Pat Phelan , the king of disruption in telephony, was my guest today. He is the president and founder of Cubic Telecom. Pat’s company has developed many different things among them MAXroam, a sim card that now through partnership can be branded for any company using their own logo. MAXroam allows affordable rates for roaming when visiting a myriad of countries.

As part of this Incidental Interview I got an exclusive piece of information. Pat’s company, Cubic Telecom is partnering with ShoZu to provide freedom from worry when you’re abroad with regard to sending pictures over the air. A really great partnership! WTG Pat and ShoZu!

I met Pat at VON.x. I have grown to truly respect his great desire to champion the underdog and go out on a limb to provide a service that has been incredibly useful to so many people.

Read all about Pat here.

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What can I say about Ronald Gruia? One of the smartest men I have ever had an opportunity to talk to. Almost intimidating because of his brain, though he is quite humble. Ronald is the Principal Analyst for Emerging Telecom at Frost & Sullivan.

Ronald and I talked about many things, not the least of which is Nortel’s latest difficulties. Will they bounce back in some new iteration or die a miserable death? And what is LTE? 4G versus 3G. Listen and you will hear some amazing thoughts by a man who is one of the brightest analysts in the industry.

Ronald Gruia’s Bio:
Ronald Gruia is the Principal Analyst for Emerging Telecom at Frost & Sullivan. His main focus areas include NGN migration strategies, IMS (IP Multimedia Subsystems), 4G (LTE, WiMAX), FMC, VoIP, Next-Gen Carrier Messaging Platforms, IPTV, Triple Play Services, IP Centrex, Enterprise Communications Systems and Unified Communications, among others. He has authored several reports and has also played a key role in strategic consulting projects in these areas.

The rest of his story is here.

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Mark Evans of Bancroft Research Group joined me for a candid discussion about current trends, marketing and his triplets. Whew! The kids could have taken the whole show but we opted to discuss more social networking and what he’s doing with the SFAMA. (San Francisco American Marketing Association)

Mark hosted an event the day after our recording with guests, Mark Silva, Jeremiah Owyang, Robert Scoble and Kevin Marks. Mark knows the industry and can draw a great conversation out of anyone.

A bit about Mark Evans:
For executives and investors, managers of Fortune 500 companies and other clients requiring expert assistance with competitive research in the financial services and high-tech industries, Mark Evans brings a wealth of experience.

For more than 10 years, he has earned a reputation for providing skilled and practical guidance as a market researcher and analyst, consultant, and entrepreneur.

Read more here.

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Steven Weathers is a multi-media dynamo, American in China TV Star, an Official Foreign Expert, and an amazingly bright man with a background and education in marketing. Steven lives in Shanghai, China, but hails from South Carolina. A man with a 5 year plan, who wouldn’t share it, Steven can and will introduce you to a wealth of knowledge about a country that is frequently difficult to really understand unless you know someone there.

Steven Weathers bio:
Steven Weathers (???) is the founder for American English Circle and producer and host of Foreigner Perspective. He is also the television host of International Channel Shanghai’s (ICS) City Finder: Special Edition.

Read more here here.

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Today Dameon Welch-Abernathy, aka PhoneBoy joined me to talk about his recent transition from Nokia to Check Point. Dameon has done some work for Check Point though he is quick to point out he never actually worked for them.

Dameon is a security guy, but he’s so much more. An affable man I never tire of talking with, Dameon brings a wealth of knowledge as well as fresh ideas to every conversation.

In this Incidental Interview while the intent was to talk a bit more about his new role with Check Point, we digressed to the early days of the web, and how could a security person not discuss, at some point, the king of security, Steve Gibson.

I believe your glimpse into the personal side of PhoneBoy will be unique and thoughtful. Dameon is a great friend of mine and well worth paying attention to.

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Today it was my pleasure to have as a guest one of the most amazing women in the twitter world. Jeanette Fisher reaches more people with her tweets than most people could hope for. No, she’s not famous in the same way as Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore who also have large followings, but she does create buzz, probably because she is such a successful author who has written tons of books and knows exactly what to do to market them and herself.

Jeanette is a fascinating woman who has thrived in spite of a rather difficult couple of years. She lost her daughter in 2005 and the following year her husband died leaving her a widow after a 30+ year relationship. That could have been a blow too hard for many people to overcome, but not Jeanette. She pulled herself together and started making her way on her own.

Joy To The Home is Jeanette’s place to start finding your own path to living harmoniously with your surroundings. For a more in depth view of Jeanette check our her Bamboo Women blog as well. This is where you get to know more about Jeanette and see what makes her tick.

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This afternoon I had the opportunity to speak with someone I met online. Louis Gray has built a Brand for himself out of his blogging skills, but his long list of elite connections/friends can attest to the ‘net savvy, articulate but well grounded man he really is.

Louis Gray is a young man with a wife and twins who doesn’t have an agenda and isn’t trying to sell anything. He simply puts forth a message that he believes in, researches new services and applications, and in general is a really nice guy.

Today, due to some rather distressing news on the web about Drew Olanoff, we took a little detour and made the chat more personal. Drew is a good friend of Louis and his wife Kristine, and has actually been the babysitter for them and their twins. Drew was recently diagnosed with Stage 3 Hodgkins Lymphoma.

Since 2006, I’ve utilized LouisGray.com as a platform to express my personal observations on the world of technology, the Web, and innovation. As a massive consumer of technology, living and participating in the heart of Silicon Valley, I have tried to deliver an unfiltered approach to the day’s trends and tools, one that opens eyes and is my viewpoint alone – not echoing what others have said, but instead, making people think – not just about what technology does today, but where it’s going.
Continue reading about Louis

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This is part 2. Ken and I ran a bit long in our conversation, not that any of you should be surprised by this. You might expect that as we live together and talk all the time we would run out of things to discuss or conversation to have. We don’t.

I hope you’ll enjoy the last part of a very long discussion. Thanks also for your patience with the glitches from part 1.

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Dean Elwood, one of our pals across the pond, interviewed us recently. Here’s Dean’s podocast of our interview from VoIPUSER.

Ken Camp and Sheryl Breuker

Dean Elwood talks to the first couple of technology about the last 25 years of telecoms and what the industry now requires to deliver on the promise of Unified Communications.

By Dean Elwood

Listen now using the player above or download the MP3 : here

Dean

Finally I got Ken back in the hot seat. Ken talks to me about his evolution in the industry. Where he started and where he is today.

After the work history we do digress to topics more current like social media and a few other detours. Still, I’d say if you ever wondered about Ken and how to read his resume with it’s glossing over the many roles he’s performed, this may just be a way to get to know a bit more about how deep the waters really run. I’m partial to the part where he talks about his history at Hill Associates. The passion is tangible.

I believe you will understand why I call Ken one of the smartest people I know when you listen to him talk in this candid Incidental Interview.

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NOTE: This is a two-part podcast. This post includes part one. Part two will be posted soon.