SUPERCOMM: The End of an Era

Next year will mark the final year of SUPERCOMM, which TIA and USTA jointly own. With the conclusion of SUPERCOMM 2005 in Chicago, USTA and TIA complete a five-year contractual relationship. TIA President Matt Flanigan says the organizations could not reach an agreement to strike a new deal, but neither Flanigan nor a USTA representative would comment on the specific reasons why they failed to reach an accord.

However, attendance at SUPERCOMM plunged in 2002 following the implosion of the telecommunications industry. There was a further decline in attendees the following year. But there was an increase in the number of attendees and exhibitors at SUPERCOMM 2004 (see chart).

In June 2006, TIA will sponsor a new annual exhibition and conference called GLOBALCOMM at Chicago’s McCormick Place — the same venue where next year’s SUPERCOMM is being held. Meanwhile, USTA will sponsor an expanded TELECOM ’06 show in October 2006 in Las Vegas.

Attendance for USTA’s TELECOM show increased from 2,600 in 2003 to more than 5,300 in 2004. The association says the number of exhibiting companies also has increased every year since 2001. The 2004 exhibit hall, covering about 40,000 square feet, with more than 235 exhibitors, was roughly 75 percent larger than last year’s show.

As for SUPERCOMM, TIA launched the show in 1988, with the support of USTA. Flanigan says the groups have a relationship dating back to 1979 through their predecessors. “It was a very good relationship,” he says, “and it went on [for] over 25 years.”

TIA, which represents telecom equipment makers like Lucent Technologies Inc. and Nortel Networks Corp., has been responsible for managing and operating the show while USTA has been tasked with getting its members to attend the show.

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