ALEXANDRIA, Va.-After spending the spring revamping his organization and moving it in a new direction with a new show, Jay Kitchen, president of the Personal Communications Industry Association, is upbeat about PCIA Global Xchange, which begins tomorrow in Chicago.
In preparation for the show, RCR Wireless News Washington Reporter Heather Forsgren Weaver sat down with Kitchen to talk about the show and PCIA’s new direction.
Kitchen easily answered questions about whether this is a make-or-break year. He said it is not.
The association leader was especially excited about the number of new exhibitors, but he said the show floor was not the purpose of the show; rather, attendees are looking for networking opportunities.
RCR Wireless News: How will this show benefit paging and specialized mobile radio operators?
Kitchen: Paging and SMR operators recognize this industry is changing dramatically. They have to change too. The bringing together of data and voice, that convergence, is going to impact their industries just as much as it is every other industry. The paging and SMR people we deal with in the association are very anxious to see these changes take place because it creates opportunities for them as well.
RCR Wireless News: How will your show differ from the Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association’s main trade show and CTIA’s Wireless I.T.?
Kitchen: I can tell you what our show is going to be about. Our show is going to be about convergence-the bringing together of voice and data-wireless Internet and global. We are very, very excited about the opportunity to bring together these new interdependent companies that are going to make up the industry that is going to be the wave of the future. Those interdependent companies have recognized there are going to be hurdles in the marketplace to their success. PCIA, through both the PCIA Global Exchange and the PCIA Global Initiative, is offering those companies tools to help them eliminate those roadblocks and create those products and services that will ultimately go to their customers. That’s what we’re all about.
RCR Wireless News: Any new details on the Global Initiative?
Kitchen: You have read the press release. What I can tell you at this point is the enthusiasm for the Global Initiative is exceeding all of our wildest expectations. We are going to have some more announcements for you in the future. The response has just been overwhelming.
RCR Wireless News: What does PCIA hope to gain from the Global Initiative?
Kitchen: PCIA, as a leader in this industry, owes it to create the future, and to do that you have to know what your end target is. And the end target is, in all of our cases, is the ultimate end user of the services and products. So what is in it for PCIA is the opportunity to develop the tools necessary for these interdependent companies to overcome these market areas, and provide the services and products the end consumer wants.
RCR Wireless News: Even though you have reportedly tried to woo back major vendors to the show, none have signed up yet. What message does this send to the wireless industry?
Kitchen: What you will find is that all of these companies are going to be participating in the show. They may not be participating in the form of a big booth, but they are going to be participating in part of the Bluetooth Pavilion or the WAP Pavilion. All of the major players in the industry have people coming to the show. In some cases very large numbers of people. So what we are seeing is people are using this show in different ways, depending on what the needs of their particular company are at the time.
RCR Wireless News: Is this a make-or-break year for show? What if attendance is poor again? Do you re-evaluate the direction or perhaps cancel it?
Kitchen: We have every confidence at this point that the attendance is not going to be poor. I am not quite sure what you would define as poor. We will define the show as being a success if the people that are there value the experience; that they walk away from the show saying, `I’m glad I was here. I had the opportunity to network.’ Because that is what this show is really all about. It is bringing together a lot of new people that don’t know each other. A lot of new companies that have never heard of each other. It is this network opportunity that is going to be the focus of the show. How do you measure that in terms of success? I don’t think anybody can walk off the show floor and say in sweeping terms `this show was a complete success’ or a complete failure. The proof of the pudding is going to be in the survey work that comes later as to how people enjoyed the show. What they felt they got out of it and how many come back the following year.
RCR Wireless News: How many people do you expect to attend this year’s show?
Kitchen: As of Sept. 12, pre-registration was up 14 percent from last year’s show and pre-registered attendance for international audiences is up 30 percent.
We understand from a number of the exhibitors that there were will be quite a few new product announcements. That’s always an important part of this show. I just can’t overemphasize the networking opportunities and the ability to meet people, exhibitors at this show. Two-hundred-fifty of the exhibitors at this show have never exhibited at PCIA before-GlobalXchange or PCS ’99 or any of our shows. What is even more significant is over 200 of them have never exhibited at any wireless show.
RCR Wireless News: How many new data companies have you signed up as new members of either PCIA or the Global Initiative? Global Initiative members announced to date are Advertising.com, Citigroup, GWcom Inc., Idetic, Littlefeet Inc., PCS Innovations, Prodigy Communications, Psion, Sonera Corp., TD Waterhouse Group Inc., Ticketmaster, Visa International and Weather.com.
Kitchen: I know that they are well represented in the list of keynote speakers. And the good news is up in the upper-right hand corner, is that you have to get up earlier because we have so many requests for keynote speakers that we have had to extend the opening session by half-an-hour. If you look at the list of people: Jeff Hawkins, Handspring-never been-Handspring has never been to our show. Sun Microsystems, John McFarland. McKenzie and Co. They are there. They are very active. They are our partners in the Global Initiative. Ticketmaster. Who would have thought that you would see Ticketmaster at a wireless show? They are into it. Big time. And you have Intel, of course.
RCR Wireless News: What role does broadband play in your future?
Kitchen: The broadband section is continuing. We are looking at what the issues are in broadband to be pursued. I guess that is just about it.
RCR Wireless News: How many members are still remaining in your PCS section? How much has consolidation affected these numbers?
Kitchen: With all of the consolidations, that section is certainly smaller.
RCR Wireless News: Does that concern you?
Kitchen: No not at all because as I have pointed out before, those companies are still very, very heavily involved with PCIA on a daily basis. Every single one of those companies is a member of the board of the Microwave Clearinghouse. We can get you the number of relocations and the dollar value. It is over $100 million. (Since Feb. 1, the clearinghouse has registered 329 additional transmitter links from PCS licensees, for a total of 2,867 links registered since the clearinghouse began its operation.)
I think the flex-code coordination process that we do is where any of the manufacturers that are manufacturing flex-code products come to us for coordination of the codes. So there are a lot of different areas within the organizations that carriers and manufacturers are dealing with the association other than through membership.
RCR Wireless News: Your go
vernment- relations section seems to be bleeding. Are you slowly fading out or hoping to hire new people?
K
itchen: We are interviewing people as we speak. I think one of the biggest joys I have had over the last 23 years in running an organization is to have people come here, work for a couple of years and move to a better job, or a bigger job, perhaps I should say. That’s exactly what is happening to us. We are a very fertile ground. People come here; they really get the opportunity to roll up their sleeves and get involved in the issues and they become very valuable people. They are valuable to us, but they are also very valuable to the for-profit world. So, the people that have left-every single one of them-I have had the opportunity to shake their hand, pat them on the back and wish them well as they move up in their careers. That brings me a great deal of satisfaction. It really does.
RCR Wireless News: You have reportedly talked to Bell operating carriers’ affiliated wireless companies. What is the status of these discussions?
Kitchen: We are always interested in any member that wants to join the association. That agrees with the goals and the directions of this organization. If there are some of the LECs, I assume you are talking about, that want to join, we are happy to have them join. But I can’t tell that there is any special effort around town to go out and recruit any section. We are always looking for new members within the association. We also want members that fit. We want their goals to be similar to our goals, and we think that our goals of wireless Internet and convergence are global. There are some players that fit and others that don’t.
