Future of Work Expo - Quick Take and Photos

Am back now from last week’s Future of Work Expo in Fort Lauderdale, and from all accounts, it was our best one to date. I’ve been conference Chair for four years running, and we’ve got a really good mix now of familiar companies and ones you don’t know, and I think that reflects how broad the FOW moniker has become.

The first two days focused on workplace FOW themes, where we talked as much about HR, soft skills and culture as we did about how technology can support the hybrid work model. AI was a constant theme, and it’s clear that people have mixed feelings about it. For the third day, our focus shifted to the contact center, where we looked at how AI can be used to both improve CX, along with making the agent experience better, especially for those working from home.

We also had a FOW pavilion on the show floor, and on Thursday morning, many of our sponsors did live demos, which is a great way to see first-hand what’s coming to help make hybrid work viable. The speaker roster was solid, and all our sessions could easily have gone a lot longer, with plenty of audience engagement. I don’t have the luxury of time now to write a lengthy recap here, but I’ll have something coming soon. Until then, I did talk about the event highlights on my Watch This Space podcast, and the July episode comes out next Tuesday, so watch for that, or come back here on my site to give it a listen.

A quick shout-out to all the folks at TMC - thanks for having me back, and to their team for all the prep to make this event happen. Thanks also to colleagues Phil Edholm and Tom Brannen for helping out as moderators for some of the sessions. Extra kudos to Phil, who did a wrapup talk with me for the closing session.

Not only was it a nice way to end the conference, but Phil has told us he’s retiring after our event, so this ended up being his swan song as an event speaker. I felt lucky to share the floor with him for that, and his great insights will definitely be missed. You’ve had a great run, Phil, and you’ve enriched our understanding of this space. Am sure I won’t be the only analyst to offer thanks for all that you’ve done for such a long time - wow. With that, I’ll leave you with some photos below, and if you follow me on social, I posted during the event, so some of these will look familiar.

Below: Rethinking the Organization session, with Intermedia, Poly, Seekr, Coworks and Eleviant (photo: Tom Brannen); Barbara Steel from EY with highlights from their latest workplace study; and our panel on using AI to improve CX - with Avaya, Genesys, SharpenCX and IntelePeer

Below: Keith Sonderling, Commissioner, US Equal Opportunity Employment Commission; David Jodoin from Nynja (photo - Glenn Goldberg); FOW Expo program schedule

Below: Tom Brannen’s cybersecurity session with Journey ID and Connx; Phil Edholm’s frontline workers session with Twilio, Intermedia, United Office and Eleviant; Tom and I with Phil

ITExpo Miami - Quick Hits

Once things get going here at ITExpo, it's hard to know when I'll get time to blog, so am just doing a quick check-in now.

Yesterday was the first full day, and I took in a solid mix of keynotes and panel sessions. We heard first from Guvinder Ahluwalia from IBM, talking about where the cloud is going, and how distruptors like Uber are developing new business models based on shifting physical assets into the cloud-based digital world where they become much more liquid. As much as I'm not a fan of Uber's tactics, every industry is ripe for re-invention when the Internet of Things and the cloud become the drivers (no pun intended!)

Next up was Mitel CEO Rich McBee, and he provided a nice overview of how techology diffusion is a long process. We take it for granted when new things gain rapid adoption, but that's more the exception that the rule. His main point is that UC remains a work in progress, and TDM will be with us for years to come, so success requires solutions that work across new and old technologies. He also gave his 10 predictions for UC, and at the core of things, he contends that voice quality is still a big deal. I agree, and it shows that after all these years of innovation with IP communications, this basic need has still not been perfected.

Moving along, we next had a great one-off panel to celebrate 20 years of VoIP. I don't know the next time you'll see all these people in one place, but it was pretty special to pull this together, so kudos to Rich Tehrani, Andy Abramson and others who made this happen.

There's lots to say about what they talked about, and I prepared my thoughts for my current contribution to the UCStrategies portal. It's running now, and if you have a warm spot for VoIP, or want to know what some pretty smart people think about innovation, I hope you'll read my post.

Another highlight from yesterday was the Net Neutrality panel, and we heard again from many of the above speakers. There is a lot at stake here as it affects all of us - not just in the communications space, but as consumers too.  Am glad the topic was covered at the conference, and I wish it would get more attention at every event out there.

Otherwise, the show floor opened at 5, and it was the usual rush to the bar and then a walkabout to check out the exhibitors. Great energy out there, and a pretty healthy mix of vendors from across the whole telecom ecosystem. If there's one theme that stands out, it's M2M, and those exhibitors were getting plenty of traffic.

I've also been taking my share of briefings, and am moderating panels today and tomorrow, so it's constant motion. I'll try to blog again before the show ends, and otherwise, feel free to follow my tweets - @arnoldjon.

ITExpo Panel Update - Customer Experience and Telco 2.0

Just wanted to give you the latest info on my second panel at ITExpo, starting tomorrow in Miami.

We've added another speakers now. Joining myself and Rene Sotola from CGI, will be Hugh Goldstein from Voxbone.

Earlier today I posted about another speaker being added, but she has since switched out to speak on another panel. I'll post again if we end up adding a third speaker.

We'll be in Room B213 at 10am Friday, and hope to see you there. For more detail about our session and the conference program overall, here's the agenda.

Omni-Channel Contact Centers - my Current TMC Column

I've been writing a monthly column for some time for TMCnet, and under the banner Rethinking Communications, I address a wide range of trends that are shaping today's comms landscape. My columns usually run in their flagship pub, Internet Telephony, but given the focus, this one is running now in Customer magazine.

Omni-channel sounds big and complicated, and it actually is. This doesn't mean, however, you should ignore it, as the upside for improving the customer experience is pretty exciting. The best place to start is at the beginning, and my article breaks down the concept and explains what got us to omni-channel. I hope you find it a good starting point for this topic, and here's a direct link to the post.

ITExpo Preview #1 - Ontario Pavilion Briefing

TMC's ITExpo East is now less than two weeks away, and it's time to start talking things up. Am sure you're getting regular updates on the keynotes and sub-events, and it looks like they've settled into a good thing with the Miami Beach venue. The size is about right - although it might feel crowded if the event gets much bigger - and nobody is complaining about going to South Beach in late January. We survived the Ice Storm here in Toronto, so the change in scene will be very welcome!

I'll be moderating some sessions and participating in Editor's Day, and posts are coming with more details. Thought I'd start this series off talking up what the government of Ontario is doing with their trade mission to the Expo. They're returning to the show with their Ontario Pavilion, located in booth #815. I've been involved with this initiative at previous Expos, and the idea is to showcase Ontario companies in our space. Like any trade mission, it's an economical way for these companies to get direct exposure to new markets, and a chance for attendees to see what Ontario has to offer.

At present, the delegation consists of eight companies: Advance Software Concepts, Cloud Dynamics, Excelocity, In-Touch Insight Systems, Myplanet Digital, Phybridge, SVK Software, and Telax. They're all doing interesting things, and will be on hand there throughout the show.

Aside from that, the pavilion is hosting a market briefing and meet-and-greet at the booth on Friday, from 10-11am. I'll be providing an informal briefing about market trends and opportunities that these companies are addressing, and a delegate from the Canadian Consulate in Miami will be on hand. So, if you want to see the latest and greatest coming from Ontario, please join us.

I'll also be particpating in a VIP breakfast being hosted by the Ontario government, plus there's a general reception from 2-4pm on Thursday at the booth, which has been well attended in the past. See you there - go Canada!

IT Expo 2014, Miami - Be There?

Happy 2014!

It's about 100 below today in Toronto, and even more than usual, I'm looking forward to the next ITExpo in sunny Miami Beach, starting January 28.

Aside from the frigid weather we're getting now, Toronto just came through an unprecedented ice storm that left over 300,000 people without power. Our house was without power for 9 days, and my business had no connectivity for 8 days. We're back to normal now, but it was pretty disruptive, and it's time to get back to work.

To get the year started - and resume blogging - I'm doing a quick shout-out for the ITExpo, an event I've been actively supporting for many years. The show continues to evolve and is doing a great job keeping up with the latest trends, including WebRTC, cloud, SDN and UC. They've also added some new tracks (co-located events, actually), such as visual collaboration and "SmartVoice". In short, it's great see some cutting edge focus on voice and video - really, the core building blocks for UC - and for the latter, you won't want to miss comms guru Martin Geddes, who's keynoting Tuesday morning. That should be a real treat.

I'll have more updates on the show, as well as details about the four sessions I'm moderating. If you're feeling the weather the way I am, you shouldn't need much prodding to make plans to join us!

What Millennials can teach us about collaboration

Just back from a 9 day trip to Florida, and let's just say it's a little cooler up here in Toronto. Now I remember why I like Florida so much. Anyhow, back to work and lots to catch up on.

My latest Rethinking Communications column is running now on the digial edition of Internet Telephony, which is TMCnet's flagship publication. As the title of this post implies, I think those of us looking at VoIP and UC can learn a lot from Millennials, especially when trying to work in teams.

Collaboration is easier said than done, and you simply have to start from the foundational idea that the younger generation works differently that my peer group. I'm not here to judge, so you're best off saying it's different - not better or worse.

Once you accept that, tools like UC can be used very effectively if they support the way Millennials like to work. This generation is pretty independent, not to mention tech-savvy, so their expectations may not match yours. You might even learn a thing or two if you're willing to listen, but I'll stop there and hope you read my article - here's the link.

I think this is a fascinating topic, and once you digest that, feel free to share your thoughts - after, isn't that what collaboration is all about? Finally, if you like my thinking, you might want to read my other columns and thought leadership pieces, which you can find links to here.

Collaboration - What it Means to Employees

Just a quick note to share my latest article running in TMCnet's Internet Telephony magazine. This is part of my regular monthly column titled Rethinking Communications, and the current article focuses on the value of collaboration to employees. My previous column looked at the value to the business, which has a different set of drivers.

Here's the link to the article, and as always, your feedback is welcome, along with suggestions for future topics.

ITExpo Highlights

Time sure flies, and that's not a good thing when the weather is sooo nice in Miami Beach. ITExpo is finishing up this afternoon, but I need to get on my way now. Guess I won't be winning the Jeep, but you can't have it all, right?

Seen a little of everything this time around - all the sessions and speakers I heard were quite good, but attendance was variable. I ran 3 panels - 2 were well attended, and 1 hardly at all. Video seems like the hot topic - those sessions were busy, as was Ingate's SIP Trunking program and Crossfire's M2M tracks. I'm not the only one feeling this way, and it's no reflection on the content - just a lot of demands on our time. Between visiting the show floor, catching keynotes, doing briefings, stepping outside for some sun, networking in the hallways and dropping in on sessions, there's a lot of ground to cover. This means attendance of your session has a lot to do with what else is going on at that time, and every conference has to deal with that.

Overall, TMC does a great job keeping things moving along, but I think the stress level would be lighter if there were fewer things to be running to. No time was wasted, and everything I saw was worth getting to - just wish I could have seen more.

With that, I have a highlight and a lowlight to share.

The highlight, as expected, was John Sculley's onstage interview during StartupCamp7. Larry Lisser has done a great job with this, and it always draws a full room. Quickly, the format is to have 4 startups do a 5 minute pitch, then take questions from an expert panel as well as the audience. There were two winners - the audience went with Verbalizeit, and the panel went with Thruview. I liked Thruview the best as well, but none really did that much for me. Seems like everybody is in the mobile apps business now, but they all face the same challenge of monetizing a cool idea. Enough from me on that - you can read up on all this on the Expo website.

Back to John Sculley. I didn't know much about him, but his story sure is a good one. I actually found his Pepsi experience more interesting than his time at Apple. Sometimes you have go way back to revisit ideas that really matter now, and he's a great example of that. Looks like he was the driving force that made Pepsi a major player based on a simple twist of marketing logic - "don't sell the product, sell the experience".

With so much commoditization in the communications space, this is probably the most important message to impart. If it could work with Pepsi, it sure can work with UC, video, social media, mobility, etc.  That's my big takeaway and highlight. When engineers run a company, it's all about the product; but when marketers are in charge, it's all about the experience. Ideally you want a balance, and that's why Steve Jobs was so successful. Obviously, it's hard to do, but it absolutely should be driving every company in our space.

Lowlight? Well, for me, it was my panel yesterday, which ended up having two speakers - BroadSoft and Metaswitch. How often does that ever happen? In headier times, this would have a been an SRO session, with everyone anxious to see how they would square off. Well, we played to a near empty room, so we ended up talking about more mundane things. Too bad - this could have been a very lively panel, but we were up against too many other things at that time, and that's the way it goes. Too bad. Maybe next time we'll be the headliners, and then we'll really have to be ready. I'm up for it!

Next Stop - Miami and ITExpo

Living in Toronto, it's a great time of year for Miami Beach, and that's where my first travels of 2013 are taking me. I'll be at TMC's flagship event, the ITExpo, where the winter edition has a nice home at the Miami Beach Convention Center.

If you've been following me, you'll know I'm a regular there, and this show has survived, thrived and keeps things fresh by covering the gamut of IP communications. It's fair to say things are spread impossibly thin, and one person can only take in so much, but you can't go there and not learn something new. Lots to look forward to as always, and to keep tabs from wherever you are, follow their twitter feed - @ITExpo - and it couldn't hurt to track @TMCnet as well.

I won't be hard to find, and would be happy to hear from you. I'll be taking part in Editor's Day tomorrow, and will be briefing with companies from 4-6pm. During the next 2 days, I'll be moderating 3 panels, which you can get details on by scrolling through the conference program here. I've also been blogging about each panel the past few days, and details are also posted on my website.

Enough about me - how about you - will you be there?

ITExpo Shout-Out #3 - Turning UC into Revenue

I don't mean to confuse you, as this message isn't meant for IT managers deploying UC - although that could be a worthwhile topic to explore - creatively. What I'm talking about here is for service providers - how they can leverage Unified Communications as a way to drive new revenues. This is pretty much a mobility story, where operators are struggling to keep up with our ever-changing wants - you can call them needs, but we've survived for thousands of years without these goodies - to satiate our smartphone and tablets obsessions. There's definitely money to be made here, and UC actually provides a lot of value to businesses trying to make sure their employees stay productive when out of the office.

That's the set-up, and for the rest, you'll have to join us next Thursday at 3:30 for our panel. I'm moderating, and will be joined by Chris Carabello of Metaswitch, Leslie Ferry of BroadSoft and Payam Maveddat of Taqua. These are all familiar faces for me, so it should be a lively session.

So, where and when? Almost forgot - Miami Beach - you ok with that? Of course, it's TMC's ITExpo, and this is the third session I'm moderating at the show, so I won't be hard to find. As with my earlier posts about my sessions, you can get all the details here - just scroll down to Thursday and you'll find us on the Service Provider Solutions track. See you there!

ITExpo Shout-Out - My Panel, The Optimal Customer Experience

Am just continuing my posts in advance of next week's ITExpo in Miami. It's -100 here in Toronto, so South Beach is looking better by the minute.

I'm moderating two panels on Wednesday, and this is my second one - at 1:30 on the Customer Interaction track. The full title is The Real Business Value of an Optimal Customer Experience, and as you might expect, we'll be talking about how the contact center can improve that experience and ultimately makes customers more loyal.

Joining me will be Lisa Abbott from Genesys, Brent Morgan from Interactive Intelligence, and Ann Sung Ruckstuhl from LiveOps. Should be a good one, and you can get more details here, then scroll down to our session, where all the info will pop up.

ITExpo - How Smartphones and Social Media are Re-shaping Call Centers

Got one more panel to tell you about for next week's ITExpo in sunny Miami. This is the third panel I'll be moderating, and it should be a lot of fun. As consumers, most of us can vouch for less-than-perfect contact center experiences, and our expectations sure are changing with smartphones and social media. Whether you're in the contact center space or just a frustrated customer, you really should come out to our session.

Joining me will be fellow Torontonian, Shai Berger of Fonolo, along with Rick McFarland of Voice4Net and Tina Valdez from TeleTech. We'll be presenting on Wednesday at 1:30, and you can find us in Room B210. Our session is part of the CE track - Customer Engagement - and you can read all the details here. See you there!

ITExpo Miami Preview #2: Building the UC Business Case

Show time, go time. A week from today, TMC's ITExpo in Miami gets underway with the full program. Tuesday is a pre-con day, but I'll be there as part of the team for TMC's Editors Day.

I'm moderating 3 panels, and this is a shout-out for the first one on Wednesday. As you probably know, UC keeps me pretty busy, and this panel speaks to business case issues. Sure, we'll touch on ROI vs. TCO, but there's lots more to explore, so come on out and join us. Alongside me will be fellow analyst Irwin Lazar from Nemertes, and two vendors - Nancy Maluso from Sonus Networks, and Chris Hasenauer from Allworx/Windstream.

Our session runs from 11:00-11:45 on Wednesday, and we're on the C&C track - Communications and Collaboration. You're coming, right?

TMC ITExpo - UC Takeaways - There's Work to be Done

Am on a family visit this week, and Internet access has been hard to come by. I've got this one window this morning, so I wanted to get a quick post out now.

Last week, I had a few posts and photos about TMC's ITExpo in Austin. It was plenty hot there, and it's more of the same here in South Florida. Those posts provided my general take on the Expo, but I've since put my thoughts together on the UC implications, which I think are pretty important.

That post is running now on the UCStrategies portal, where a few of us took in the show last week. If you're wondering about whether the cloud is going to rain on UC or accelerate its adoption, please give my post a read, and then immerse yourself in what my UCStrategies colleagues are saying too.

ITExpo, Austin - Loose Ends

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.

ITExpo, So Far So Good

Well, it looks like TMC bet right with Austin. So far, the ITExpo has been great. I was busy on Monday for Editor's Day, and had a bunch of briefings yesterday. The keynotes were strong, as were the sessions I had a chance to check out. It's hard to gauge how big the crowds are, but there's lots of energy here, and everyone I talk to really likes the change in venue.

Most impressive for me has been the size of the show floor, which opened up last night. Much bigger than expected, and I heard that from a lot of people - very nice to see. Also, there were lots of new exhibitors, so new blood is welcome. Cloud is the trend du jour, and that's what stands out the most for me. That's driving a lot of new exhibitors, so it's taking some getting used to seeing this ecosystem here, but the time is right. Nothing wrong with that.

Back to the Expo now - I'll have more updates later. Until then, here are some photos...


Rich Tehrani kicking off the Expo


Mike Tribolet talking about Magicjack and how disruptive the VoIP space has become


Thomas Howe leading a panel during the CloudComm Summit


My UC Unleashed session from this morning, with Bill Bumbernick from Alteva speaking here. We had a full room, so kudos to everyone who came out for a 9am session!


I'm liking the Expo so far, but for me, this is the best reason to be in Austin...

ITExpo Session - the Multichannel Contact Center Experience

This is the third in my series of posts in advance of next week's TMC ITExpo in Austin, Texas. If you've been to the show website, or follow the various email blasts, tweets, etc., you'll know there's a lot going on as always. The keynote lineup is solid, and based on the breadth of the program and strong roster of sponsors, I'd say the move to Austin is going to work out just fine.

My third panel next week is about the multichannel experience, and how this is impacting contact centers. We all use the tools - chat, text, social media, mobile, etc. - and expectations are rising from customers in terms of how they want to interact with agents. I've been writing about this pretty regularly on the Exony website, but let's stick to the topic!

Joining me will be fellow Torontonian Shai Berger from Fonolo, Kimberly Drobny of Fonality, and Christy Murfitt from Nuance. All of these speakers are living the multichannel experience, and if you're wondering why voice is no longer the only way customers engage with agents, you'll want to be with us.

Our session is on Thursday at 11am - we're on the Call Center Track - and you can read the full details here.

ITExpo Preview - What’s Really Driving the Hosted Customer Care Trend?

Just keeping the momentum going here for next week's ITExpo in Austin. I'm moderating three panels, and yesterday I posted about the first one. Today's post is about my second session.

As the title of this post says, we'll be talking about trends in the hosted customer care space. Regular readers of my blog will know that the contact center has been a recent focus here, especially where it intersects with Unified Communications. Just as hosted UC solutions are sprouting up everywhere, the same thing is happening in the contact center world.

To explain why, I'll be joined by Dena Skrbina of Nuance, James Dunn of TelStar Hosted Services, and Dave Van Everen of Five9.

We'll be starting bright and early at 9am on Thursday - we're part of the Call Center Track - and you can read the full session abstract here.

ITExpo Preview - Unified Communications Unleashed

TMC's ITExpo is just around the corner, and I'll be doing a series of shout-outs the next few days to let you know about my panels.

The first session I'm moderating is "Unified Communications Unleashed", and as the title implies, we'll be exploring how UC helps both companies and employeess get productive and stay productive. It's a pretty core driver for the UC value proposition, so your time will be well spent here.

Joining me will be Wes Durow from Fonality, Bill Bumbernick from Alteva (recently acquired by Warwick Valley Telecom - we could do a panel just around that!), Michael Marchioni of ICON Voice Networks, and Angie Reed from Digium.

That mix sure covers a lot of ground, so it should be a fun session. Join us if you can - we're on first thing Wednesday at 9am as part of the SMB track.

I'll be arriving on Monday, and prior to this session, I won't be hard to find in either of these two places:

- TMC Editor's Day on Monday - I'll be with their editorial team doing scheduled briefings and interviews

- Avaya's Technology On Tap reception on Monday night. If you haven't registered to attend, here's the link

While I have you, I want to be sure you're up on all the other co-located events running alongside ITExpo. Lots of great content happening there, and I want to especially draw attention to the programs being run by my good friends at both Crossfire Media - Carl Ford and Scott Kargman, and Principals Larry Lisser and Thomas Howe of Embrase (and by extension, Dave Michels from Pin Drop Soup).

Crossfire has a few events running, but the main one is their 4GWE Conference, and for Embrase, it's the Cloud Communications Expo. If these topics fall into your sphere, you won't want to miss them, and if I play my cards right, you just might see me up there during the Cloud Expo at some point.