Intelecard No More!

I thought it fitting to write a post about the fact that Intelecard no longer exists on the day when their rival the Prepaid Press Expo kicks off!

I received an email from Intelecard last week announcing that Intelecard is now a part of Wireless Dealer Magazine and sure enough if you type in http://www.intelecard.com/ you get redirected to the Wireless Dealer Magazine website. I can't say this is a surprise or a disappointment since the Magazine has been almost non-existent for the last year or so and their web site looked like it was maintained by my 2 year old nephew. There just wasn't enough room in this shrinking business for two major publications and expo's and the Prepaid Press just seemed to want it more.

While this does remove a major press source and advertising channel for many of us, I am sure the Prepaid Press will more than pick up the slack and improve their publication and expo even more now that they are the only game in town! But advertisers beware, now that they are a monopoly in this area they might find reason to increase their advertising rates... but I hope not!

Prepaid Press Expo - Only Days Away

Well since the Prepaid Press Expo is now the only pure prepaid Expo left, you don't want to miss the upcoming show! It is only days away now and will be held at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas August 19th through 21st so be sure to make your travel bookings now!

The schedule for the show looks like this:

Exhibit Hall Hours:
Wednesday, August 20, 2008: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Thursday, August 21, 2008: 10:00am – 3:00pm

Toga Party at Garden of the Gods Pool (Caesars Palace):
Wednesday, August 20, 2008, 8:00pm –10:00pm

Conference Schedule:
8:30am – 5:00pm (Tues-Wed-Thurs)

Day One:

Tuesday, August 19, 2007 - Prepaid Long Distance Track

Day Two

Wednesday, August 20, 2007 - Prepaid Wireless Track

Day Three

Thursday, August 21, 2007 - Prepaid/Alternative Payments Track

It's not too late to still get a discount as the Exhibit hall pass is $25 off until the day of the show and the conference passes are discounted by 10% until the day of the show. visit the Prepaid Press Expo website to register.

Time Is Running Out On Good Deals For The Vegas Prepaid Press EXPO!

Just another reminder for those last minute people like myself, if you don't start booking your flights, rooms and expo tickets soon for the tppExpo'08 in Vegas (August 19th to 21st), you will end up paying top dollar!!!

Don't worry it's not too late to still get some good deals....

Prepaid Press Expo Discounts Still Available:

• $25 Exhibit Hall - Use coupon code TPPEXHP at checkout
• 10% Discount on Conference Passes - Use coupon code TPPCONF at check out
• $50 Savings on Regular Price for a 1 Day Conference Pass if you book by August 15th
• $76 Savings on Regular Price for a full 3 Day Conference Pass if you book by August 15th

Hotel Deals on the Vegas Strip:

• Room at the Mirage from $72 a night (right next store to the Expo hotel Ceasars Palace)
• Room at Harrah's Casino wich comes with a $200 flight voucher for your next trip and some food vouchers
• Rooms at the Conference Expo Caesars Palace - Not sure how many are left but probably not many

Airfare Deals (Lately Not Much Savings on flights):

• Hotwire
• Orbitz

Hope you find some good deals and see you all in Vegas!!!!

Discounts for Prepaid Press Expo Expire Today!

I thought I would just post a friendly reminder for all of you who have not yet registered for the upcoming Prepaid Press Expo in Vegas (August 19th - 21st). Today is the last day to qualify for the free exhibit hall passes and the reduced rate full conference pass. Until 11:59 tonight the prices will be as follows:

• Exhibit Hall Pass Only = Free
• Full Conference Pass (gives access to seminars, show floor and the party) = $599 - 15% or 275 -15% for one day pass
• Toga Party Pass (gives access to party and show floor) = $99

After today the prices will go up to:

• Exhibit Hall Pass Only = $49 ($75 at the show)
• Full Conference Pass (gives access to seminars, show floor and the party) = $599 or $275 for one day pass
• Toga Party Pass (gives access to party and show floor) = $99 (stays the same)

So for all of you who were waiting or still trying to decide act now to save yourself some money and register online today!

Spring 2008 Intelecard Expo - Post Show Review!

Ok so the Intelecard Expo in Edison NJ has just about wrapped up and I have to say this was probably one of the worst prepaid shows I have ever gone to in my life! For starters the show was way off the beaten path in the middle of an industrial park.... I got lost trying to find this place! Once I finally did get there it got a whole lot worse.

I didn't see too many cars in the parking lot, which should have tipped me off, but when I got in I think there was about 50 people there at the maximum and the show had already been open for an hour. Most of those 50 people were booth staffers and they were just going back an forth talking to each other. What made matters worse was the show looked like it was done in a garage. There was no carpeting in the iles and the were only 27 booths scattered over 4 rows. I have seen Church Bazaars bigger than this thing! I felt so bad for the Intelecard show staffers and the booth staffers, they looked bored out of their minds! I went and talked to a few of them just to help them pass the time (I posted a picture here to the left of the outside of the NJ convention center where this show was held).

CTA and Simple2Call had the biggest booths (20 x 30) and Raza had a fairly big booth (10 x 20) right at the entrance. Other booths there at the show included ones from Cell Gate USA, Direct Wholesale, Emida, Futura Card Services, NACT, Nexus Wireless, N-Soft, Pulsar Communications Inc., SK3, STX Communications LLC, Telispire, Via One Technologies Inc, WCGS and a few others. If you ask me these companies should ask for some money back! No real big providers were exhibiting there but Ibasis had there very own meeting room and seemed to be making the most of the show and I also saw a few IDT and Locus guys roaming around. I hope it was a little more well attended on the first day of the show than it was on the second (The picture to the right here is as you walk into the hall and the Raza booth is straight ahead).

It saddens me to see Intelecard this way and I hate to say this is probably one of their last shows judging based on this poor performance. It's not all there fault, the industry has shrunk big time and to top it off they now have competition from the Prepaid Press. I think the lesson learned here is there is only room in today's market for one show a year and I think that honor is going to now be owned by the Prepaid Press Expo in Vegas.

Well that's it for my review of the show and farewell from beautiful Edison NJ!

New Jersey Spring Intelecard Expo 2008 Begins

Well today marks the first day of the very first Intelecard expo ever in Edison New Jersey! Today is just for registration and some conference sessions but on Wednesday the exhibit hall opens and the fun will start. I know I have been making fun of the Intelecard expo a lot lately but in reality I look forward to the opportunity to get together with other industry folks and catch up. It's also a great time to get some one on one time with some key players and get some good traction going on future business ventures. It can take weeks if not months to get a deal going over the phone and email but in person we can often get things done in one or two sittings!

I won't be there at the expo myself until Thursday and I will be sure to report back for those of you that won't be able to make it. Maybe I will even include some pictures :)

Look forward to seeing you all there!

Questions That Will Be Asked Next Week at the InteleCard Expo!

Trade shows are always fun in the prepaid phone card business! It's not uncommon for fights to break out and heated arguments to erupt and the upcoming InteleCard trade show next week in New Jersey is sure to keep up with the tradition.

With all of the news lately here is some of the hot questions and topics I think will be discussed:

1) Has the Federal Trade Commision come knocking on your door yet?

2) What did CTA do to be singled out by the FTC?

3) Have all the carriers listed in the IDT lawsuit really cleaned up all of their cards?

4) Is there anyone out there in the market that can provide me with a card with $1.99 connect fee, a $0.99 disconnect fee and a $0.10 per minute just because fee.

5) How come Intelecard sucks so much... I have read menus with more content than their magazines...

6) Why are we having a trade show for phone cards in Edison NJ? Is Tony Saprano going to be here?

7) Anyone here want to buy Ibasis stock real cheap?

8) Which one of the companies diplaying here will be gone before the end of the year?

9) What the hell am I doing here!

Lisa Brown Now With The Prepaid Press

For the last year or so I noticed that Lisa Brown's name was absent from any of the Intelecard materials I receive in the mail or on the web. She had been one of the major faces of the Intelecard publication and Expo for years but I just assumed she either was still with the company in another role or had left for something else.

Well to my surprise I received an email yesterday from the Prepaid Press promoting their upcoming Las Vegas expos and whose name was on the email... Lisa Brown.

Looks like she jumped from that sinking ship and is now the expo coordinator for the Prepaid Press. I can't say I blame her, the Prepaid Press has been putting out a quality publication lately and Intelecard has fallen flat on their face, with a website that looks like it was programmed by my 5 year old, no more magazine and having to resort to having an expo in Edison NJ instead of sunny Miami.

Do We Really Need Three Trade Shows a Year?

I was flipping through the pages of the most recent issue of the prepaid press and they are heavily promoting their very first trade show, the tppEXPO'08, to be held in Las Vegas from August 19th to August 21st of this year. There are still very details available about the show like who will be speaking and who will be sponsoring but you can keep up with the developments at the prepaid press expo website.

While I understand their motives, unseating the Intelecard folks from their domination, I just feel like this extra expo is a little odd considering we are in a fast shrinking business and should actually be looking to reduce the amount of trade shows not increase them. This extra trade show will only dilute each shows importance. I would rather have 1 big show a year where I know everyone will attend, rather than three shows where people will selectively attend.

The other strange thing here is why not pick a different venue than Vegas? Intelecard will be throwing their Expo there a month or two later... do you think people are going to want to go out to Vegas twice in two months? I for one would be too broke from the first trip!

InteleCard Expo to be Held in Edison NJ

Like most of you, I have been receiving tons of emails from InteleCard informing me about the spring expo to be held for the first time in New Jersey. While this is old news now, the actual city location is new... The expo is being held in Edison NJ which is just south of Newark. Kind of an odd location considering a lot of the prepaid companies are a little further north in NJ. I would have thought they would be doing it somewhere closer to Manhattan like Secaucus...

This show should be interesting for those of us from the North East!

Intelecard Expo Comes to North East!!!

Not sure if this is a fact yet, but if you go to the Intelecard Expo website they have an announcement that there will be an Intelecard Expo in the Northeast. Looks like it will be from April 22nd to the 24th and will be held in New Jersey at the Expo center in Edison. This would be great as there is a large concentration of prepaid distributors and companies here in the Northeast including myself.

I was still kind of confused as I also got a fl yer in the mail from them promoting a Las Vegas show in March as well. Kind of close together if you ask me! Also strange is the fact that they normally do the spring show in Miami Beach. I wonder if this means that the Miami show is now done... I hope not because it always gave me a nice excuse to go down to beautiful sunny South Beach!

Their website does not look like it has much in the way of details yet so stay tuned!

Intelecard Website Sucks!

Pardon the blunt title but this just has to be said... the Intelecard website used to be a great place to read some insightful articles and get business listings but if you go there today it looks like my 4 year old nephew is designing the thing! All of the images are out of whack, half the pages say under construction, and those pages that aren't under construction have about 3 words of text.

My guess is that business is not so good for them and they had to cut back on areas that are not producing enough revenue and the web is definitely one of those areas. They most likely got rid of their web designer and have someone internal doing it with little knowledge and abilities.

It's a real shame!

Prepaid Press Virtual Conference & Expo

I just have one question, who in the world came up with this idea for a prepaid virtual expo?

The Prepaid Press, a regular news paper publisher for the prepaid industry, decided to start a "Virtual Expo" rather than host one in a hotel or convention center. They claim it is a great thing that will allow you to participate, view and contribute at your own schedule. The seminars will be available for days after they have first been conducted and the virtual exhibit hall will also be up and running for weeks.

Call me old fashion but I am partial to actual going to a conference, not attending from my desk!

Intelecard Expo in Miami Wraps Up!

Well, another Miami InteleCard show is now over and while the show is now more about other solutions than prepaid phone cards, it still attracts a lot of exhibitors and attendees. The show floor was packed with people both days and of course there were the traditional fights breaking out here and there (two guys almost took out the bar at the CVT booth).

CVT had a nice booth and UTA, the last minute exhibitor (they must have gotten a good price), also had a decent looking booth. But I think the best part about the show was that it allowed all of us to get together with our peers and discuss business and new opportunities. I had a good time meeting with some of the prepaid wireless and cash card companies who have opened up some interesting possibilities for my business.

Having been on both sides, a few times as an exhibitor and the last few times as an attendee, I have to say that NOT exhibiting allowed me to get more business done than with a booth. The booth is just too restrictive, allowing me to only meet with people who come my way... and lets be honest, most of the time you have to chase down people to get the business relationships you really want!

I didn't manage to get to the party but overall I have to say that InteleCard did a nice job with this show and I look forward to the Vegas show later in the year... Just one parting comment... how come InteleCard manages to still have success with the trade shows but their magazine is tanking big time?

InteleCard News - Oh How the Mighty Have Fallen

I just received the latest issue of the InteleCard News magazine and all I can say is that my weekly A&P circular is bigger than this magazine! The once dominant magazine for the prepaid community, like the industry, is definitely a shadow of its former self. They can't even squeeze out 100 pages anymore, and a good portion of the ad space was used by them trying to sell everyone on buying ads in the magazine.

While I was never a huge fan of the magazine as it's content was determined by those companies that contributed the most in advertising dollars, I think this magazine was once one of the determining factors in a companies success or failure. Now it just seems like the industry has passed this publication by... Surviving mostly on ads from prepaid wireless companies, the reality is that this industry is not big enough to keep this publication going. If it was not for their two shows still selling good amounts of booths, I think this magazine would have been history already.

The shows still seem to attract enough exhibitors but I have to say they are a shadow of their former self... My recommendation to the people at intelecard... Lower your ad pricing, reduce your shows to once a year and acknowledge that it just was not what it used to be! After all we in the industry have realized that and have made the adjustments accordingly.