A look at the Asterisk Community Conference 2016

The two-day Asterisk Community Conference 2016 has kicked off at the Maslow Hotel in Johannesburg today, providing an Asterisk learning experience like never before.

The event is the first-ever Digium endorsed Asterisk community gathering in Africa, with technical discussions, presentations and products on display.

The first day of the event has focused on training and knowledge-sharing through breakaway sessions, with a panel of experts that engage with the delegates.

“The goal has been to get a conversation going within the local Asterisk community,” said Colin Fair, Clarotech Consulting MD.

At the event delegates have also been able to attend a FreePBX training course by Sangoma for free that would normally be paid for.

Digium provided Certified Asterisk Training which focused on the Asterisk from Scratch training course (a condensed version of the Asterisk Fast Start course).

Delegates also had the opportunity to take the Digium-certified Asterisk Professional (dCAP) exam, a certification that covers a specific released, stable version of Asterisk.

Bringing the African Asterisk community together

Asterisk from Scratch training at the Asterisk Community Conference (taken by David Duffet himself)

The goal of the event is to provide a local platform where South Africans could learn more about Asterisk without having to travel to expensive conferences elsewhere in the world.

Both local and international industry experts are representing Asterisk at the conference, including:

• David Duffett, Asterisk Community Director at Digium.
• Justin Hester, Asterisk Technical Trainer at Digium.
• Lorenzo Emilitri, CEO and Founder of Loway.
• Diego Gosmar, CEO of Xenialab and creators of xCally.
• Ben Klang of Mojo Lingo.

“The turnout has exceeded our target, and for an event like this in such a niche market, it shows just how big Asterisk is in this country,” said Fair.

“What is important to see is how many corporates are here, including some big household names in South Africa who use the products, besides all the resellers as well.”

Exhibition

Asterisk Community Conference exhibition

The exhibition has also officially opened, with leading VoIP companies displaying leading technology solutions.

The Platinum sponsors of the 2016 Asterisk Community Conference & Expo are Connection Telecom and Clarotech Consulting. Miro Distribution is a Gold sponsor.

The Silver sponsors are BitCo, Evenflow, Loway (QueueMetrics), Nology, Teleforge, Xenialab (xCally), Sangoma and Far South Networks.

What to look forward to

It’s not over yet, though, and delegates can still look forward to a day featuring more conference-style lectures, including a few case studies, products and technical streams as well.

This will highlight the development of Asterisk and its future in telephony, with keynote addresses and product development sessions presented by well-known technology leaders.

The exhibition hall will also run the whole day tomorrow, and event sponsors will have the opportunity to present their products during one-hour sessions.

“We hope that this conference will help build a real community of Asterisk users that can compete with the more propriety based services,” added Fair.