CTIA 2010 is now well underway. An exciting time for the wireless industry as a whole – and especially in the U.S. market – CTIA is one of the major industry events that helps set the tone for the wireless industry each year. Although I’m not attending this year, my colleague, Rob Adler, is in the trenches this week at the show. And as I keep up with the continuous flow of news from the show, I can’t help but wonder what this year’s general conclusion will be.

The way I see it, this is a critical time for the wireless industry – the overarching issue of bandwidth is one each service provider, application developer and consumer is well aware of – and one which everyone is trying to address. In Kevin Fitchard’s article yesterday, “CTIA: De la Vega asks app developers to share the mobile broadband burden,” he references CTIA Chairman, De La Vega’s keynote address which Fitchard says, “for the first time, he asked application developers and Internet services companies to share the burden of bridging that demand-capacity gap. New spectrum and 4G technologies like long-term evolution will solve only part of the problem, de la Vega said, while an applications market more conscious of the network’s limits, developing services optimized for mobility can do just as much to ease congestion.”

With many companies trying to conquer the three screen approach, mobile video on the rise, and new handsets that are trying to keep up with the iPhone’s popularity level, this isn’t an issue that will fade away anytime soon. As De La Vega pointed to in his speech, it’s only one that we can be more conscious of. Service providers are racing to roll out new 4G networks and services to enable the mobile infrastructure needed to keep up with the times. So will the buzz surround these new networks, or will it all be about optimizing our current networks? Only time will tell. There will be plenty more to read – and write about – from this year’s show… be sure to follow @Robadler for live updates.

March is a crazy month. The madness that is college hoops is in full swing. Everyone has finished the last of the corned beef and cabbage and washed it down with leftover green beer. And now Saturday, the partying will be done in the dark…for a good cause.

Earth Hour.

Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to take a stand against climate change. What has become an annual event, Earth Hour is a global call to action for every individual, business and community to stand up and focus on the responsibility of the future of our planet. For one hour on Saturday, March 27 at 8:30 p.m. local time,  switching your lights off will raise awareness for climate change.

Each Vantage employee has signed up individually to celebrate Earth Hour this year. For ideas on how you can get involved, there are how-to guides on the website.

How will you celebrate?

I am on a small propeller plane flying from the lovely hills of Donegal, Ireland to the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam for a tradeshow.  I started my vacation nearly 11 days ago with a week in Dublin, followed by a long weekend in Donegal.  Dublin, as many of you probably know, is like many big cities.  There are restaurants and stores and lovely hotels for tea…and occasionally you’ll find a Wi-Fi hotspot.

The later part of my vacation however, was very different.  You see, Donegal is the home of my grandfather.  Instead of spending my time searching for a Wi-Fi hotspot, I sat with my great aunt and great uncle and heard stories about the birth of my grandfather and his 8 siblings and what life was like 70 and 80 years ago.  We sat at her kitchen table, drinking tea and eating scones and virtual time stood still.

During my time there, we visited relatives. They all live within a few kilometers of each other – aunts and uncles, 2^nd and 3^rd cousins….all sharing the common bond of our family matriarch – Granny.  I had tea, ate biscuits and took pictures.

The second day of my visit, we woke to a strong frost and a light snow.  There were no cars on the road so it was in our best interest to wait until the afternoon to drive, when the frost would melt.  In the meantime, I sat in the kitchen with my Great Aunt and worked on the family tree for my generation – all of my 3^rd cousins (all 118 of them!) their ages and the number in each limb in the family.  My aunt would talk and she would bake. Then, she would talk some more and she would bake some more.  In all the hours that we sat there, my cell phone never rang and the beep of an email never interrupted…you see…I was unplugged.

In the precious moments of the last few days, I learned an important lesson that you can not come across easily.  As hard as we work most of the year, it is vital that we sit back and take time to get back to our roots.  For me, that meant unplugging.  My time of being unplugged has come to an end as I head to the ISE tradeshow in Amsterdam.  And as irony would have it, I will continue to stay in connection with a handful of my cousins…through Facebook.

We’re both celebrating a 20 year milestone this year!

Friday’s USA Today piece is something we hope people say about us as well.

Overachiever — and proud of it.

For 20 years, Vantage has experienced much success, with highlights such as launching Samsung’s first CDMA handsets in the U.S. in 1997, and launching Serious Materials’ first product to the green building market in 2007. Over the past two decades, Vantage has continuously expanded its offerings to meet the demand of the marketplace, most recently including wireless and mobile applications, clean tech, medical devices and social media, adding to our existing practice areas of enterprise/SMB technology, consumer and semiconductors.

While The Simpsons aired their 20th Anniversary episode last night, we’ve got some exciting things in the pipeline to celebrate throughout the whole year. So check back often for details!

Here’s to 20 more GREAT years!

We have finished up our participation in GreenBeat 2009 conference on the Smart Grid.  Vantage Communications was a strategic partner for the event, which provided me with a unique view of a major green conference that I would like to share.

1. “VentureBeat is doing its first green conference. Would Vantage be interested in participating?” Andie Rhyins, Publisher of VentureBeat

Actually, I answered yes, before Andie finished the question.  I knew if VentureBeat was putting together a show, this was a rare opportunity to be part of an important event from the beginning.  As the first GreenBeat event, we had a clean sheet of paper and the opportunity to provide a defining voice for marketing and PR that would help attract attendees, sponsors and speakers. It also was a bit scary knowing that our white board scribble and initial PowerPoints needed to be made into a conference with topics, speakers, attendees and press in very short order.

2. “Fw: Al Gore has agreed to come to GreenBeat” Matt Marshall

This was the header of a late Friday e-mail at the end of August. In less than 10 words, the bar had been raised for everybody. It also meant that we had to rethink our media outreach for the show. You may be asking why a conference run by a highly influential blog needs to do outreach to other media?  Part of the attraction of a conference for high-level speakers is the ability to reach a large number of highly influential people. Approximately 500 people attended GreenBeat in person. However, the number of people that read about the show can be in the hundreds of thousands. While VentureBeat does provide in depth coverage of the show to its readership, it is important to maximize awareness by being seen and heard on multiple channels. Media coverage for GreenBeat inlcuded the New York Times, CNET and Earth2Tech which has an aggregate audience in the millions. Immediately following the show, Techmeme  had VentureBeat ranked #5 of the sources most frequently posted to Techmeme.  This  was a higher ranking than even the New York Times.

3. “My name is Jim Rogers and I’m one of the speakers” Jim Rogers, CEO of Duke Energy

What as particularly impressive about GreenBeat is that despite the large number of high profile speakers and attendees, there was virtually no attitude or hubris. The CEO of Duke Energy attended without entourage, and the above quote is how he introduced himself. He made himself available to anyone who wanted to talk with him. Vinod Khosla was in the lobby for much of the morning available to talk to anyone. In his talk, John Doerr gave his e-mail and invited start ups to send him business plans. I attend many conferences and I never have seen a friendlier conference than GreenBeat. This is a real testament to Matt and the GreenBeat team. I look forward to seeing you at GreenBeat 2010.

Well, we made it! We’re in Phoenix for Greenbuild 2009, and we’ve already seen some exciting new companies and products on the show floor. Plus we shot some great videos for our clients, CALMAC and IES. Here is a video of our first day at the show:

We’ve got two days packed full of meetings and additional video shoots with Serious Materials and YKK AP, and somewhere in there we will head over to see Al Gore deliver the Keynote and Opening Celebration tomorrow night with Sheryl Crow. (And just in case you aren’t here in AZ, you can check out live streams on Greenbuild’s website.)

We are looking forward to meeting green building professionals sharing their visions for the future of the industry, as well as the editors and bloggers who write about it along the way. Melissa Hincha-Ownby of Mother Nature Network has already blogged about the event. Lloyd Alter of Treehugger is here, too. Along with 24,000 registered attendees, according to the records when the show floor opened at 5:30 this evening.

Check back here daily for a round-up of news and views from the show. Next week, we will do a show wrap up. And we’ll be Tweeting live from #Greenbuild09 the rest of the week – follow @catrionaharris, @mariegoltara and @toryk for your green building fix this week.

It is no secret that I’m an avid University of Florida (UF) Gator fan and proud alumna. In fact, around this time of year (*cough* football season) some might call me borderline obsessive. So when I came across UF’s venture to create the first parking garage in the country to earn USGBC LEED Platinum credits – the most esteemed certification category – I immediately knew the topic of my next post.

In 2001, UF adopted plans to have all major building projects eligible for LEED certification and the parking facility is the school’s latest effort to improve its green rating, but this is no  ordinary parking garage. In fact, when one looks at the exterior of the building, one would never suspect it to hold parking spaces, feature office and retail space or changing rooms and showers. The facility expands its eco-friendly offering by providing more parking per square foot, alternative transportation options, wetland protection, low energy lighting and insulated windows. Additionally, the structure maintains HVAC systems, efficient storm water drainage, and a high impact-recycling program all while promoting a green education program to deliver the sustainable messaging.

UF’s green initiative does not stop there, however.  In 2007, the university joined the American College and University President’s Climate Commitment and began collaborating with a organization known as The Neutral Gator – setting the goal of being completely carbon neutral by 2025.  This year, UF has even made the commitment to become the first carbon neutral athletic program. Currently home to the first and only Platinum LEED-certified athletic facility in the nation, UF added two energy-efficient LED video boards at the north and south end zones at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium – talk about creating a new, exciting green element to Tebow’s touchdowns!

By promoting sustainable practices, UF joins a vast number of other institutions around the nation that are striving to become eco-friendly. Other universities that hold LEED certification include: the University of Colorado at Bolder with all new buildings LEED Certified, Harvard University with 17 LEED-certified buildings and New York University with all new construction and renovations meeting Sliver LEED standards. You can find additional schools meeting green standards by checking out the Sierra Clubs Third Annual Cool Schools List found here, http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200909/coolschools/allrankings.aspx#

Clearly, green is not only a trend but a call to action, forcing institutions that educate tomorrow’s leaders to take a long, in-depth look at its carbon footprint. UF is the latest university to make headlines with its high profile, sustainable project. And, being no stranger to cheering on the Gators, I am proud to say – way to go for the LEED.

While women have made some great strides in the tech world, there’s still a ways to go, as evidenced by Allyson Kapin’s Huffington Post article, “Giving Tech a Bad Name.” Some of the most amazingly gifted people in technology are women. Yet, women are underrepresented, making up only a small percentage of panelists at tech conferences and as go-to people for quotes.

Recently, Vantage Commubications CEO, Ilene Adler took part in a podcast interview with Suzanne Bowen of DIDXchange to explore this very topic about women and the tech industry. The two discussed how each got into working within the tech field and how it affected their lives. The conversation touched on how both women and men should support and encourage each other in order to surpass stereotypes. Also, how women should collaborate and encourage one another so more women can feel comfortable with entering such a dominantly male industry. The bottom line: to change the perception, people—women and men—need to take action and promote women in tech rather than wait for everyone else to change.

Given the short week, Vantage Points is taking the week off as far as new posts are concerned. Stealing a page (and a title) from our friends in the TV and radio businesses, we are digging into the archives for some of our favorite undiscovered  posts:

Rebuilding the way we look at Green Building: Most people assume green building is expensive. An interesting post about a recent study published by Good Energies, a global energy efficiency and renewable energy investment company, shows some surprising conclusions about green building costs…

Millionaire Cat – Marketing Promotion Hits the Litter Box: Channel surfing last night, I came across Meow Mix Think Like a Cat Game Showwhich purported to be the first game show in which “catestants” (I did not make that one up) and their owners compete as a team for $1 million….

A Global PR Perspective: Differences in China and the United States: High tech companies are eager to enter the Chinese market for its endless opportunities, and successful PR will help them to engage the local markets….

It begins with energy…: Green building in particular is thriving in America right now.  Michael Kanellos of Greentech Media said it best yesterday, “For green building companies, the good times have just begun.”…. 

We hope you enjoy these posts and will be back with fresh ones next week. Have a great holiday weekend and stay cool!

Good news came out of the economy last week.  Yes, you read that correctly – GOOD news.  According to The Pew Charitable Trusts, clean energy jobs grew nearly two and a half times faster than overall jobs in the U.S. between 1998 and 2007.  The jobs weren’t in one or two states – they spanned all 50 states, with the majority in California and Texas, and the total number is 770,000.  That is good news, but those numbers are from before we took a dive into this recession…

Here comes the so what…

The same report states that they believe the nation is poised to significantly continue expansion of those same clean energy jobs.  The report states, “looking forward, the clean energy economy has tremendous potential for growth, as investments continue to flow from both the government and private sector and federal and state policy makers increasingly push for reforms that will both spur economic renewal and sustain the environment.”  They don’t point to hard numbers, but they say it is expected.  I know, that may not seem like news given all of the incentives and bills being passed by the current administration, but it is news.  It is a third party validating the claims we read about every day.

There are many next steps to help this growth even more, but I tend to agree with Marc Gunther, one great next step is to pass a Cap and Trade program.  Cap and Trade would set a limit on carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel and offer financial incentives for doing so.  Many renewable energy companies would be able to sell more product because they would reduce emissions for the end user – and thus, some experts predict would create more jobs.  Time will tell.