As a lifelong Celtics fan, it’s not easy to say those words, but I have another reason for going to South Beach: Smart Grid. I’m only there a few days, and nobody is paying me millions of dollars to go, but that’s where our next Smart Grid Summit will take place, and hopefully you’ll take your talents there, at least on Feb. 2 – 3.

It seems like only yesterday that we had our last summit in Los Angeles, where we really managed to broaden our footprint and bring a multitude of diverse communities together, focusing on a common goal. We’re continuing that message in Miami, but with a much shorter schedule to produce a program, running two days instead of three.

Writing for the portal has taken a back seat recently, as my focus needs to be on bringing the program together. The holiday break has disrupted things a bit, but most of the pieces are in place, and by early next week, this will be reflected on the summit website. In advance of that, I wanted to update you here on the program. TMC has been producing regular e-blasts about the summit, and these provide more detail about specific sessions and keynote presenters. Today, I just want to update you on the big picture, and hope this gets you thinking about coming to join us if you haven’t made plans to do so already.

As much as I enjoyed having two tracks in Los Angeles, this forced most attendees to choose between sessions, meaning they could only take in half the panels. This time around, we’re going back to the single track format, so you can stay put all day long and not miss anything. The sessions will also be longer, giving the speakers more time to present and the audience more time to ask questions. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from our summits to date, it’s that people stick around after the sessions. They like to discuss and ask question, and while I’m all about building community, we’ve got a show to run, so it’s a delicate balance to manage.

So, why should you bring your talents to SoBe and be with us? Well, it won’t be for the Heat – they’re on the road. If you liked our program in LA, you’ll be getting more of the same here, just scaled down a bit. We’re striving for a similar mix of smart grid and smart home topics, with both familiar and new themes. In terms of familiar topics, we have panels on Transmission and Distribution, Personal Privacy, Electric Vehicles and Smart Home Applications. For new content, we’ll be exploring Renewable Energy, Rural Smart Grid Opportunities, Green IT, Emerging Smart Grid Technologies, Public vs. Private Networks, and the Voice of the Customer in Smart Grid.

Companies speaking on these panels include Nokia Siemens Networks (News - Alert), Verizon Business, EnerNex, Liebert AC Power, Southern Company, iControl, Tropos Networks, Sierra Wireless, Nuance, and People Power, along with newcomers NECA, Revere Security, Ulysses Learning, Merced Systems (News - Alert), Home Jinni, EPIC and Gridplex. By early next week, this list will be longer, with both household names and unheralded smart grid companies.

Complementing our panels are the keynote speakers, and we can publicly mention three of them here. We have already written about our opening speaker, Mark Armentrout, president of the Texas Institute, and this will be a great way to kick off the summit. More recently, we have added Ken Rowan from PAETEC, and Prof. Massoud Amin from the University of Minnesota. PAETEC is well known to the ITEXPO (News - Alert) audience, exhibiting at ITEXPO East at Booth No. 301, but they’re also doing innovative things in the energy market. You’ll have to come see Ken yourself to find out more. Prof. Amin has a world-class standing in this space, and in fact, coined the term “smart grid” back in 1998. You will not want to miss his presentation on Wednesday. As with the panels, we’ll be adding a few more keynotes to round out the program, and we expect this will include a couple of co-presentations with vendors and utilities to walk us through their smart grid success stories.

Finally, it’s important to mention our sponsors, who are supporting our summit in various ways: the SIP Forum, USNAP Alliance, WiMAX Forum, WINMEC, and first timer Pike Research (News - Alert). We will have others to announce in the next week or so, and if you would like to be a sponsor, I can certainly connect you with the right people at TMC. I should add that the same applies if you are from the press or analyst communities and would like to come down and cover the summit.

On a related note, I wanted to mention that yesterday we launched our second annual POTY Awards Program – Product of the Year. We feel this adds an important element of industry recognition to our overall focus on smart grid. To date, we’ve had many notable submissions, and expect to get more of the same this time around. If this type of recognition is important to your company, you check out the article right away, where you can read all about how to submit your entry. Good luck!