This month’s episode is titled “How Did We Really Do in 2020?”, and being a bit of a year-in- review, we ran a bit longer than usual. A year like no other would be an understatement, and we hope you find our take interesting, and maybe even refreshing.
If you don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website.
As time allows, I have a long list of podcast platforms to add Watch This Space to, so please bear with me. It’s only on a couple right now, but the list will soon grow, and they’ll be listed on the website for reference.
If you don’t yet know, this new WTS website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – More Highlights and Insights from November

While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats.
Virtual conference roundup – only 4 events to track last month, but as always, a pretty interesting mix of topics and technologies:
- November 3 - Cisco Canada’s Partner Summit
- November 11-13 - Financial Times Live: Global Boardroom Virtual Event
- November 17-18 – Mavenir Analyst Event
- November 17-18 – Cisco Connect
Project work highlights - links to some of these can be found in my November blog posts:
- Presented on 3 Fireside Chats for SCTC – variations on the topic of AI and why it’s a great opportunity for consultants – November, 4, 11 and 18
- Completed a series of 3 Insight Reports for a leading Canadian contact center vendor - the first has been published, with the next two coming in December
- My latest white paper was launched – done for Mitel, Customer Experience Challenges in Pandemic Times
- Participated in a Twitter chat, sponsored by Mitel, focusing on findings covered in the above white paper
- Presented on a webinar sponsored by Lifesize about the value of video for contact centers
- Recorded a video segment for UK-based EM360 about 5 collaboration trends for 2021 – watch for that soon
November writing spotlight – top pick would be my latest for No Jitter: A Change is Gonna Come: Reflections on Slack, Twilio, Zoom
Here’s my Writing Roundup post for November – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BCStrategies
Another host for Watch This Space – speaking of BCStrategies – where I’m a regular contributor – you can now access my podcast there as well
Media citings – 4 mentions in the media for November
Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for October:
- For LinkedIn – in November, I had 24,558 views, with 30 posts
- My top LinkedIn post registered 2,189 views – a shout-out for a Twitter chat I did with Mitel
- Overall, 9 posts had 1,000+ views, and 20 posts had 500+ views.
- For Twitter - there were 41,500 impressions, 174 profile visits, 74 mentions, 48 tweets and 11 new followers
- My “top tweet” was a shout-out for the first Fireside Chat in a series on AI that I was speaking at with SCTC - it had 7,513 impressions. Overall, 7 tweets had 1,000+ impressions, and 20 had 600+.
Updates were recently added about my musical interests, with both new video clips and photos. You can find all this on the My Music tab, and I continue to mention this here in case new subscribers don’t know about my fun side.
What's Coming? JAA Outlook for November

So far, the month starts busy, with six virtual events in the first two weeks – but not likely any others coming as we head in holiday season:
- December 1 - RingCentral Analyst Day
- December 1-4 – NEC Visionary Week
- December 2 – Pexip Analyst Day
- December 2-3 – Genesys 2020 Virtual Analyst Event
- December 8-9 – Cisco WebexOne
- December 8-9 – Google Cloud Public Sector Summit
Otherwise, three live events for clients are on the calendar so far - check my blog and social feeds for details:
- December 2 and 9 – two more SCTC Fireside Chats on AI
- December 8 – webinar presentation for RingCentral on the business case for cloud telephony
Other activities to watch for during December:

Follow-on article for a leading contact center magazine about themes explored in last month’s webinar with Eventus
A Q&A interview I did with the CEO of a leading SBC vendor, to be published on BCStrategies
Two new projects about to start with new clients, and follow-on work from recent projects is looking promising

Hey Did You Know?

…if you stick around long enough, you get to live through history, and then there are more interesting dots to connect in life.

Who Shot JFK? Obama wins. Obama smiles. How can these dots possibly be connected?

Read on, and you’ll find out – and I think you’ll be glad you did.

Every so often I include a flashback in this section for an old blog post or photo that seems apropos for the newsletter. November was a good month for me business-wise, but it was also election time, and if you’re even mildly interested in American politics, I think you’ll enjoy this blog post of mine – a photo essay, really - from November 2008.

I happened to be in Dallas then for an industry event, and while I wasn’t terribly interested in politics, that’s when Barack Obama made history. The day after the election I had free time, and Texas being Texas, people weren’t exactly out in the streets celebrating Obama’s election win. So, there’s was no victory parade that drew me out, and in fact, the downtown streets were pretty, pretty quiet.

However – and this is how moments of serendipity get started – being a Massachusetts-born Democrat, I was determined to make a pilgrimage to Dealey Plaza. As anyone who lived through Camelot would do, that would kinda be your first instinct being in Dallas with some free time.

Somehow, along my route there, I knew I was getting close when coming across the JFK Memorial, so that became the first stop in what would become the photo essay I’m sharing with you here. Tucked under my arm was USA Today from the hotel, and naturally, the cover proclaimed Obama’s election win.

Hopefully this photo below will lead you to my post about my Dealey Plaza experience, with images and perspectives about JFK’s assassination many of you will have never seen. This photo was the best I could do at the time, but it’s pretty close to what I would call a perfect moment.

I thought the juxtaposition of that historic headline at the foot of the JFK Memorial was a once in a lifetime, right place right time moment to connect the legacies of arguably the two most historic election wins in American history. If I make this trip a day sooner or a day later, the moment doesn’t – and cannot – happen. Pretty powerful moment in my mind, and the photo doesn’t do it justice, but if you were there, you’d have felt that way too.

If you care to continue, I invite you to check out my photo essay, posted November 10, 2008, titled “My Dealey Plaza Experience: Who Shot JFK? Ask Ron”.

With a not-so-subtle hat tip to the iconic soap opera Dallas in that title, this visit turned into something I never expected, but I’ll never forget it. If you’re never been to Dealey Plaza, I hope you go some time. It’s just incredible how almost nothing has changed there since that fateful day in 1963 – frozen in time, literally. It’s one thing to read about it, but nothing beats being there and being able to wander freely to take it all in. Bonus reading – at the end of my post is a pretty engaging thread of comments from folks who read my post when it came out.

Finally, if you want to connect those dots I was referring to, after my photo essay, please read my No Jitter post cited earlier, A Change Is Gonna Come. Kudos to anyone who goes the distance with me here, and I would love to hear your thoughts as we come through yet another historic election.