Before getting to Jon’s travelogue of industry events, we reviewed how businesses are still facing challenges getting hybrid work right, and what vendors are doing to make the in-office experience more compelling, especially for meeting spaces. We noted how this theme will be further explored at Jon’s Future of Work Expo in February, where many of the leading vendors will be speaking. From there, Jon recounted highlights from his extensive October travels – UC Expo in London, NICE in Peru, Avaya in Dubai, Cisco Webex One in Anaheim, and SCTC in Raleigh - including a SIPtones gig. Finally, we did a brief mention of Jeff Pulver’s VON Evolution event in NYC, where both of us were speaking, and we did a special edition WTS segment live, on stage.

For those of you who 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. Otherwise, the easiest platforms and sources to find WTS are Apple Podcasts, Google Chrome/Google Podcasts, Stitcher, Overcast, iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Music. Believe it or not, we’re also getting found on LinkedIn, Safari, and Alexa-enabled devices. For a more extensive replay archive, you can access all our podcasts here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights 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 last month, including my other forms of original content, along with my social media stats. More detail and links for most of these activities can be found on my blog or posted on the website.

Industry conferences – this was the most travel-heavy month ever for me, covering four continents:
- UC Expo, London – Oct. 4-5 – was involved with three different sessions, and did two interviews with the media
- NICE Analyst Summit, Machu Picchu, Peru, Oct. 10-12
- GITEX GLOBAL with Avaya, Dubai, UAE – Oct. 16-20
- SCTC Annual Conference, Raleigh, NC – Oct. 22-24 – I presented, moderated a panel, and did a short music set with the SIPtones
- Cisco Webex One, Anaheim, CA – Oct. 24-25 – attended as an analyst, but also spoke on a panel session

Video interviews/segments:
- UC Expo takeaways, EM360, Oct. 4
- UC Expo takeaways, UC Today, Oct. 5
- Nice Time at the Airport, Talking Pointz, Oct. 9
Podcast:
- Unlocking the Transformative Power of AI for CX, NICE CX Pulse, Oct. 31
Guest articles/blog posts:
- Avaya Rejuvenation – Can They Do It?, EM360, Oct. 30 (accompanied by a set of photos from Dubai on my blog)
- Setting Realistic Expectations with Contact Center AI, Genesys blog, Oct. 25
- Tianjin Port – the Leading Edge of 5G, AI and IoT, Silverlinings, Oct. 25 (prefaced by a shorter writeup on my blog, including a video clip of the port operation)
- Spotlight on Operator Connect, TeamMate blog, Oct. 18
Writing Roundup for October – details here - it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter, Channel Futures, Contact Center Pipeline and BC Strategies
Media citings – two citations last month
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 LinkedIn – fyi: have now stopped using Twitter/X - here are some approximate tallies for October:

For LinkedIn

I had 63,235 views and 61 posts – by far, the strongest month this year, and similar to October 2022, when this was the highest tally for that year – both due to October being the busiest month of the year for industry events
My top LinkedIn post registered 4,493 views
Overall, 8 posts had 2,000+ views, and 21 posts had 1,000+ views

For Twitter/X

I‘ve been indicating for a while that time is running short to keep using X, and that time has now come – from this point on, I’ve stop posting to X, and won’t be reporting any more X stats here

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for November

To a lesser extent, the world tour continues during November, with two events, at which point, I will have traveled to nine different events over a nine-week stretch:

VON Evolution, New York, Nov. 1-2 – doing a special edition live recording of our Watch This Space podcast
Verint Analyst Event, Scottsdale, Nov. 13-15

Active work to keep watch for:

New guest article and white paper coming – sans byline - for a leading cloud provider
New white paper about to be published for a leading contact center vendor
Continued guest posts coming for three clients – Aizan, Upstream Works and TeamMate
Lining up several 2024 outlook interviews and guest commentaries
Several projects are set to begin with both new and current clients, largely related to networking done at recent industry events
My Future of Work Expo 2024 – next February in Ft. Lauderdale – agenda has firmed up, and news about that is coming. If interested in speaking on a panel or helping develop a topic for us to explore, please get in touch

Hey, Did You Know?

…my travels took me all over last month, and it sure seems like a blur now. Here’s a quick taste of where I went, as well as spoke. Many photos have been shared during my travels on LinkedIn, and some others have been in my blog posts. Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing more of my social/fun photos on Facebook, so you’ll have to connect with me there to see those.
Below: first stop, UC Expo, London - Ask the Analyst session (photo – Dave Michels), view from the Shard