyone who is at the same conference as you and you can request to meet them or schedule meeting times. We could invite people to our booths and it was a unique opportunity to network!
Q: What did Bicom Systems do at FISPALIVE?
A: Last year we sponsored FISPALIVE, but this year we were just an exhibitor. We had a booth set up where we exhibited our solutions to new and existing customers. In my opinion, it was in the best location because as soon as you entered the conference from the stairs, you would see us. It was a great chance to meet many new people and catch up with some existing faces. This trade show also gave us the opportunity to treat some of our customers to dinner!
Q: What was your main takeaway?
A: In the beginning, I was a little discouraged at the lack of people who were there. But as time went on and it got going it got better! There were no other companies like Bicom Systems so it was a great opportunity to showcase how easy it is for FISP’s to offer VoIP solutions.
Q: Did you participate in any information sessions?
A: Yes! Like I said earlier, there were no designated times to visit booths so we couldn’t exactly leave when we wanted too. But we did get a chance to attend Doug Dawson’s presentation about Finances. It was really interesting because it targeted people starting an ITSP business. He stressed that you need to educate yourself on what you can afford and gave real life examples of mistakes that rookies have made in the past.
It was extremely informative and relative to Bicom Systems because that is the message we are showcasing about our hosted solutions! Adding VoIP to your existing offering is a safe and low-risk way to increase your revenue.
Q: If other businesses and customers were to ask if FISPA was worth attending, what would your advice be?
A: Yes! There was a lot of information on many different topics at the show.
If you want to learn more about FISPALIVE 2019 visit their website or sends our sales team an email at sales@bicomsystems.com. We will see you next year at FISPALIVE 2020!
Do you want to find out what trade show we will be attending next? Take a look at our Trade Show Tour 2019 blog post.