Yes, I'm writing this from Telephony's first freestanding conference, an event everyone at the publication is extremely excited about this week.

We've got some great keynoters and content-heavy session tracks on video services (which I'm tending), converged services and enterprise services. Do you see a theme here? We're focused on where the service provider industry needs to go next with their networks but even more importantly their customer- and service-focus. This is far from business as usual, which I'm sure you are feeling within your company as well.

In prepping for this week, I talked with more than a dozen thought-leaders -- all of whom will be gracing our stage over the next two days -- in the area of video service delivery. A few ideas stood out:

Said Graham Carey, director of industry solutions for Oracle: "Networks need to become seamless and invisible to the consumer. The consumer is not interested in how but what. [As] networks become transparent, then what will keep a consumer with a given service provider? It will be trust, reliability, value for money and service relevance to the consumer's lifestyle."

And this, from Jonathan Hurd, Director, Altman Vilandrie & Co: "Imagine if the state-of-the-art merchandising platforms on the Internet today (iTunes, Netflix, Amazon) were translated appropriately to the TV viewing experience. They would be personalized, more graphical, helpful ("if you liked that, then try this"), and organized by program, actor, etc. rather than channel. Such interfaces will increase the amount of time people spend watching video as well as increasing the amount of money they spend purchasing on-demand content."

Those comments have a few notable things in common. They recognize the existence of competition, including non-traditional competitors (i.e., iTunes or Amazon). And they focus service providers on combating those competitors by leveraging their strengths, yes, but by more than anything focusing on what consumers really need: reliability, value, personalization.

As we spend two exciting days in Dallas this week, I look for those themes -- whether it be in video, converged services or enterprise applications -- to be repeated again and again.

E-mail me at rkarpinksi@telephonyonline.com.