The Rocky Mountain IPv6 Summit: Getting Real

This past Wednesday (April 9) we held the first Rocky Mountain IPv6 Summit in Denver. Considering that none of us who organized the event had much of a clue as to what we were doing when we started out, the logistics came off quite well. Having Kyoko Day, who does have experience organizing large events, generously contribute her time certainly had a lot to do with the event’s success. And Scott Hogg put an enormous effort into the event, from managing all of us to hauling drinks coolers. The guy was everywhere.

More important was the agenda itself. I’ve attended IPv6 events of all stripes for years, and this was the best of them. A few years ago, many IPv6 events began gaining notoriety for having their agendas heavily weighted with pie-in-the-sky fluff about all the wonderful things that could happen in the world someday, somehow, if we just see the light and adopt IPv6.

Or, events would be crowded with vendors trumpeting what they could do or would be doing sometime in the future, if someone would just start buying their kit. I recall someone telling me of one such event in which the attendees had long since lost interest and departed, leaving a roomful of vendors presenting to each other.

I really don’t think that the quality of the Denver program was so much due to anything special we organizers did; rather, I think that it reflects the fact that we are well beyond the stage of convincing people of IPv6’s necessity, and are now focused squarely on practical implementation issues. Presenters are now backing up what they say with real-word facts and experience.

IPv6 events are becoming gatherings of people who know it is inevitable, whether they like it or not, and want to hear what others have learned.

I’m sitting in the airport as I write this, heading to Beijing for the China IPv6 Summit. I’m looking forward to hearing the latest perspectives and experiences from Asia, and will report to you what I learn next week.