About 560 people attended, up from about 530 the previous year. The focus of the conference is the "Digital Home", which includes home networked applications, and increasingly includes digital consumer electronics. There is a Pre-Workshop that covers some recent Parks research, the main conference composed of industry speakers, and a modest exhibit area. Some of the common themes often mentioned during the conference were: Convergence – this often used word was defined in many ways: PC/CE, Voice/Data/TV, Device/Service, Mobile/POTS/VoIP, Music/Video/Data, etc. Everyone pointed to their area of convergence to talk about why they saw opportunity and growth. Most everyone just assumed that the customer wanted all these features – less was shared about practical market and customer realities. Confusion – but, some speakers (mostly the retailers) acknowledged customer confusion. The market is still very young and companies are wrestling with how to properly sell the customer (trying bundles, benefit & and consultative selling), and support the customer (trying custom, bundled and you're on your own services). PC Centric – there appeared to be more of a bias towards PC-think than one might expect. There was also a heavy emphasis on networking (well, it is implied in the conference title). One Parks analyst suggested that this may be because of the nature of some of the recently completed reports. Health – an unexpected theme, but one that makes sense, is the impact of the "Digital Home" on the growing home healthcare opportunities. How all these technologies and services can impact independent living for seniors may be the most important social benefit as the years pass.
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