Why I Don’t Go To VON

Thomas Howe’s post about not going to VON this time around got me thinking. Being that I blog a heck of a lot about VoIP, I am frequently asked by other bloggers if I am going to this or that VoIP-related trade show. The trade show du jour is the Voice/Video On the Net show in the Bay Area. The answer, at least up until now, has been no. Not because I don’t want to go, but because I have family obligations.

While I have more than a passing interest in VoIP and I occasionally have some professional aspirations in the VoIP space, the fact of the matter is, my day job has very little to do with VoIP. Certainly in the course of troubleshooting an enterprise networking issue, I will run across VoIP. I certainly dabble a lot with VoIP on my own. Hoewever, it’s not part of the day-to-day grind of my job.

In short, unless I can somehow manage to work VON into an existing trip someone else is already paying for, I would be footing my own bill to go. Cost is not the issue. though. Traveling for work causes a major disruption in my household already. Adding in what amounts to a personal trip on top of that is that much more disruptive. Seeing as I rather like some of the benefits of being married, I’d rather not push the issue any harder then I need to.

To be fair, I did try and figure out a way to make it down to VON in San Jose this year.  I had planned some of my work activities around the VON conference. Unfortunately, I could not find a set of travel arrangements that made sense either for me, my family, or my pocketbook.

Hopefully this family disruption issue will minimize once my daughter gets a wee bit older and traveling won’t be as big of an issue as it is right now. Then, maybe, I can come to a VON or ETel-type conference.