#140Conf Live - Future of Work Virtual Event

Not much to say, and just wanted to mark yesterday’s #140Conf Live virtual event, hosted by Jeff Pulver. Regular followers here will know about my long history with Jeff, and how his version of a virtual event is different - as is most of what Jeff does. As an analyst, conferences are a big part of my world, and as I’ve been writing recently, there’s no one way to do virtual events.

Jeff does #140Conf Live his way, and it works just fine. Each week there’s a different theme, and he lines up speakers accordingly. In the course of recent discussions, Jeff wanted to do a future of work theme, and with that being the focus of my monthly Watch This Space podcast with Chris Fine, he had us on the roster.

Chris and I sure enjoyed our talk time, as well as the other speakers - a very eclectic mix. We heard about how a dentist is using all kinds of technology to turn his office into a touchless experience for everyone, and another about using AR/VR for all kinds of things, including teaching surgery. Very cool.

All told, Jeff may be on to something here, and I think most attendees would agree. There were about 100 people with us, and the chat thread was rich. Am not sure if there’s a replay available, and if not, you’ll just have to check out upcoming events to see for yourself. This is just one of many ways Jeff stays busy building community, and to get connected, here’s the detail on next week’s event, along with how to get on his email list. Otherwise, here’s a screen shot I took during my talk with Chris.

My Next Webinar - SD WAN with Oracle, June 23

This is my next webinar with Informa, where Oracle is the sponsor, talking about the virtues of SD WAN. I’ll be moderating this session, and leading Q&A after the main presentation. Webinar is next Tuesday at 2pm EST - hope you can join us. Registration details are here.

SCTC Regional Event - the Virtues of Being Virtual

Just a quick post to mark the most recent SCTC event - last Friday, June 12. This was one of our regional events, and closer to home, it was for the Canadian consulting community, but also for the surrounding Great Lakes states. With so few events to attend in Canada, it’s a big deal for Canadian consultants, and like with everyone else, a virtual event is better than no event at all.

We had a good turnout and solid engagement from attendees. There were two main sessions, followed by a social scrum, which is a good way to conclude and catch up with people we don’t often see. The first session was on the technical side, led by Sharpen, focusing on what contact centers need today to deliver a better CX.

Following that was a roundtable session about how consultants can adapt in the current climate. I was part of that session, and aside from talking about best practices in a disrupted market, I wore my analyst hat and talked about opportunities to help businesses manage their growing remote workforce. Below is a screenshot I took during our session, and if you like what you see, you should check out the SCTC, especially if you’re a consultant.

Next Virtual Event - #140Conf Live - Speaking About Future of Work, June 17

Virtual events are filling the void for in-person conferences these days, and I’ll be speaking at another one next week. This Friday, I’ll be speaking at the SCTC’s virtual Canadian event - details here - and next Wednesday, you’ll get a live version taste of what Chris Fine and I do on our monthly podcast, Watch This Space.

This will be for another edition of Jeff Pulver’s #140ConfLive series - which I recently wrote about here - running next Wednesday, June 17, from 12-2pm EST. Jeff recently gave this event a re-boot, and it’s great to see him back doing events, and very happy to be invited as a guest to speak. If you subscribe to my newsletter, you’ll know about our podcast, and I’ll have a chance to banter with Chris about future of work themes during the event, which will be livestreamed.

It’s free to attend, and all the details are here, including registration and the full lineup of speakers. I believe Chris and I will be speaking around 12:30. If you’ve never attended #140ConfLive, it’s pretty different, and Jeff always has a great mix of speakers of topics - so come see for yourself.

Who Wants to Return to the Office? My Latest on No Jitter

I follow Leesman, a UK-based consultancy focused on employee experience, and they do really in-depth research. Some of their work lines up nicely with my coverage, including their latest study on home working. First wave results were recently shared, and with permission, I’ve put together a post with a few key findings. There’s a lot of data here, and the basic narrative is that there are some things better about working from home, and others that are better in the office.

At some point sooner than later, IT - and management - will have to make important decisions about whether to keep WFH going, or to revert to some form of pre-pandemic work spaces onsite. The rub, of course, is that some home workers may kinda like the new normal, and getting them back won’t be a simple ask. That’s my setup, and for the rest, I hope you read my No Jitter post, running now on their site. As always, comments and sharing are welcome.

Virtual Events and Future of Conferences - Two New Things on BCStrategies

If you’re interested in the state of virtual events and what the future might hold for conferences, I’ve got two pieces of timely content to share here. They both came out on the same day - last Friday - and both are running on the BCStrategies portal. The timing worked out well, since they’re complementary, and I happen to be a contributor for both.

1. First is our latest Industry Buzz podcast, where our group weighed in how we see conferences evolving. I was part of that conversation, and my thoughts built on a recent No Jitter post of mine on the topic.

2. Complementing the podcast was my monthly article that I contribute to the site as a BC Expert. Titled How do you do Virtual Events During COVID-19? Let me Show you the Way, the article is a digest of five virtual events I participated on over the past month.

May Writing Roundup

Things were very quiet on the writing front last month, at least in terms of public, bylined content that has been published. Not much to share this time around, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t busy, and to catch up on that broader front, your best bet is to follow my newsletter. You can sign up for it here if not yet a subscriber.

How do you do Virtual Events During COVID-10? Let me Show you the Way, BCStrategies, May 29

Re-assessing UC Tools in Work From Home Era, TechTarget, May 1

CX – Remember, it’s Their Experience, not Yours, UC Today, guest post for CX Market Guide 2020

Next Virtual Event - SCTC's Regional Event for Canada, June 12

Virtual events come in all shapes and sizes, and here’s another example of an annual mini-conference that needs to be re-worked pandemic-style. In-person is what most people prefer, but Plan B has now become Plan A, and it’s better than having no event at all.

I’m the only analyst actively involved with the SCTC, and I’ve become a regular for their events, especially the Canadian versions, where our numbers are pretty small. That said, we play nicely, and we make the most of the community that’s here. Actually, this event has a broader scope, as it includes the Great Lakes region, so it’s also there to suppport members in several states near the border.

Our events are mainly for SCTC members, but also the broader consultant community that works with communications technologies - whom we’d love to have more of as members! Being a virtual event, it’s open to a broader audience, and details will be posted today - here in the Calendar section of the SCTC website.

We have a Call For Speakers out now, and that closes next week, and the event itself will be on Friday, June 12, running from 3pm ET til 6. We’re having two one-hour panel talks - I’ll be on one of them - and then a virtual cocktail hour at 5 to round out the event and the week. Hope to “see” you there.

New Podcast - The Evolving New Normal - and New SIPtones Clips!

Wow, it’s been two weeks since my last blog post - that’s too long. It’s not like I’m not busy - got five writing deliverables to get done this week, and new projects coming around the corner. I’ve also been woodshedding a bit here, making updates to my website and the podcast. More changes are coming, including a major update to the content that I share to showcase the various types of projects I work on, and clients I work with. For this post, I’ve got two basic updates to share.

First is a long-planned update for the music section of my website, which primarily showcases our SIPtones performances. It’s the fun stuff, for sure, but it’s part of what I do, and I’ve added a whole bunch of videos from a recent gig we did in Chicago at the SCTC annual conference. You can check those out here, under the My Music tab of the website. There’s also a tab for photos, where I’ve made some other updates.

Coming back to my day job, it’s time to share our latest Watch This Space podcast - The Evolving New Normal. Regular followers will know that the podcast comes with my monthly newsletter - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - and is exclusive there for about two weeks, after which I share it publicly here. I hope you check it out, and while there, feel free to listen to our other podcasts, all of which are archived in that section of the website. Of course, if you’d rather not wait until now to get the latest podcast, just sign up for the newsletter, and you’ll always be among the first to get it every month.

My New Report for Metaswitch - Mobile UX with UCaaS

I’m a market researcher by trade, and have always enjoyed qualitative research, especially focus groups. That was the basis for a project I recently completed with Metaswitch, and fortunately we got the groups done just before COVID-19 shut our lives down.

I’ve always felt focus groups provide the most honest, authentic forum for market research, but I won’t be doing any of those for a while. Too bad, because I have clients who want to do them, but that’s going to have to wait a bit I’m afraid. Online focus groups have been around for ages, but there’s no comparison to being in a room with real, live customers.

For the work with Metaswitch, they wanted to explore the mobile user experience for collaboration, something that has long been a weak point in the UC value proposition. Let’s just say we learned an awful lot about the role mobility plays for both personal and work-related needs. UCaaS can bring a lot of value to managing this mix, and there’s a big opportunity here for service providers. However, unless they can speak to the everyday challenges workers face for mobile collaboration, the potential will not be realized.

Being qualitative research, the report doesn’t have all the answers, but I’ll bet you’ll learn a few things you didn’t know or gave much thought about. Being proprietary research, the report is gated on their website, and there are actually two flavors, and you need to register to get either of them. You can find them in the Knowledge Center of the Metaswitch website, where the full-length report is here, and the express version that they produced is here.

Newsletter Time Again - May Issue

With no travel lately, it’s easier to stay on schedule, even though I’m as busy as ever with client work and new projects. As I always do, just a quick shout-out here to say my May newsletter - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - went out yesterday. Subscribers will have it by now, and if you want to join them, it’s really easy to sign up.

To pique your interest, our monthly podcast - Watch This Space - is exclusive to subscribers for about two weeks, and this time around, Chris Fine and I talk about how work from home is working out a month or so into the new normal (thumbnail below). Otherwise, you’ll have to wait until I share it publicly in the Current Podcasts archive, here on my website.

Cloud Conventions, May 11-14 Virtual Event - Speaking There

The Cloud Conventions virtual event is a week away, so it’s a good time to do a shout-out. Nobody knows how well these events will do in the current climate, but it’s free to attend, and I guess you just stay for as long as you want or can.

My talk is titled The Evolution of Workplace Strategies, and happens next Tuesday, May 12, at 3pm - and I’ll be presenting live, via Zoom. All the details about the sesion, how to register, and my practice are on the profile page they built for me.

Also on that page you’ll find a video Q&A I did with the event organizer, Carolyn Bradfield, along with a fun, one minute music video I created about my session. I hope you check it out, and hope to see you there.

Post-COVID Business World Predictions - Our BCStrategies Podcast

Here’s a pretty rich topic, and when everyone has an opinion, it makes for a long podcast. On the other hand, many of us have more time to check out new content these days, and here’s one I think you’ll like.

This is our latest BCStrategies podcast, moderated by Blair Pleasant, and a pretty full roster of 12 analysts and consultants weighing in how we see a post-pandemic work world. Everyone had something to add, so if you want to crystal ball a bit for how things might unfold in our space, this will be time well-spent.

The podcast has been posted now to our portal, and here’s the link to give it a listen.

April Writing Roundup

Travelling to industry events seems like a quaint idea these days, and it’s scary how much my time is filled now doing video calls. It hasn’t taken long for us to adjust to working virtually, and that reflects well on how today’s collaboration tools support us, as well as scale.

There sure is lots to talk about as we adapt to this new world of working, and that’s been a main theme for me lately. I’ve been doing a fair number of podcasts and webinars, but the writing never stops, and here’s what was keeping me busy on that front last month.

Re-Imagining Industry Conferences in Pandemic Times, No Jitter, April 28

How do you Compare the TCO of an On-premises UC vs. UCaaS?, TechTarget, April 24

Best Practices for Working from Home - for Workers, Toolbox.com, April 15

Supporting Collaboration with WFH is a Team Effort, BCStrategies, April 6

My Latest Podcast - Talking AI and CX with Germany's parlamind

I do a fair bit of regular work with U.K.-based Enterprise Management 360, including podcasts. This time around, I was in conversation with a German AI company called parlamind. The company is new for me, and they’re doing some interesting things with AI in the contact center space, especially around improving CX.

This is very mucn in my wheelhouse, so it made for a pretty engaging session. I was joined by Tobias Lehmann and Olav Vier Strawe, and we could have gone on all day. The podcast has now been published on EM360’s site, and I hope you give it a listen - here’s the link.

Re-Imagining Industry Conferences in Pandemic Times

That’s the title of my latest post for No Jitter, where I’m a regular contributor. Enterprise Connect was one of several industry events that many of us were looking forward to attending this spring, and it’s anybody’s guess as to when it will be safe to go back in the water again.

COVID-19 has caused us to re-think every facet of our lives, and big, in-person events have really been impacted. The kernal for this post came from an article last week in Medium by Andy Abramson, a long-time colleague and confrere from countless events. It’s a good read, and I’ve built on it with my take, and you can read it here on the No Jitter portal.

New Podcast - State of the Industry for Collab - Cloud Conventions Preview

Last week I posted about a new virtual event that I’ll be speaking at next month. It’s coming soon - May 11-14, and I need to get working on my presentation. The event is called Cloud Conventions - it’s channel-focused, and it should be a good forum to get VARs, ITSPs, MSPs, etc. up to speed on collaboration, and the various business opportunties around that.

Promotion for the event is kicking into gear now, and along those lines, I was a guest last week on Convey’s Channel Partner Microcast. Our segment was Episode 42, and I was interviewed by event organizer Carolyn Bradfield, talking about the state of collaboration. The podcast has been published now, and here’s the link if you want to give it a listen.

We actually recorded this segment via video, so you can also watch our discussion. To view that, you’ll have to go to the homepage they built for me for this event, where you can also find details about my company, my talk at the event, and how to register - it’s free, btw.

Business Continuity Webinar with 8x8 - Replay Available Now

In case you missed it…

Last week, I did a live webinar with 8x8, in conversation with Justin Robbins, talking about business continuity issues during these pandemic times. It’s a legitimate problem, especially to support WFH, and it’s tailor-made for cloud solutions like UCaaS.

Justin and I could talk all day long about this stuff, but we only had a half hour, and the audience was pretty engaged. If you weren’t there, and want to check it out, the webinar is on-demand now, and here’s the link to register and access it. I should note, btw, that this session was 2nd in a four-part series 8x8 is running, so if you like this one, you’ll probably like the others in this series.

Cloud Conventions - My Next Event and Speaking Spot

The last industry event I attended was in February, at TMCnet’s ITExpo in Ft. Lauderdale, where I was Chair for the Future of Work Expo. That was a little over two months ago, and who knew what was coming? I’ve lost track of all the scheduled events that have since come off my calendar, and it’s possible we won’t be going to any live events for the rest of 2020. I sure hope not, but for now, I’m 100% working from home.

That’s a gloomy outlook for analysts, as we rely on conferences to stay current and build our industry relationships. All is not lost, though, as virtual events are popping up to fill the void, and I’m going to tell you about one now that I’m quite looking forward to.

The event is called Cloud Conventions, and it’s targeted at the channel community - so the audience will be VARs, Agents, MSPs, ISPs, IT Consultants, etc. It’s a four day event, running from May 11-14, so there will be lots of content and virtual networking opportunities. Of course, there’s no substitute for a live event, so it’s hard to say how engaged people will be over the full event, and I guess many will cherry-pick what’s of most interest. Attendance is free, btw, so the organizers are hoping to attract a big crowd.

I have one speaking spot, and hopefully you’ll join me when cherry-picking your activities. My talk is titled The Evolution of Workplace Strategies, and I’ll be doing it live on video. If you miss it, you can always access it later.

I’ll be doing more shout-outs as the event gets closer, including a video interview I did yesterday with the event organizer, Carolyn Bradfield. Also coming soon will be a teaser video of my own that I think you’ll enjoy. For more detail, here are the most helpful links - the event itself - including how to register, my speaker profile page, and an overview of my session. Once you’re registered for the event, you can then sign up for the specific sessions you want to attend.

Zoom Bombing or Bashing? Our Latest BCStrategies Podcast

Zoom is certainly having its Covid moment, and like Google, it’s become a verb - or two, or three. The company is absolutely in the right place at the right time, and when we’re not busy working, we’re often helping family members use Zoom, if not Zooming ourselves. Enough, already!

Our group at BCStrategies has just weighed in with our take on Zoom, but also with a more critical eye given all the vulnerabilities and privacy issues that been front and center with the company. For better or worse, this pandemic will be a real test of how well Zoom truly scales, and how well it can gain - and keep - the trust of consumers. The podcast has been posted now to our portal, and I hope you enjoy it.