TADS (Telecom Application Developer Summit) is an independent grassroots initiative to raise the profile of telecom application developers with the resources to support them, and create a sustainable and profitable telecom application ecosystem.

One of the requests from people who could not make it to the TADSummit last year was to help organize local events as travel budgets are very tight. We’ve seen WebRTC Meetups prove popular, for example the last WebRTC Meetup in Paris had over 200 people. And they’ve also started a TADMeetup Paris.

Firstly, a big thank you to the pioneers who understand the importance of meetups and their involvement in TADMeetup NJ.  Your investment of time will be well worthwhile.  The meeting location, pizza and soft drinks are provided by Dialogic, so a big thank you to Jim Machi and Chad Hart for their support with this first TADMeetup NJ.

Its been an interesting time drumming up attendance for TADMeetup NJ. Its clear our industry struggles to understand the importance of meetups and more broadly the role social communication tools play in fostering innovation and providing a local support network. Meetups are one of the tools that has the internet industry running rings around the telecom industry with respect to service innovation

Here is a common refrain, “Thx Alan, TADMeetup NJ is a great idea, but I’m traveling on business, sorry.” Which is OK, however, you can still sign up to the community, you can show your interest, support, and take part in the online conversation. We have people from Paris and Amsterdam signing up as they are interested in what we have to discuss in TADMeetup NJ and want to show their support to this community.

Today I sent out some emails to guilt the local telcos into sending people, who are noticeable by their absence, despite me rattling their gates several time. Let’s see if the industry can help itself out of its internal focus and use the tools of the competition to remain relevant to customers.

An industry does not move forward by sitting behind a desk listening to internal PowerPoint presentations.  It moves forward when different people meet, insights are gained, ideas are sparked, and deals germinated.  You can see the people and businesses that understand the importance of meetups by visiting TADMeetup NJ, its all out their in the open for anyone to see.

The TADMeetup NJ agenda is:

• MWC Review – people who attended Mobile World Congress share their insights.  You can see my review here.
• TADHack update – sharing the latest developments on TADHack 6-7 June in Madrid and the World! Lots of exciting news to share.
• WebRTC (Web Rich Communications) panel – cutting through the hype, what does it really mean and when will it really be ready? The week after the TADMeetup NJ will be the WebRTC Global Summit in London, its a hot topic!
• And of course lots of networking 🙂

We have a challenging cultural change to make in the telecoms industry, to break out of our shell.  TADMeetup NJ will be 2 hours well-spent for all involved. Its going to be fun, frank, insightful, and best of all its free!  As we build interest in TADMeetup NJ I’m thinking of starting a list of businesses noticeable by their lack of involvement so analysts and investors can see which business do not understand the importance of meetups to innovation and their future.  It is fun being independent!