If you're going to San Francisco -- as the song goes -- be sure to wear some flowers in your hair. But you may also want to bring your appetite for enterprise-class IP telephony and software that converges all of those communication devices. Yes, it's VoiceCon time again.

Ignore the fact that this is shameless self promotion. Convergence software and VoIP are very hot markets to be in these days.

As my associate K.C. Jones wrote last month, managed services are transforming the technology market, according to recent industry research projects.

"A 2007 survey showed that more than 320 organizations reported spending nearly $244,000 on average for managed services last year, according to the Computing Technology Industry Association. The survey also found that organizations plan to increase managed services spending in the next year, particularly for security, storage, disaster recovery, and software as a service."

With most conferences, companies tend to hold back their announcements until the very last minute to attract the maximum amount of attendees around their booths once the show floor opens. With VoiceCon, more than a dozen exhibitors have chosen to debut products and company news before the show even starts.

Here is just a sample of the new stuff being announced in San Francisco starting August 20:

• 8x8 will introduce the Packet8 Complete Contact Center, a multimedia call center distribution and management software package
• Active Voice will unveil Kinesis Unified Messaging System 3.0 for voice-mail, videomail, e-mail, and faxes
• Broadvox will announce Broadvox GO! SIP Trunking, their latest VoIP telecommunications software
• Clarus Systems will introduce ClarusIPC, which is testing, certification, reporting, troubleshooting software
• Communicado (formerly SyncVoice Communications) will make its public debut at VoiceCon. The company said it changed its name to reflect the fact that managing convergence has gone beyond dealing with the impact of voice migrating to data networks
• Covergence will unveil SIP session management software based on the Eclipse IDE for communication-enabled applications.
• Data Track Technology will showcase PM-VPQ, an application assessing large networks preparing for VoIP against the DiffServ quality of service standards.
• EMC will introduce Smarts VoIP Manager, their latest service management software
• General Dynamics is expected to present its Sectera Edge (SME PED), a Type 1 ruggedized smartphone for sending and receiving classified and unclassified data
• Keynote Systems will be announcing Keynote Voice Perspective 2.0, the latest version of its VoIP quality test and measurement service
• NetQoS will announce a new network-based call setup and call quality monitoring software
• OnState will announce new live chat services for OnState ACD for Skype
• RedSky Technologies will announce Broadcast Alert, which is software for sending emergency and alert notifications
• Sipera Systems will unveil its Sipera LAVA (Load Analysis and Vulnerability Assessment) Tool
• snom will launch its Wireless Headset Adapter for VoIP phones.
• Toshiba will preview new and larger capacities for its Strata CIX40 small office/branch office IP communication system
• vertico will announce STARFACE, an entirely software-based, platform-independent VoIP telephone system, designed specifically for small and medium sized businesses

If you are coming to the show, your name is not on this list, and you want to do some pre-announcing of your own, feel free to post in the comments section below.