JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - December Edition 2020

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  • 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.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - November Edition 2020

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  • This month’s episode is titled “Why Zoom is Much More than Video, Plus Keith Jarrett and Yes, Alicia Keys”, and just like last month, we covered a lot of ground. There’s just SO much innovation happening with cloud, AI, and collaboration technologies, and October was an exceptionally busy month for industry events. 

  • Takeaways from these October events could fill several podcast episodes, and while we tried to talk about highlights from three majors from last month – Zoom, Slack and Twilio – the Zoomtopia event commanded most of our time. Like Pacman, Zoom seems to be gobbling up everything video these days, so it’s not surprising, and while all the attention on them was warranted, these other companies are doing equally innovative things.

  • Wearing our music-is-our-passion hats, we added a new twist to the podcast with an impromptu segment that’s all about music, and only a tiny bit about tech. Just because. As per our tagline, we’re two analog guys searching for the soul of tech in a digital world, and music has a lot to do with it. Expect more of the same next month, although we could just as well veer into cinema, literature, sports, pop culture, cooking, or whatever else seems in the moment. Gotta keep it fresh!

  • 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 October

  • 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 – as with September, last month was hectic – nine virtual events – that’s a record for me:

    • October 7-9 – Slack Frontiers

    • October 14-15 – Zoomtopia

    • October 14-15 – SCTC Annual Conference

    • October 15 – Huawei Global Innovation Summit

    • October 26-27 – Mitel Analyst Event

    • October 26-28 – Calix ConneXions

    • October 26-28 – OpenText World 2020

    • October 28-29 – Cisco Global Partner Summit - Media and Analyst Event

    • October 28 – Fuze Productfest 

  • Otherwise, here are the working highlights for last month, and links to some of these can be found in my October blog posts:

    • Presented on a webinar with Eventus about Big Data and the contact center, hosted by TMC

    • Guest post published on UC Today about direct routing from Sippio and AudioCodes for Microsoft Teams

    • First guest post for Smarsh about challenges posed by new forms of voice embedded in collaboration applications for the Finserv sector

  • October writing spotlight – top pick would be my latest for BC Strategies: The Hybrid Workplace – Dual Set of Challenges for Driving Collaboration

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for October – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies 

  • Media citings – on the light side, with just two citings

  • 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 September, I had 43,115 views - highest tally to date, and October blasted past that with a new high for me – 55,002 views, a 28% jump from the month prior.

    • During October, I shared 70 posts on LinkedIn – another high – up 49% from September, which had been my previous high for posts.

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 4,196 views – another high - followed by one at 3,056 views. Overall, 5 posts had 2,000+ views, and 14 posts had 1,000+ views.

    • For Twitter - there were 56,900 impressions, 266 profile visits, 65 mentions, 70 tweets and 4 fewer followers – other than losing a few followers, the metrics are notably up from September or trending slightly higher

    • My “top tweet” was during Twilio SIGNAL, with CEO Jeff Lawson doing a live interview with Barack Obama - it had 3,366 impressions. Overall, 13 tweets had 1,000+ impressions, and 31 had 500+.

  • 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

  • Unlike October, only one virtual event so far for this month – but others could very well come up: 

    • November 3 - Cisco Canada’s Partner Summit

  • Otherwise, two live events for clients are on the calendar - check my blog and social feeds for details:

    • November 12 – Contact center webinar with Lifesize, hosted by Channel Partners

    • November 12 – Twitter chat event with Mitel, about CX challenges with COVID-19 – in support of an upcoming white paper of mine

  • Wearing my SCTC hat, I’m going to be a featured presenter over a 3-part series on AI, which is part of our very popular weekly Fireside Chats – these are live events, and you can register for them here on the SCTC site

    • November 4 – The AI Opportunity – New Value and New Horizons for Consultants

    • November 11 – AI in the Contact Center

    • November 18 – AI and Next Level Applications

  • Other activities to watch for during November:

    • A 3-part insight series on contact center themes going into 2021 – at least 2 of these will run this month

    • Follow-on article for a leading contact center magazine about themes explored in last month’s webinar with Eventus

    • Preview for a December webinar I’m doing with a leading UCaaS provider about migrating SMBs to cloud communications

    • White paper about migrating enterprises to the cloud for a leading UC vendor, adapted for a leading service provider

    • A Q&A interview I did with the CEO of a leading SBC vendor, publisher TBD

Hey Did You Know?

… virtual events can be fun and cool? 

That was the theme last month, where I shared my screenshots here of notable speakers and performers from the various virtual events I attended. Big names like Barack Obama and Trevor Noah are hard to beat, but there were lots of A-listers to go around during last month’s busy schedule of virtual events. Again, all screenshots are mine. Pretty nice mix here, and I didn’t have to leave home to see any of them!

Thought leaders you should follow – and if you don’t, am happy to tell you why:

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - October Edition 2020

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What’s Up? Part 1- Our Latest Podcast - Watch This Space Podcast

  • Last month, I introduced the new changes to our podcast, and so far, we’re pleased with the results. Lots more coming, especially for getting Watch This Space on the major commercial platforms. The process is taking longer than expected, but by the next newsletter, most should be in place, and I’ll provide a listing here of all the platforms you can subscribe from.

  • This month’s episode is titled “How Virtual is Becoming the New Reality”, and we covered a lot of ground. First, we provided an update on the latest changes to WTS, and then got into a discussion about the challenges and opportunities facing service providers for making broadband more accessible. 5G is part of that story, but in the current moment, it’s mainly driven by back to school, and all the ripple effects around that as summer ends and colder weather looms. From there, we talked about the role technology is playing to make virtual experiences good enough now as to effectively become the norm. This speaks to broader trends about how all facets of society are adapting to the pandemic, and we touched on some examples, including pro sports, live music and Hollywood. Interesting times for sure. Newsletter subscribers can directly access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website.

Latest Watch this Space Podcast & Transcript, October 2020

How Virtual is Becoming the New Reality During Pandemic Times

  • If you don’t yet know, the 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. 

  • For some time, we’ve also been featuring a transcription of each episode, courtesy of Otter.ai. During this transition to a dedicated platform for WTS, current episodes don’t yet have the transcription, but we’re working on a fix, that will be ready very soon.

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

  • While Watch This Space is the main form of original content for the newsletter, Part 2 is a different form of original content; namely a digest of my activities from the previous month.

  • Virtual conference roundup – while August was light on this front, last month I had my hands plenty full:

    • September 1-2 – ADTRAN Connect

    • September 14 – Ribbon 5G event

    • September 16 – Five9 CX Summit

    • September 15-16 – NICE/inContact Interactions

    • September 22-24 - Big5G Event, Light Reading

    • September 29-October 1 – UC Expo – spoke on two sessions

    • September 30-October 1 – Twilio SIGNAL

    • September 30-October 1 – British Telecom Global Analyst Event 

  • Otherwise, here are the working highlights for last month, and links to some of these can be found in my September blog posts:

    • Presented on a webinar with IntelePeer about CPaaS

    • Presented on a webinar with Huawei about IoT

    • Spoke on the latest BCStrategies podcast on employee engagement during Covid

  • New kudo #1 – Top 100 Unified Comms Influencers for 2020, compiled by Mio Dispatch (I’m #28!)

  • New kudo #2 – Top 5 ETS Moments, wearing my Smart Grid hat, one of the sessions I ran during Zpryme’s 2016 Energy Thought Summit was rated their #4 all-time moment. This was fun, and you can watch and read about it here.

  • August writing spotlight – top pick would be my latest No Jitter post – Keeping up With the Times – and the Tech: Same as it Ever Was. Here’s the article, and to set the stage, you really should watch this classic video of Once in a Lifetime from 1980 - really – then it will all start making sense, if you know what I mean.

Here’s my Writing Roundup post for September – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies

  • Media citings – similar to August, with five citings this time

  • 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 September:

    • For LinkedIn – I shared 47 posts, which registered 43,115 views – that’s up 68% from August, and is the highest number of views since I started tracking this in April 2019. My top LinkedIn post registered 2,570 views – closely-followed by one at 2,499. Overall, 18 posts had 1,000+ views, and 26 posts had 700+ views.

    • For Twitter - there were 56,500 impressions, 189 profile visits, 62 mentions, 57 tweets and 9 new followers – other than new followers, the metrics are way up from August, including a 95% increase in impressions. I’m keeping busy!

    • My “top tweet” was as a shout-out for a video interview I conducted with Praful Shah of RingCentral for the UC Expo virtual event - it had 9,779 impressions. Am pretty sure that’s the highest count for any tweet since I started tracking this data.    Overall, 13 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 October

  • So far, I’ll be participating as best I can in seven virtual events this month, and you’ll have to check my blog and social feeds for further details – and other events could very well come up during the month:

    • October 7-9 – Slack Frontiers

    • October 14-15 – Zoomtopia

    • October 14-15 – SCTC Annual Conference

    • October 15 – Huawei Global Innovation Summit

    • October 26-27 – Mitel Analyst Event

    • October 26-28 – Calix ConneXions

    • October 28-29 – Cisco Media and Analyst Event 

  • Got two webinars in the works, check my blog and social feeds for details/dates:

    • October 20 – Contact center reporting with Eventus, hosted by TMC

    • New CX challenges with COVID-19 with Mitel, date TBD

    • October 21 - same topic, with Mitel, but a Twitter chat event

  • Wearing my SCTC hat, I’m going to be a featured presenter over a 3-part series on AI, which is part of our very popular weekly Fireside Chats - with at least one of these slated for October – details coming

Hey Did You Know?

… virtual events can be fun and cool? 

Even virtual events can bring some star power, and while these would have been WAY more fun in-person, they were all still great to experience on the small screen. Seeing keynotes and performances from big names is a great perk for our circle of analysts as we travel from event to event, and here’s a taste of that from my September events.

The faces should be familiar, but just in case; from Twilio SIGNAL, interviews with Barack Obama and Trevor Noah. Then, from NICE/inContact’s event, interviews with Martha Stewart and Matthew McConaughey. From the same event, live performances from Alanis Morissette and Bryan Adams. Even though all of these were virtual, they came off really well, especially the music segments – and we talked about that during the current podcast, fyi.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - September Edition 2020

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What’s Up? Part 1- Our Latest Podcast and Big Changes to Watch This Space

  • Changes to our podcast have been taking shape over the past few months, and the biggest one is making it available on commercial platforms like iTunes. This takes Watch This Space beyond our local footprint, and not only will this expand our known audience, but also reach new audiences. This means we’ll be new voices for a lot of listeners, including those outside our technology community, so we’re excited to make our world more accessible and relevant to a broader listenership. 

  • This month’s episode is titled “Why Collaboration is the Right Technology for COVID Times”, and aside from talking about these changes to WTS, we took a step-back look at how essential today’s collaboration technologies have been for enabling a sustainable shift to work from home. The last few months have been a boon to most of the vendors in this space, and we talked about just how well these companies are faring, and where we should expect to see innovation coming from going into Q4. Newsletter subscribers can directly access it any time here on the brand new WTS website.

Latest Watch this Space Podcast & Transcript, September 2020

Why Collaboration is the Right Technology for Covid Times

Being new, the 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.

  • If you’re a regular consumer of podcasts, you’re more likely to access WTS from your favorite feed, and you’ll soon be able to subscribe to WTS on iTunes, Google, Spotify, Stitcher and Amazon TuneIn as well as Amazon Music/Audible – all these feeds should be up and running in the next week or so. Once those feeds are live, I’ll make the links easy to find on my websites and via social media, so it should be really easy to get WTS on your podcast playlist.

  • Other feeds will be added over time, and aside from these popular podcast channels, you can also access all our episodes here on my JAA website. 

  • With Watch This Space now shifting to a proper podcast platform, it will become public when the newsletter is published – at least for now. As such, my newsletter subscribers will no longer have exclusive access to the podcast for two weeks, and I realize losing that perk may cost me some subscribers. Hopefully not, but as things evolve, sometimes you have to give up things to get other things that I believe will be better overall.

  • Another important change – at least for the time being – is stepping back from the Otter.ai transcription feature. There’s no place for that on a podcasting platform, but I think it’s a really cool feature, and am optimistic we’ll be able to keep it going somehow. 

  • For now, the priority is getting WTS launched across the major podcast platforms to build up our following, and soon after to determine if WTS can sustain itself independent of this newsletter as its own brand.

  • Finally, if you haven’t checked out our earlier podcasts, just go to the podcast archive on my JAA website. The archive shows both the 2020 podcasts, as well as a separate archive for previous podcasts, namely Seasons 1 and 2.

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

  • Virtual conference roundup – last month, I was involved with just one virtual event, but two times:

    • August 3-6 – Enterprise Connect Virtual – gave a presentation

    • August 19 – my presentation was chosen as one of the top five from the event, and was invited back to give an encore presentation, including live Q&A

  • Otherwise, here are the working highlights for last month, and links to some of these can be found in my August blog posts:

    • Panelist on a session hosted by Talkdesk during Customer Contact Week about the impact of Covid on the patient experience in the healthcare sector

    • Unified Comms Influencers – was a guest on Dominic Kent’s podcast

    • Completed work, which should publish in September (some were expected to publish in August, but that’s how it goes sometimes):

      • Insight Report – for a cloud service provider

      • Insight Report – for a Canadian cloud provider

      • Case study for a leading video services provider about how their platform was used to host a virtual conference for channel partners

      • White Paper – adapted version of an existing white paper for a service provider to help migrate enterprise clients to the cloud

      • Final revisions to an IoT e-Book

  • New kudo – Top 10 CX Contact Center Influencers, as compiled by Shelf.io – thanks!

  • August writing spotlight – top pick would be my latest No Jitter post – CX’s Real Driver in 2020? Changing Consumer Habits Due to COVID-19

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for August – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies 

  • Media citings – nice bump here from recent months, with six citings

  • 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 August:

    • For LinkedIn – I shared 27 posts, which registered 25,697 views – that’s the highest number of views since February. My top LinkedIn post registered 4,570 views – that’s the highest tally since I began tracking this data in November 2019. Overall, 6 posts had 1,000+ views, and 14 posts had 700+ views.

    • For Twitter - there were 29,000 impressions, 143 profile visits, 48 mentions, 32 tweets and 22 new followers– on the whole, an upward trend from July.

    • My “top tweet” was as a shout-out for an article on No Jitter about my talk at Enterprise Connect - it had 3,457 impressions. Overall, 6 tweets had 1,000+ impressions, and 19 had 500+.

  • Client work aside – and in addition to new developments with my podcast - August was also busy with website updates, adding current work samples and new client logos – and more updates are coming. Am also working on a logo refresh, and that should be ready by next month. 

  • 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 September

  • So far, I’ll be participating as best I can in six virtual events this month, and you’ll have to check my blog and social feeds for further details – and other events could very well come up during the month:

    • September 1-2 – ADTRAN Connect

    • September 15 – Five9 CX Summit

    • September 15-16 – NICE/inContact Interactions

    • September 29-October 1 – UC Expo – will be moderating a session

    • September 30-October 1 – Twilio SIGNAL

    • September 30-October 1 – British Telecom Global Analyst Event 

  • Got four webinars in the works, all scheduled for the end of September/first week October – check my blog and social feeds for details/dates:

    • September 30 - IoT for social good, hosted by Huawei

    • October 1 - CPaaS opportunity with IntelePeer, hosted by Informa 

    • New CX challenges with COVID-19 with Mitel, hosted by TMC

    • At least one more webinar coming around that time – details to be announced

  • During August, five new projects landed, four of which are with new clients – and six others are looking very promising, so it’s already going to be a busy fall!

Hey Did You Know?

… that the Watch This Space podcast has its own logo? 

My podcast listeners may recognize the logo below, which was recently developed to establish WTS as its own entity. I’m exploring how WTS will fare in the broader world of public podcasting, so I need to brand it separately from the work done under my J Arnold & Associates indie analyst moniker. That brand is going through its own modest update, and as noted above, watch for a new JAA logo soon.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - June Edition 2020

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What’s Up? Part 1 - Our Latest Watch This Space Podcast

  • The pandemic continues, and we’re past the New Normal. In fact, we’re so used to it, that I think many have OD’d on video calls as we seem to be spending most of our time there. That’s the jumping off point for our June podcast – Longer Term Implications and Opportunities - as Chris and I look a bit ahead to what the workplace landscape could resemble post-pandemic.

  • As usual, JAA subscribers get to hear our takeaways - right now, in this newsletter. Otherwise, I’ll be posting the podcast publicly on my website in a couple of weeks, so non-subscribers will have to wait a bit.

  • If you haven’t checked our earlier podcasts, you can do that from the podcast archive on my website. The archive has just been updated, showing both the 2020 podcasts, and a separate archive for previous podcasts.

  • Current podcasts also feature AI-driven transcripts that complement the audio replay link. This feature comes courtesy of Otter.ai, and I hope you like it. Otter transcribes in real time, and I should also note that this transcription feature only comes with the newsletter. The publicly-shared posts of our podcasts are audio-only, and for some, that will be enough. But really, wouldn’t you rather be a subscriber?

Latest Watch this Space Podcast & Transcript, June 2020

Workplace Perspectives in Pandemic Times

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

  • Conference roundup – live events have been off the table for a while now, but virtual events are popping up regularly to keep people connected. Some are proxies for live events that were scheduled much earlier, but had to be postponed, and others are simply new events that can be run with very few resources and on short timelines. This is an important trend of its own that I have been following, and I’ll come back to that later in the newsletter. I was as busy as ever on the event front last month, participating in four virtual events, as well as a fifth one at the very end of April. Each of these events was quite different, and a post I wrote for BCStrategies summarizes them – it’s also cited down below. I’ve never been to five in-person events during that amount of time, so I’m definitely keeping busy.

    • Talkdesk’s Opentalk conference

    • Huawei 2020 Analyst conference

    • Cloud Conventions

    • Jeff Pulver’s #140ConfLive

  • Otherwise, here are the working highlights for May, and links to most of these can be found in my May blog posts:

    • New report – for Metaswitch:

      • Mobile UX with UCaaS – based on focus group research I conducted

    • Podcasts – aside from this month’s Watch This Space podcast, I had three others published in May:

      • The Future of Conferences, BCStrategies podcast

      • Post-COVID Business World Predictions, BCStrategies podcast

      • The Evolving New Normal, our May Watch This Space podcast

    • Guest post - for UC Today’s 2020 CX Market Guide:

      • CX – Remember, it’s Their Experience, not Yours

  • May writing spotlight – top pick would be my latest BCStrategies post – How do you do Virtual Events During COVID-19? Let me Show you the Way

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for May – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Toolbox.com, Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies

  • May was quiet on the media front – just one citing

  • Here are the social media highlights for last month. 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 May:

    • For LinkedIn – I shared 45 posts, which registered 24,610 views, and those numbers were very similar to April. My top LinkedIn post registered 2,483 views, and 15 posts had 500+ views.

    • For Twitter - there were 39,200 impressions, 152 profile visits, 33 mentions, 42 tweets, and 8 new followers. Very similar profile to April as well.

    • My “top tweet” was adding to a post from Rich Tehrani about Microsoft acquiring Metaswitch - it had 2,320 impressions. Overall, 9 tweets had 700+ impressions.

  • I recently added a new tab on my website – My Music. This showcases my fun side, mainly from playing keyboards and guitar with the SIPtones. The stars finally lined up for a long-awaited update here, and a few new photos have been added, along with 10 new video clips from our recent Chicago gig, and a few others from our 2018 gig in Annapolis. Enjoy!

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for June

  • So far, I’ll be participating in two virtual events this month:

    • June 2-3 – Cisco Live

    • June 12 – SCTC’s annual Canadian regional event – it’s virtual this year, and I’m a speaker, as well as being on the planning committee

  • Two of the long-form deliverables cited last month have still not been published, but am optimistic they’ll finally run this month:

    • White paper on UCaaS

    • White paper on cloud collaboration

  • June 4 - am doing a fireside chat on the state of UCaaS for an audience of US financial analysts and portfolio managers

  • June 23 – will be moderating on an Informa webinar with Oracle – details coming

  • I’m a judge for UC Today’s UC Awards 2020, and that takes place during June

  • Several active projects are on the go and should be published this month, including a case study, an eBook, two Insight Reports (for different clients), two guest blog posts without bylines, and an executive Q&A

  • Beyond that, the pipeline is busy, with new work set to begin on two white papers (for different clients), a follow-on webinar to an eBook, another Insight Report for an existing client, another guest post for another client, and a thought leadership program for a new client


Hey Did You Know?

…that my way-back photos from Metaswitch Forum in this section last month turned out to be very prescient?

Not only were they a great memory from a time when conferences really were fun - and I think being pre-social media might have something to do with that – but less than a month later Metaswitch was acquired by Microsoft. Nobody saw that one coming - not even me, and I’ve been close to this company for almost 20 years. 

Metaswitch was a pretty special company; aside from being a first-rank engineering organization – a key reason why MSFT bought them – they had a great culture. It was the kind of company you never wanted to leave, and I’ll certainly miss Metaswitch. On that note, here’s another ode to their fun side, a concoction courtesy of Gleavie Boy (Steve Gleave), their Marketing guru. So, what on earth is this?

This isn’t rocket science, folks – it’s exactly what it looks like. Yes, it’s a USB pet rock. It does “absolutely nothing” as Steve would say, but looks cool and is a great conversation starter. We need more of this, folks, not less. 

Maybe it’s this kind of playful thinking that led MSFT to buy them, and if your engineers aren’t coming up with stuff like this every now and then, they need to get out more often or maybe crack open a box of Lego.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - May Edition 2020

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What’s Up? Part 1 - Our Latest Watch This Space Podcast

  • In a few short weeks, we’ve normalized work from home, and Zoom has become a verb. Already, it’s starting to feel like these changes are here to stay, and all bets are off as to what form the post-pandemic world is going to take. That’s the gist of our May podcast, where we review a full month’s worth of forced adaptation, and it provides a nice update from the ground we covered in the previous podcast.

  • As usual, JAA subscribers get to hear our takeaways - right now, in this newsletter. Otherwise, I’ll be posting the podcast publicly on my website in a couple of weeks, so non-subscribers will have to wait a bit.

  • If you haven’t checked our earlier podcasts, you can do that from the podcast archive on my website. This archive will keep updating as the latest podcast is added, so now from one place, you can access all the most recent podcasts.

  • Recent podcasts have also featured AI-driven transcripts that complement the audio replay link. This feature comes courtesy of Otter.ai, and I hope you like it. Otter transcribes in real time, and I should also note that this transcription feature only comes with the newsletter. The publicly-shared posts of our podcasts are audio-only, and for some, that will be enough. But really, wouldn’t you rather be a subscriber?

 

Latest Watch this Space Podcast & Transcript, May 2020

The Evolving New Normal For Work

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

  • Conference roundup – with this staple of the analyst diet on the shelf, there nothing to report here. This has opened up new swaths of time to get work done, and the highlights are listed below. I still want to begin this section with conferences – not just as a reminder for how central they are to my work, but to show my earnest hope this will be a short-term hiccup. At the moment, this looks like wishful thinking, but there are plenty of events being planned for the second half of the year. Fingers crossed!                   

Work-wise, here are the April highlights:

  • Podcasts/Video interviews – aside from this month’s Watch This Space podcast, I had four of these published in April, and the links can be found on my blog: 

    • AI use for CX and the contact center, with parlamind, hosted by EM360

    • New Age of Remote Work, our April Watch This Space podcast

    • State of the industry and Cloud Conventions preview, hosted by Convey Services (if you look hard, you’ll also find a fun video segment of mine)

    • Zoom Bombing and Bashing, BCStrategies podcast

  • Webinar – I presented on one last month:

    • Business continuity with COVID-19, hosted by 8x8

  • Virtual analyst event

    • Pexip analyst day – this could be the model for others to follow

  • Live Twittercast

    • The New Telecom Economy, hosted by Futurithmic

  • Event Judging

    • Completed judging process for Talkdesk Awards

    • Same for Enterprise Connect Best Of Awards, winners announced April 1

    • UC Awards 2020, judging panel announced, entries open May 1

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for May

  • The following long-form deliverables were cited last month, but they haven’t quite made it to market yet. All have been completed, and I fully expect them to be published in one form or another this month.

    • White paper on UCaaS

    • White paper on cloud collaboration

    • Market research report on mobile UX for UCaaS

  • On May 12, I’ll be presenting at a virtual event, Cloud Conventions – The Evolution of our Workplace Strategies – registration is free, and details are here

  • So far, I have one virtual industry event on tap this month, OpenTalk for Talkdesk on May 6

  • Plenty more on the go, as well as in the pipeline, and as new projects and clients come along, I’ll be updating what I can share here

Hey, Did You Know?

….that conferences used to be FUN?!?!

Here’s a few wayback photos of mine from Metaswitch Forum, in New Orleans, April 2008. No social distancing here, nope. Can’t do this on Zoom, folks.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - April Edition 2020

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What’s Up? Part 1 - Our Latest Watch This Space Podcast

  • We may never face a more challenging time than the month just past, and hopefully we’ll come out of it alright. One thing that has changed in a hurry is social distancing, and the need for businesses to have as many people working from home as possible. Disruption is when unexpected change happens, and WFH – work from home – is a timely example that nobody was talking about before Coronavirus. Lots for us to talk about, and that’s where this month’s podcast takes us.

  • As usual, JAA subscribers get to hear our takeaways - right now, in this newsletter. Otherwise, I’ll be posting the podcast publicly on my website in a couple of weeks, so non-subscribers will have to wait a bit.

  • If you haven’t checked our earlier podcasts, you can do that from the podcast archive on my website. This archive will keep updating as the latest podcast is added, so now from one place, you can access all the most recent podcasts.

  • Recent podcasts have also featured AI-driven transcripts that complement the audio replay link. This feature comes courtesy of Otter.ai, and I hope you like it. Otter transcribes in real-time, and I should also note that this transcription feature only comes with the newsletter. The publicly-shared posts of our podcasts are audio-only, and for some, that will be enough. But really, wouldn’t you rather be a subscriber?

 

Latest Watch this Space Podcast & Transcript, April 2020

The New Age of Remote Work

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

  • Conference roundup – this is how I usually start this section, since it’s the main way I spend my time when not in my office. As per my last newsletter, I was slated to attend a few events in March, including Enterprise Connect, the biggest conference in our space. Sadly, all events are off for the foreseeable future. Some events have been re-booked for August or September, and let’s hope things improve enough by then for business travel to resume. 

  • Work-wise, here are some March highlights:

    • Podcasts – in addition to recording this month’s edition of Watch This Space, I had five podcasts published in March, and the links can be found on my blog: 

      • Remote working with Monday.com, hosted by EM360

      • Future of Work Expo review, our March Watch This Space podcast

      • Voice bots and audio quality, hosted by No Jitter

      • Our take on Coronavirus, BCStrategies

      • Trends around UC and the contact center, interviewed by 2600Hz 

    • Webinar – I presented on one last month:

      • Enabling remote working, with Poly and hosted by Metaswitch

    • Twitter Live Chat – I haven’t done one of these for a while, but was invited to be part of one on March 26 – was quite good, and very interactive:

  • February writing spotlight – top pick would be my latest No Jitter post –  Getting UX Right with Mobile UC.

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for March – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Toolbox.com, Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies. 

  • There was just one media citing for March.

  • Here are the social media highlights for last month. 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 March:

    • For LinkedIn – I shared 36 posts, which registered 16,199 views. My top LinkedIn post registered 1,150 views, and 10 posts had 500+ views.

    • For Twitter - there were 48,900 impressions, which is a fair drop from February, and is somewhat due to there being no conferences. Also had 150 profile visits, 57 mentions, and 48 tweets.

    • My “top tweet” was from an analyst-only update with the management team from Cisco Webex - it had 4,523 impressions. Overall, 8 tweets had 1,000+ impressions.

  • If you haven’t seen it, there’s a new tab on my website – My Music. This has been in the works for a while, and showcases my fun side, mainly from playing keyboards and guitar with the SIPtones. I’ve posted a few video clips and photos from recent performances – and I have others if you want to see more. 



    What's Coming? JAA Outlook for April

    • With no travel, I had way more time than usual to write, and that worked out well in terms of getting client work done. I’ve been doing a lot writing and recording, and over the course of April, much of this will make it to market in one form or another.

      • White paper on UCaaS

      • White paper on cloud collaboration

      • Market research report on mobile UX for UCaaS

      • Three posts on contact center trends, but no byline

      • Three full-length Q&As with industry executives from different companies

      • Part 1 in a new series for a Canadian provider to help customers migrate to UCaaS

      • Insight report for an MSP to help partners drive UCaaS growth

    • I’ve got other things on the go as well, but this should give you an idea of the range of engagements I do as an independent analyst. The work is never dull, and you might be surprised when considering the ways that I can be of service to clients.

Hey, Did You Know?

Video has never been hotter, and I’ve lost track of how many briefings and client meetings I did last month – and I expect more of the same for April. I just wanted to draw attention to how quickly video has become normalized, and how people are finding creative and fun ways to use it. I think it’s very healthy since we’re social creatures, and can only stay cooped up indoors and glued to our screens for so long. 

Here’s a good example – I’m part of the SCTC, and they recently had a virtual cocktail hour, which many of you have probably done as well. Why not, and who knows what the fun twist will be for April? Note to self – I need to come up with a fun virtual background! 

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - March Edition 2020

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What’s Up? Part 1 - Our Latest Watch This Space Podcast

  • I attended three events in February – four, technically – so there was plenty to talk about. First was Avaya Engage, then during the same week, two contiguous Cisco analyst events – one for the collaboration business, and another one for the contact center. Not long after, I was off to Ft. Lauderdale, where I chaired the Future of Work Expo. I tried addressing all of this for this month’s podcast but didn’t get past Future of Work. Maybe I’ll get to revisit the other events next month, but by then, two more events will have passed.   

  • This edition marks the debut of our new graphic look for Watch This Space. I hope you like it, and any feedback will be welcome.

  • As usual, JAA subscribers get to hear our takeaways - right now, in this newsletter. Otherwise, I’ll be posting the podcast publicly on my website in a couple of weeks, so non-subscribers will have to wait a bit.

  • If you haven’t checked our earlier podcasts, you can do that from the podcast archive on my website. This archive will keep updating as the latest podcast is added, so now from one place, you can access all the most recent podcasts.

  • Recent podcasts have also featured AI-driven transcripts that complement the audio replay link. This feature comes courtesy of Otter.ai, and I hope you like it. Otter transcribes in real-time, and I should also note that this transcription feature only comes with the newsletter. The publicly-shared posts of our podcasts are audio-only, and for some, that will be enough. But really, wouldn’t you rather be a subscriber?

Latest Watch this Space Podcast & Transcript, March 2020

February Conference Review: Avaya Engage, Cisco Collaboration and Contact Center & Future of Work

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

  • Conference roundup – as noted above, I attended events for Avaya and Cisco as an analyst, and then chaired the Future of Work Expo as part of TMCnet’s ITExpo in Ft. Lauderdale. There were various forms of coverage for these events – blog posts, articles, media quotes and video interviews – all of which can be found via my blog. 

  • Work-wise, here are some February highlights:

    • Podcasts – in addition to recording this month’s edition of Watch This Space, I recorded three others that have since been posted or will be soon, and links are or will be on my blog: 

      • JAA profile for the Witz End podcast series – very fun, and definitely different

      • Was interviewed by No Jitter about the importance of audio quality testing for one of their sponsors

      • Was interviewed by 2600Hz for the next episode of their ongoing podcast series, talking about trends around UC and contact center becoming more integrated – should run in early March 

    • Video – I appeared in two segments last month:

      • First as part of a recap of Cisco’s Webex collaboration summit – this hasn’t been posted to my site yet – it’s very well done, and here’s the link to watch it (and thumb image below)

      • Next, I was interviewed during the Future of Work Expo, mainly about my work as an analyst, and you can access that on the landing page of my website

  • 2020 is busy as can be for conferences, and here’s an updated schedule from last month. As always, details for each event will be shared on my blog, along with the Event Calendar listing on my website. I’ve already turned down a few event invites due to timing conflicts, and that’s bound to happen when there’s so much going on.

    • Channel Partners 2020, March 9-12, Las Vegas, NV - moderating

    • Vault: Future Work, March 25, Toronto, ON – moderating and Chair for the Future Work track

    • Enterprise Connect, March 30-April 2, Orlando, FL – speaking twice

    • Avaya Influencers Analyst Event, April 15-16, Miami, FL

    • Talkdesk Opentalk 2020– April 22-23, San Francisco, CA

    • Pexip Analyst Day, April 29, NYC

    • Metaswitch Forum, May 11, Las Vegas, NV - speaking

    • UCExpo, May 12-14, London, UK – speaking and moderating

    • Twilio SIGNAL, May 20-21, San Francisco, CA

    • 8x8 Analyst Event, May 26-28, location TBD

  • It’s also worth noting that the sudden impact of Coronavirus has led to numerous event cancellations, and things could get worse before they get better. So far, the above events are all still on, but things can change on a moment’s notice.

  • For two upcoming conferences – Channel Partners and Enterprise Connect - being a speaker, I can offer registration discounts; $400 for Enterprise Connect – details here – and various breaks for Channel Partners – details here.

  • I have one webinar on tap this month – March 19 – it’s hosted by Channel Partners and sponsored by Flexiental – talking about how channels can help customers migrate to the cloud – details are here if you’d like to register and join us.

  • My mix of project work continues to diversify, and let’s just say I’m busy on many fronts. At the moment, there’s just too much to outline here, but if you think I can be of service, please reach out any time. A few minutes perusing my website will give you an idea of what I’m up to, and you might be surprised at the range of things I can do.

That’s All for Now

Did you enjoy this newsletter? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you know anyone who might enjoy it as well, they can subscribe here – thanks for letting them know!

Not sure about your strategic priorities for 2020? Need to enhance your lead-generation with independent thought leadership? Thinking about having a speaker for your next customer event? These are a few examples of what I do, and your inquiries are welcome any time.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - January Edition 2020

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What’s Up? Part 1 - Our Latest Watch This Space Podcast

Starting out a new year and a new decade, it’s only fitting that our latest podcast focuses on what’s ahead for 2020. Building on our previous podcast – 2019 look-back – Chris and I continued exploring the impact of disruptive and transformative technologies in the workplace, especially around cloud and AI. Let’s just say the enterprise space has a lot to learn from how these technologies are playing out in our personal lives.

  • As usual, JAA subscribers get to hear our takeaways - right now, in this newsletter. Otherwise, I’ll be posting it publicly on my website in a couple of weeks.

  • If you haven’t checked our earlier podcasts, you can do that from the podcast archive on my website. This archive will keep updating as the latest podcast is added, so now from one place, you can access all the most recent podcasts.

  • Recent podcasts have also featured AI-driven transcripts that complement the audio replay link. This feature comes courtesy of Otter.ai, and I hope you like it. As you’ll see, it transcribes in real time, so you can follow along reading while listening to our dialog. I should also note that this transcription feature only comes with the newsletter, so if you like it, this is a key benefit for being a subscriber. The publicly-shared versions of our podcasts are audio-only, and for some, that will be enough; but hey, you’re missing all the other good things here in the newsletter!

 

Latest Watch this Space Podcast, January 2020

What’s Ahead for 2020 - AI and CX

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

Conference roundup – nada, zero, nothing. I always start this section off with conferences, since they’re high profile and am usually going somewhere, but not in December. That’s pretty unusual, and I suppose newsworthy itself, but definitely not a sign of taking it easy. As you’ll see in the next section, there are plenty of 2020 conferences lined up through June, and more are coming.

  • Holiday season aside, December was very productive in terms of lining up new projects that are already underway, along with firming up plans for several upcoming conferences.

  • I also undertook some new initiatives that will raise my profile and broaden my reach to keep the biz dev pipeline strong. More about that soon.

  • Work-wise, my output was light last month, but that’s to be expected for the holiday season, with most new work being deferred to January:

    • I presented one webinar, with CoreDial, about cloud-based contact center offerings – reference details can be found in my Blog Archive from December

    • Wrote an insight paper for a UC vendor, another insight paper for a cybersecurity vendor, and two blog posts for a contact center vendor – all of which run without my byline – yes, ghostwriting is one of the services I offer

    • Was part of a 2019-in-review podcast with BCStrategies for the collaboration space, and that will run first week of January. The companion 2020-look-ahead podcast has been recorded as well, and that will follow soon after.

  • Spotlight for December writing – my pick would be this post on BCStrategies: “SCTC Conference Review - Opportunity for the Taking” 

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for December – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Toolbox.com, Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies. 

  • There were two media citings for December

  • Here are the social media highlights for last month. 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 December:

    • For LinkedIn – I shared 25 posts, and overall, they registered 16,531 views. That’s well below recent months, and is due both to the Xmas season, and my not attending any events last month. My top LinkedIn post registered 1,094 views, and 4 posts had 1,000+ views.

    • For Twitter - there were 21,300 impressions, and as with LinkedIn, the drop-off from November is to be expected. Also had 116 profile visits, 18 mentions, 15 tweets, and just 1 new follower.

    • My “top tweet” was a shout-out for my CoreDial webinar - it had 1,524 impressions 

  • If you haven’t seen it, there’s a new tab on my website – My Music. This has been in the works for a while, and showcases my fun side, mainly from playing keyboards and guitar with the SIPtones. I’ve posted a few video clips and photos from recent performances – and I have others if you want to see more. Our most recent show was in Chicago in November, and I’ll be adding a few of those clips to this section shortly.

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for January

  • 2020 is already busy for conferences, and there are some additions below from last month. As always, details for each event will be on my blog, along with the Event Calendar listing on my website. 

    • Project Voice – and another SIPtones gig, January 14-17, Chattanooga, TN

    • Avaya Engage, February 3-4, Phoenix, AZ

    • Cisco Collaboration/Contact Center Summit – February 5-6, San Jose, CA

    • ITExpo/Future of Work, February 11-14, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

    • Channel Partners 2020, March 9-12, Las Vegas, NV

    • Enterprise Connect, March 30-April 2, Orlando, FL

    • Avaya Influencers Analyst Event, mid-April, location TBD

    • Talkdesk Opentalk 2020– April 22-23, San Francisco, CA

    • Metaswitch Forum, May 11, Las Vegas, NV

    • UCExpo, May 12-14, London, UK

    • Twilio SIGNAL, May 20-21, San Francisco, CA

    • 8x8 Analyst Event, May 26-28, location TBD

  • For some of the new events above, details are still in the works, so updates are coming

  • The ITExpo/Future of Work event is a new addition, and as with last year, I’ll be chairing Future of Work, and will share an updated agenda soon

  • For one upcoming conference - Enterprise Connect - I should mention that being a speaker, I can offer a $400 discount on your registration – details here

  • During January, I’ll also be involved in a virtual event – UC Summit – details to follow

  • I continue to have a steady and varied mix of projects in the works, including two white papers, case studies, guest blog posts, insight briefs, executive Q&As, qualitative research about UCaaS offerings, and a survey-based research project with channels about cloud communications

  • Aside from active client work, I have pending projects related to branding, raising mindshare, and positioning a company for acquisition.


Hey Did You Know?

I don’t expect anybody to follow everything I do (but really, why not?), so to provide a sense of my overall scope of work, the following is a quick snapshot of 2019’s output. Most of this is accessible via my website, although I need to do a better job keeping some of the published content current. That’s a 2020 resolution, for sure!

JAA’s 2019: By the Numbers

  • 6 new clients (not including new work from existing clients)

  • 22 conferences/industry events 

  • 10 events either moderating or speaking

  • 102 published articles/guest posts/video segments

  • 117 blog posts

  •  26 podcasts (including Watch This Space for this newsletter)

  •  6 webinars

  •  2 white papers

  •  12 editions of this newsletter 

  •  Hundreds of posts on social media – LinkedIn and Twitter    

  •  31 JAA citings in the media

  •  2 new industry accolades    

  •  2 SIPtones gigs


That’s All for Now

Did you enjoy this newsletter? I’d love to hear your thoughts. If you know anyone who might enjoy it as well, they can subscribe here – thanks for letting them know!

Not sure about your strategic priorities for 2020? Need to enhance your lead-generation with independent thought leadership? Thinking about having a speaker for your next customer event? These are a few examples of what I do, and your inquiries are welcome any time.