Joint Venture Will Produce Digital ID World
By Heidi Genoist -- Tradeshow Week, 10/10/2005
IDG World Expo and Digital ID World have announced a joint venture to co-produce Digital ID World, starting with next spring's show.
Phil Becker founded Digital ID World in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2002 and launched the first event that October. A former Internet executive, Becker had been instrumental in starting ISPCON, a biennial event whose fall version takes place next week at the Santa Clara Convention Center in California. He described Digital ID World as "the result of a failed retirement."
"Through ISPCON, I saw the value of bringing people together when these new technologies start taking off," he explained. Recognizing that digital identity — the representation of a person used in network interactions with machines and other people — would be the next thing to "release the value of the Internet," Becker started a newsletter, Web site and conference on the topic.
The first Digital ID World drew 200 delegates and featured 20 companies in a small vendor fair. This May's show in San Francisco attracted 700 delegates and 36 vendors.
Becker said the success of the show, which appears poised for a big jump, was what led to his partnership with IDG. "This thing has grown to the point where it's outside the capability of my wife and I to continue managing," he said. "I want to stay involved, but I want to give it a proper platform for where it's going."
As conference co-chair, Becker will continue to set Digital ID World's strategy, develop conference content and produce the Web site and newsletter. IDG, on the other hand, will manage all aspects of the face-to-face component, including operations and exhibit sales.
IDG World Expo CEO David Korse noted in a statement that the event's strong market position was part of what made the partnership appealing.
The only other significant U.S. event for the digital identity business was Jupitermedia's Inside ID Conference & Expo. Launched in 2003 by digital identity guru Ben Miller and acquired by Jupitermedia in early 2004, it was last held in November of that year at the Washington (D.C.) Convention Center.
Jupitermedia sold the last of its remaining events to Incisive Media in August, signaling its exit from tradeshows. A company spokesperson confirmed that Inside ID is now defunct.
The first location for the jointly produced Digital ID World is still being negotiated, but Becker said it would remain in the Bay Area.
