ITExpo, Austin - Loose Ends
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Am back now from the ITExpo, and it's much cooler here in Toronto!
Yesterday was pretty full for me, as I moderated two contact center panels and walked the floor for the afternoon. Our panels went very well, and if you were looking to hear from some leading companies in that space, we delivered. I just find it interesting how the cloud and UC are now part of the contact center conversation, and that brings a new circle of vendors who you might not normally think about here. Add mobility to that, and I think about Nuance - they did some nice demos show how speech recognition brings new life to voice in providing customer service.
Otherwise, I'll say it again - the show floor was big - about 250 exhibitors, with quite a few new ones. Lots of cloud here, and it will be interesting to see how many return for the next Expo in Miami. Based on what I'm hearing, it sounds pretty promising, so if these exhibitors stick with the program, ITExpo will move up a notch or two in scale, and maybe that will bring in some of the Tier 1 comms players like Cisco, MSFT and IBM. Sure hope so!
Overall, I'd say Austin was a success, and when I polled my panels, it seems like most people agree. Hats off to the TMC team for putting together a great show, and I'm sure we'll see more of the same in February.
Just wanted to leave you with one photo, taken during the Startup Bootcamp at the end of the day on Wednesday. The star attraction was Bob Metcalfe - inventor of Ethernet, 3Com founder, etc. - and he was a real treat to see. Very old school - no slides, just note cards - and he shared a lot of wisdom about what makes for a successful startup. Definitely a highlight for me - and everyone else, I'd say.
Yesterday was pretty full for me, as I moderated two contact center panels and walked the floor for the afternoon. Our panels went very well, and if you were looking to hear from some leading companies in that space, we delivered. I just find it interesting how the cloud and UC are now part of the contact center conversation, and that brings a new circle of vendors who you might not normally think about here. Add mobility to that, and I think about Nuance - they did some nice demos show how speech recognition brings new life to voice in providing customer service.
Otherwise, I'll say it again - the show floor was big - about 250 exhibitors, with quite a few new ones. Lots of cloud here, and it will be interesting to see how many return for the next Expo in Miami. Based on what I'm hearing, it sounds pretty promising, so if these exhibitors stick with the program, ITExpo will move up a notch or two in scale, and maybe that will bring in some of the Tier 1 comms players like Cisco, MSFT and IBM. Sure hope so!
Overall, I'd say Austin was a success, and when I polled my panels, it seems like most people agree. Hats off to the TMC team for putting together a great show, and I'm sure we'll see more of the same in February.
Just wanted to leave you with one photo, taken during the Startup Bootcamp at the end of the day on Wednesday. The star attraction was Bob Metcalfe - inventor of Ethernet, 3Com founder, etc. - and he was a real treat to see. Very old school - no slides, just note cards - and he shared a lot of wisdom about what makes for a successful startup. Definitely a highlight for me - and everyone else, I'd say.
