Program Announced for ‘Smart Grid Summit’ at ITEXPO

NORWALK, Conn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) and Intelligent Communication Partners have released the conference program for their upcoming Smart Grid Summit. The conference is collocated with TMC’s INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO West 2009 (ITEXPO). The Smart Grid Summit is being held at the Los Angeles Convention Center, September 1, 2009, Day One of the three-day ITEXPO.

“Combined with TMC’s reach into telecom and IT, we believe all the elements are in place for the Summit to become established as the leading Smart Grid event.”

The entire conference program and schedule can be viewed at the Smart Grid Summit Web site.

By combining the unmatched reach of the ITEXPO into the communications sector with ICP’s focus on Smart Grid, the Smart Grid Summit is a truly unique, first of its kind event to create a new community around the intersection of energy, the Smart Home, telecom and IT.

The Smart Grid Summit brings together two worlds in a unique setting designed to identify how they can create new opportunities and drive innovation with IP communications technologies. This is not another event to explore how utilities can become more efficient in the transmission and distribution of power. This summit goes well beyond this to address how a utility can deploy telecom-based solutions to not only make its grid smarter, but to enable the Smart Home and enable a new generation of revenue-generating services.

Conference sessions on the Smart Grid program include:

Grid Interoperability & Standards
9:15-10:30am
As reflected by The Energy Independence and Security Act, the need for a common grid architecture, where all aspects of grid communications and control are standardized uniformly is of central importance to a proper functioning Smart Grid infrastructure. In this panel, members of various international and national standards bodies spanning the full spectrum of the communications industry, together with leading solutions providers will share their insights.

Energy Management in the Home
10:45am-11:45am
Home energy management will be a significant opportunity brought on by the Smart Grid. There are various issues which have to be addressed in this space: if real-time data access is needed, device interoperability, the impact of regulations on a competitive landscape, issues of who controls devices and owns the data they generate, consumer privacy.

Emerging Smart Grid Opportunities
12:45-1:45pm
When the Smart Grid is connected to the Smart Home, we will have the required infrastructure to expand past energy management into many other fields enabled by real-time two-way communications. This session will explore emerging opportunities and business models that come with ubiquitous broadband, smart metering, and critical steps to reduce our dependence on non-renewable energy sources.

Utilities and Their Smart Grid Visions
1:45-2:45pm
Smart Grid is a broad concept, and being so new, utilities have various visions and deployment plans. Some of this is driven by regulatory and policy issues, some is based on local market dynamics, and some is based on a particular vision about sustainable or green energy initiatives. This session will explore a range of visions and best practices from utilities in various stages of Smart Grid deployment.

Demand Response on a Communications Enabled Grid
3:00-4:00pm
In industrial settings, Demand Response services play a central role in the efficient use of energy. Looking beyond this niche, the automation and real-time gauging of Demand Response applied to consumers in general will be, among other things, both essential to a grid supporting renewable energy sources and paramount to a reliable energy grid. This panel will include thought leaders from the leading DR service providers, DR technology vendors, and researchers to explore the new opportunities of demand response on a Smart Grid.

Organizations presenting sessions at Smart Grid Summit include:

Columbia University

Control4

Ecobee

GridPoint

GridWise Alliance

Intelligent Communication Partners

Redline Communications

Siemens

SIP Forum

Tendril

TMC

UCLA Berkeley

“Smart Grid has attracted strong interest from an unusually wide circle of players, and with so many being from the IP communications world, we felt the time was right for launching the Smart Grid Summit,” said Jon Arnold, co-founder of Intelligent Communications Partners. “Combined with TMC’s reach into telecom and IT, we believe all the elements are in place for the Summit to become established as the leading Smart Grid event.”

“Much of the excitement around revamping the national energy grid is due to the immediate economic savings to both consumers and industry, including the significant government initiatives such as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But what we have to keep in mind is that optimized and thoughtful energy use, together with sustainable energy sources, are critical to our survival itself. The smart grid is about communicating the messages required by both people and machines in making the informed choices. At the Smart Grid Summit, we will be joined by the individuals and organizations given the task of making this vision a reality,” said Shidan Gouran, co-founder of Intelligent Communications Partners.

TMC Chief Executive Officer Rich Tehrani added, “The scope and depth of this program’s content are so impressive. Every single important topic – regulatory, management, leveraging IP communications and more – is covered in this summit. If you are in the Smart Grid market and looking for revenue opportunities you must be at this event.”

Registration for the conference is now open at http://smart-grid.tmcnet.com/conference/west-09.

For additional information regarding exhibit and sponsorship opportunities, please contact Joe Fabiano at (203) 852-6800, ext. 132 or via e-mail at jfabiano@tmcnet.com. Press inquiries should be directed to Todd Keefe, For Immediate Release PR: Todd@firpr.com.

About TMC^®:

Technology Marketing Corporation (TMC) publishes Customer Interaction Solutions, INTERNET TELEPHONY, Unified Communications, and NGN magazines. TMCnet, TMC's Web site, is the leading source of news and articles for the communications and technology industries. Ranked in the top 3,500 most visited Web sites in the world by Quantcast, an independent Web traffic ranking site, TMCnet serves an average of two million unique visitors each month. TMC is also the first publisher to test new products in its own on-site laboratories, TMC Labs. In addition, TMC produces INTERNET TELEPHONY Conference & EXPO (ITEXPO), and 4GWE Conference (in conjunction with Crossfire Media). For more information about TMC, visit www.tmcnet.com.

About ICP:

Intelligent Communications Partners (ICP) is a strategic advisory consultancy focused on the emerging Smart Grid opportunity. The consultancy was co-founded by veteran communications entrepreneurs, Shidan Gouran and Jon Arnold. Shidan is a serial entrepreneur whose current venture, Home Jinni Inc., is developing a solution for home media management and media content distribution. His past accomplishments include founding an award-winning PBX company, developing a popular DRM solution and founding a provisional Canadian CLEC. Jon is the Principal of J Arnold & Associates, an industry analyst consultancy focused on disruptive communications technologies and emerging Telco 2.0 business models. Building on the independent thought leadership of his Analyst 2.0 blog, his Service Provider Views column on TMCnet, and active profile at leading telecom events as well as with the business press, Jon brings a vital perspective to ICP’s vision of integrating the worlds of telecom, IT and energy into the Smart Grid opportunity. For more information about ICP, contact us at info@icpstrategies.com.