The two big Telecom trade associations announced that they are junking “NXTcomm” and resurrecting “Supercomm” as the name for their June 2009, tradeshow. According to Light Reading, the change is in response to customer demand.

Does this mean that the Telecom industry is getting ready to be party like its 1999 in 2009? Unfortunately, changing the name will not be enough to turn back the clock to the days when Supercomm was a multiple building, SRO event.

The Supercomm name would have been helpful when the USTA and TIA rejoined to put together a single industry show in 2007. But now exhibitors and attendees are making their decision based on their experiences over the past two years at the June Telecom trade show, regardless of what it is called. If the lead generation numbers are not good, they could call this show SuperDuperComm and it will not make a difference.

As Craig Matsumoto points out, “the buzz of the industry has shifted to areas such as wireless,” pointing to the success of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Interestingly, in 2008, the name of the Barcelona show changed from 3GSM to Mobile World Congress (MWC). Despite many people still calling that show 3GSM, MWC managed to sell out 7 Halls with record crowds!

The reason for the success of the MWC, and the CTIA show in the U.S. is that there are significant business opportunities in wireless and mobile, and being at these shows provides companies a platform to talk to potential customers. So what is the likelihood of there being similar business opportunities at Supercomm 2009?

Matsumoto notes that that the backers of Supercomm include Tier 1 carriers such as Verizon and ATT. Unfortuantely, these are the same Tier 1 carriers that Telecom vendors are reporting poor earnings quarters cite for delaying their equipment purchasing decisions. So expecting Telecom service providers to show up in force at the show does not seem like a great assumption. That makes it even more important to drive traffic to your booth and reach the large number of people who will follow Supercomm by reading the news. That means that if you want the June Telecom trade show to be “super”, you need to plan to include PR as part of your trade show plans.