We’re just growing and growing and growing,” beams Bill Manns, CEO of Co-Lo, a San Diego company that signed up hundreds of new resellers for its low cost broadband service at Internet World Spring 2002. “We sold 7,000 licenses to one customer here at the show,” says Marti Colwell of iMarkup from Vista. These were just a few of the success stories that showed plenty of opportunities in e-business for San Diego area firms with innovative ideas for the Internet.

San Diego’s strengths in security were well represented by Irdeto Access and Bakbone Software at the exhibition, held in late April at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Irdeto positioned its software as the créme-de-la-créme of streaming media, a major attraction for many entertainment industry customers attending the show. The company has customized technology for Web site operators that broadcast programming over the Internet to protect their streaming media as securely as pay-per-view broadcasters do using cable television networks. Bakbone reports its sales more than doubled in the past 12 months, reflecting record interest in disaster recovery and data protection technology.

“The people who came to this show were on a mission,” says Colwell, marketing v.p. of iMarkup, a company that showcased its product for group document production and editing online. The product is being positioned as becoming the “Post-It Note Pad” of the Internet. Domain Discover found that what’s good for the Internet is good for new domain registrations — and for its affiliates. The San Diego service provider enables Web site operators to register domain names as part of their own programs while Domain Discover manages the details of customer service, billing and documentation. Its combination of low prices and high commissions for affiliates made it a center of attention at Internet World.