HostingCon 2014 Recap

Every year top hosting and cloud providers flock to HostingCon to engage with other industry experts and web enthusiasts to learn about the latest news impacting our businesses. This year was no exception. This year’s conference certainly turned up the heat in Miami, Florida celebrating its 10 year anniversary.

Once again, the i2Coalition was excited to be a part of HostingCon. We enjoyed seeing old friends and meeting new ones at the Internet Freedom Cocktail Reception that we hosted with CEA on Tuesday, June 17 at the Rec Room at the Gale South Beach.

The conference featured thoughtful presentations from professionals across the industry throughout the three days. We were delighted to have the opportunity to organize the “Issues and Trends” track on Tuesday, which featured primarily i2Coalition members.

In February 2014, the i2Coalition formally announced its Best Practices Initiative, which communicates the best practices developed by our industry and how they can be universally applied to make the Internet a better, safer place. Our “Piracy, Porn & Privacy: Why Best Practices Work” panel discussed what’s being done and how we can work together to achieve these goals. Panelists included: Brian Chambers, UK2Group; Kathleen Harris, National Center for Missing and Exploited Children; Dan Ushman, SingleHop; Stephen Oakes, FBI; and Richard Feller, Hedgehog Hosting and i2Coalition Board member.

In addition, we also put together a panel about Internet governance and the United States’ role in the process. Participants included: David Snead, i2Coalition Co-Founder and Public Policy Working Group Chairman; Alex de Joode, LeaseWeb; Michele Neylon, Blacknight Internet Solutions; and Perry Robinson, Rackspace Hosting.

I was particularly eager to be on the General Session panel on Tuesday, which also included Michelle Richardson, ACLU; Amie Steponavich, Access; Marvin Ammori, New America Foundation; Gregory Nojeim, Center for Democracy and Technology; Michael Petricone, Consumer Electronics Association; and Ron Yokubaitis, Data Foundry. In a lively discussion, we covered what has changed in the post-Snowden world.

Thank you to everyone who organized and attended HostingCon this year! Please check out our slideshow below including photos from our panels and cocktail celebration. Save the date for HostingCon 2015 in San Diego from July 27-29. Look forward to seeing you all in California!