IT360 Conference & Expo Cultivates Innovation & Engages the IT industry

Canada (SANEPR.com) May 15, 2008 -- The Canadian information technology industry converged in Toronto, April 7-9, 2008 at the IT360 Conference & Expo (www.it360.ca). Business and technology professionals congregated at IT360 to stay ahead of the technology curve, gain insight and better adapt to a constantly changing industry. Attendees cultivated innovation by experiencing a 360-degree circle of information through the multi-sectored forum which focused on Unified Communications, IT Green, Virtualization, Security, Open Source, VoIP, Web 2.0, Enterprise, Data Management and more.

IT360, a unique event in Canada, expanded its reach by hosting three different entities within the event. The CTCA National Spring Conference, which brings together Canadian telecommunications consultants, ran through all three days of IT360, as did the Asterisk & Open Telephony Conference, sponsored by Digium|Asterisk and the Toronto Asterisk User Group (TAUG). The CIO Executive Council also hosted their Regional Meeting on April 8th. Incorporating these additional agendas allowed more members of the IT community to come together. There were over 1,500 participants at IT360 2008.

Ron Kawchuk, Co-Chair of CTCA@IT360 said, “CTCA@IT360 was a wonderful experience for the Canadian Telecommunications Consultants Association (www.CTCA.ca). Holding our Spring conference as part of IT360 provided the ideal venue for existing members to showcase their skills, to meet with prospective members & clients and to enjoy trade-press coverage that we could not get anywhere else.”

Jared Smith, Community Relations Manger for Digium said, “The content at the Asterisk & Open Telephony conference was top-notch, and it was a tremendous opportunity to get to rub shoulders with the members of our strong Canadian Asterisk community.”

Christine Britsas, Program Director for the CIO Executive Council said, "This is our second year working with the IT360 management team. IT360 provided access to the right audience and venue for all our initiatives. Our CIO audience found the keynote speakers to be of excellent quality and their vendor discussions exceeded their expectations."

Education continued to be top-priority at IT360 through the 90-session conference which included a two-day VoIP Intensive Workshop and ITIL Foundation Certification courses. Bruce Cole, president of Plum Communications Inc. and producer of IT360, says, “As the IT marketplace evolves, IT360 successfully showcased new solutions in the expo and educated professionals about critical issues of the day. The show demonstrated once again the continuing importance for face to face experiential events and the IT360 team is pleased with the enthusiastic response to this years show.”

The trade show was a highly charged hands-on environment that featured high profile experts from leading vendor companies providing timely facts, future developments and live demonstrations.

“The show was a great success, we will definitely be there again next year,” said Sean MacInnes, Marketing, TeraGo Networks.

Joanne Wilson, President + CEO, from the Trainers Group, said, “I’ve accomplished what I wanted; it’s a worthwhile show because I’ve gotten leads. IT360 is the only show of its kind for IT professionals in Canada. The whole show has just been great and I would do it again.”

“The traffic and quality of individuals looking to purchase was very good, and we received a lot of solid leads for our voice over IP products,” said Peter Proulx, CEO, Premcom/ShoreTel.

Attendees were captivated by the event’s eight keynote speakers: David Rice, Director, Monterey Group; John Reid, President & CEO, CATAAlliance; Keith Parsonage, Director General IT & Telecommunications, Industry Canada; Kevin Fleming, Director of Software Development, Digium Inc.; Kimberley Reynolds, Enterprise Product Marketing, Bell Canada; Matthew Glotzbach, Product Management Director, Google Inc.; Mark Spencer, Founder & CTO, Digium Inc.; and Vito Mabrucco, Sr. VP, IDC Canada. Each presentation provided a different vision of where IT is headed and how many methods are fast evolving.

David Rice, Director of The Monterey Group and event opening keynote on April 8th said, “Thanks so much for inviting me to the IT360 Conference and Expo. I had a wonderful time and the audience was fantastic. Thank you for the enjoyable event and trip.”

The three-day event culminated end-of-day April 9th and generated considerable attention and interest. Plum Communications, producer of IT360 Conference & Expo, plans to continue the momentum through to next year.

About IT360° Conference & Expo 2008:
IT360 Conference and Expo is an IT360 Inc. (www.it360.ca) event managed by Plum Communications working in partnership with ITWorld Canada addresses the critical issues facing the industry while providing realistic strategies to enable the implementation of the best and most cost efficient solutions. Plum Communications Inc. is a leading Canadian organizer of community-based IT events “Cultivating Innovation in Technology” since 1984 focusing on what companies are doing and how IT professionals are implementing new systems. www.it360.ca

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For further information contact:
Stephanie Cole, Event Publicist, IT360 Inc.
905.695.0123 x211, steph@plumcom.ca