JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - November Edition 2025

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What’s Up? JAA Highlights from October

Below is a digest of J Arnold & Associates activities from last month, including my other forms of original content, along with my social media stats. Details and links for most of these activities can be found on my blog, or posted on my website.

  • Industry events – two for October:

    • SCTC Annual Conference, Reno, NV, Oct. 12-14

    • NiCE 2025 Analyst Summit, Vienna, Austria, Oct. 20-23

  • Podcast/Video segments:

    • BCStrategies – Halloween special – What’s Scary in Comms Tech?, Oct. 31, on LinkedIn

    • BCStrategies – recap of NiCE’s analyst event – recorded Oct. 31, but not published yet

    • Enterprise Connect – speaker spotlight, interviewed by Erica Marois about my topic for Enterprise Connect 2026, Oct. 20

  • Awards judging – two updates to share:

    • Talkdesk CX Innovators Awards – judging has ended, and winners have now been announced – press release here

    • Epica Awards – judging for the Paris-based Epica Awards is now open, and I have started reviewing and rating the entries – creativity levels are very high with Epica, and I’ll be writing more about this soon

  • Social media highlights – since these stats change every day, they are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of my industry reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use LinkedIn – I’ve stopped using Twitter/X for some time – so, here are my approximate tallies for LinkedIn during October:

    • 27,668 total views and 36 posts

    • October was another strong month, and have tallied 20,000+ views for each of the last nine months

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,979 views

    • Overall, 6 posts had 1,000+ views, and 16 had 500+ views

    • New stat - my tally of followers is steadily growing – added 146 the past 28 days, and 558 the past 90 days, so roughly 5 new per day

What’s Coming? JAA Outlook for November

  • Industry events – two for November:

    • Wildix Analyst Day 2025, Venice, Italy, Nov. 4-5

    • Talkdesk Analyst Summit 2025, Savannah, GA, Nov. 18-20

  • Active work to keep watch for:

    • Market research study on AI adoption for a leading cloud provider

    • Continued guest posts coming – some with my byline and some without – will post about these as they are published – those with my byline will be shared as they are published

    • New projects are in play with several vendors, both current and new clients


Hey, Did You Know?

… that the life of a technology analyst is never dull. Relative to my peers, my travel schedule is pretty light, but I’ll take quality over quantity any time. I only attended two events last month, but that was plenty of learning, networking and fun for me. Just a taste here for my October, seeing Sir Terry Matthews speak at SCTC, playing with the SIPtones, and getting the Vienna experience at the NiCE analyst event (more photos from that here).

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - October Edition 2025

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What’s Up? JAA Highlights from September

Below is a digest of J Arnold & Associates activities from last month, including my other forms of original content, along with my social media stats. Details and links for most of these activities can be found on my blog, or posted on my website.

  • Industry events – three for September:

    • Verint Engage, Orlando, Sept. 8-10

    • Zoomtopia, virtual, Sept. 17

    • Sprinklr Analyst Summit, Nashville, Sept. 28-Oct. 1

  • Podcast/Video segments – these terms seem interchangeable now – podcast and video, but it was another month with more video-based output than with writing:

    • BCStrategies – takeaways from Verint’s Engage event, Sept. 22

    • Politely Pushy Podcast – interviewed by Eric Chemi from PR agency Bospar about what tech analysts do, and how independent analysts provide value, Sept. 9

    • SCTC – interviewed by Robert Cassard about how analysts provide value to the SCTC and its members, Sept. 3

  • Podcast/Video – recorded, but not yet published:

    • BCStrategies – takeaways from Sprinklr’s CXUnifiers event

  • Writing roundup – based on how the dates fell last month, I have a few pieces ready to go or done, but only one was published during September: it’s the cover story for Contact Center Pipeline, and I was a contributor: Answering the Challenges

  • New kudo for Watch This Space (fourth one since May):

  • Awards judging – two updates to share:

    • Talkdesk CX Innovators Awards – am back as a judge for the 2025 edition – details coming soon, but am in the process now of evaluating entries – 2024 winners here

    • Epica Awards – returning here as a judge as well – Paris-based Epica Awards is outside my normal scope of analyst work, but as a creative person with marketing DNA, I love getting to evaluate international entries from the worlds of media, advertising and social change, many of which make leading-edge use of the technologies I follow every day – more to come as the judging progresses

  • Other items of note from September:

    • Enterprise Connect – for 2026, the show is doing a re-set on its programming and the topics they will be including – my submission was accepted (yes, it’s AI-related), so I will be on the program – details coming soon, including a spotlight piece about my topic

    • ICMI – not sure why it’s taken so long, but I’m finally getting involved, and will be more visible in that community going forward – stay tuned

    • Book review – long-time industry colleague Mark McIlvane recently wrote a book about what he knows best – sales management- and after giving it a read, I wrote a review, which you can find here on Amazon

  • Social media highlights – since these stats change every day, they are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of my industry reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use LinkedIn – I’ve stopped using Twitter/X for some time – so, here are my approximate tallies for LinkedIn during September:

    • 41,237 views and 33 posts – numbers are a tad higher from August

    • September was another strong month, and have tallied 20,000+ views for each of the last eight months – and three of the last four months have topped 40,000 views

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 9,047 views - this marks the fourth straight month my top post has garnered 7,500+ views

    • Overall, 8 posts had 1,000+ views, and 15 had 500+ views

    What’s Coming? JAA Outlook for October

    • Industry events –

      • SCTC Annual Conference, Reno, NV, Oct. 12-14 – updates below

      • NiCE 2025 Analyst Summit, Vienna, Austria, Oct. 20-23

    • SCTC Conference updates:

      • Analyst panel – I’ll be speaking along with colleagues Blair Pleasant, and moderator Steve Leaden – Monday at 10am – details here

      • Another SIPtones gig - if you’re coming, make sure to be there for the opening reception on Sunday night, where we’ll be playing a dinner set and a dance set - and if you don’t know about my fun side, check us out here and here

      • Continuing as an SCTC Board member – my current term is up, but as part of the AGM during the conference, I will elect to continue serving in that role

  • Webinar:

  • Active work to keep watch for:

    • White paper for a cloud platform provider – still awaiting publication

    • Market research study on AI adoption for a leading cloud provider

    • Continued guest posts coming – some with my byline and some without – will post about these as they are published – those with my byline will be shared as they are published

    • New projects are in play with several vendors, both current and new clients


  1. Hey, Did You Know?

    … change can be a good thing, and it sure keeps things interesting.
    My output last month was on the light side, but not for lack of things to do. A stubborn chest cough plus the High Holidays kept me off schedule, but with those in the rear-view mirror, a few new wrinkles are coming. I won’t say much now, but here are some changes to keep watch for as the life of an independent analyst evolves:

    • Refresh is in the works for my website

    • I will soon launch my presence on a leading publishing platform, where I plan to expand the mix of formats for creating and sharing thought leadership

    • Am still open to continuing with Watch This Space in its current format, but may also add other podcast offerings on the publishing platform – inquiries welcome

    • I’m exploring avenues to syndicate my work, not just to make it discoverable for wider audiences, but also to help protect my thought leadership and original analysis from being appropriated by AI to train LLMs

  2. And if you still don’t know what my work entails, or how I can help any vendor or service provider grow their business and brand, you really should check out the Politely Pushy podcast about me referenced earlier.

    For the times, they are a-changin’…

JAA’S Communication and Collaboration - September Edition 2025

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This is the shortest newsletter I’ve ever done, and it largely reflects the season. Our space remains as busy as ever, but by design, August was going to be a light month for me. Of course, if I was AI-first, I wouldn’t miss a beat on current developments, but for better or worse, I remain human-first, and need some time away from all this.

The good weather and scheduled vacation breaks took me offline for much of last month, which I view as the calm before the storm when many things pick up after Labor Day. As such, the updates for August are light, plus my Watch This Space podcast is still on hiatus.

Travel to industry events picks up in the Fall, and aside from new project work, I’m actively working on updates to my website, along with adding another platform for my various forms of thought leadership - and interests outside the tech space. Changes are coming, so stay tuned!
 

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from August

Below is a digest of JAA activities from last month, including my other forms of original content, along with my social media stats. Details and links for most of these activities can be found on my blog, or posted on my website.

  • Industry events – none for August - a rarity, but a welcome break

  • Writing roundup – just two last month - digest is here on my blog – both are still timely, and hope you read them both!

  • Social media highlights – since these stats change every day, they are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use LinkedIn – I’ve stopped using Twitter/X for some time – so, here are my approximate tallies for LinkedIn during August:

    • 48,906 views and 28 posts – views are down a bit from June, but almost half fewer posts; another strong month, and have tallied 20,000+ views for each of the last six months

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 7,521 views

    • Overall, 6 posts had 1,000+ views, and 10 had 500+ views


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for September

  • Industry events – three for September:

    • Verint Engage, Orlando, Sept. 8-10

    • Zoomtopia, virtual, Sept. 17

    • Sprinklr Analyst Summit, Nashville, Sept. 28-Oct. 1

  • Active work to keep watch for:

    • White paper just being completed for a cloud platform provider

    • Market research study on AI adoption for a leading cloud provider

    • Continued guest posts coming – some with my byline and some without – will post about these as they are published – those with my byline will be shared as they are published

    • New projects are in play with several vendors, both current and new clients

  • Another SIPtones gig - I’ll be attending, speaking, and performing at the annual SCTC conference, October 12-15 in Reno, NV. The SIPtones ride again, so if you’re coming, make sure to be there for the opening reception, where we’ll be playing a dinner set and a dance set - and if you don’t know about my fun side, check us out here and here.

Hey, Did You Know?

… my Watch This Space podcast may still be on hiatus, but with over 80 episodes in the archive, there’s plenty to check out. Some episodes are based on current events, but others are more evergreen, so quite a bit will still be relevant.
You can check out the full archive here on my website, as well as here on the dedicated WTS webpage. If you’re not sure what topics to choose, drop me a line, and I’ll be happy to steer you to episodes that align with your interests. I’m also open to new ideas and partnerships for WTS, so let me know if you’d like to explore that path.


JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - August 2025

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By now, you should know that Watch This Space is on hiatus, and to learn more, best to check out our most recent episode. With summer in full swing, it will be another month or two before the next iteration takes shape.

Nothing new to add about this, so I’ll reiterate my calls to action from last month below.

If you don’t know, I have lifelong passions in the worlds of culture and creativity, especially around music, literature, art, cinema, comedy, history, travel, cuisine, sports, and urban architecture. I’m very much at home wearing any of those hats, not just at face value, but also where any of them intersect with technology, especially AI. Food for thought, and perhaps future podcast themes, folks.

I won’t stay idle for long, so if inspiration strikes for anything here, I’d love to hear from you. For a deeper dive on Watch This Space, you can access all my recent episodes here on my website, as well as here on the dedicated WTS webpage.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from July

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. Details and links for most of these activities can be found on my blog, or posted on my website.

  • Video segments recorded earlier, but not yet published:

    • NiCE TV, in conversation with Sharang Sharma, Everest Research, June 17

    • NiCE TV, in conversation with Neeraj Verma, NiCE, June 18

  • Writing roundup for July – digest is here on my blog – and if you just read one, this is it - my review of the NiCE Interactions event

  • New July writing, heads-up:

    • Review of the Zoom Perspectives analyst event - will run early August on EM360

    • Article about challenges facing CX leaders - will run in the September issue of Contact Center Pipeline

  • Media citings - there were two for July - link here

  • Social media highlights – since these stats change every day, they are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use LinkedIn – I’ve stopped using Twitter/X for some time – so, here are my approximate tallies for LinkedIn during July:

    • 48,906 views and 28 posts – views are down a bit from June, but almost half fewer posts; another strong month, and have tallied 20,000+ views for each of the last six months

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 7,521 views

    • Overall, 6 posts had 1,000+ views, and 10 had 500+ views


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for August

  • Industry events – none for August, and no complaints - two so far for September, though, plus one virtual event

  • Active work to keep watch for:

    • New article about helping carriers assess various cloud platforms

    • White paper just being completed for a cloud platform provider

    • Market research study on AI adoption for a leading cloud provider

    • Continued guest posts coming – some with my byline and some without – will post about these as they are published – those with my byline will be shared as they are published

    • New projects are in play with several vendors, both current and new clients

  • Another SIPtones gig - sneak peak look-ahead for the fall - I’ll be attending and speaking at the annual SCTC conference, held this October in Reno, NV - also of note (badda boom) - the SIPtones ride again. So if you’re coming, make sure to be there for the opening reception, where we’ll be playing a dinner set and a dance set - and if you don’t know about my fun side, check us out here and here.

Hey, Did You Know?

… summers are short in Canada, so I’m happy to not have any event travel during August. It’s a great time to slow things down, disconnect and restore some work/life balance. Here’s a taste of that vibe, from our July road trip through Southwest Ontario - as you might expect, a lot of trees, water and rocks - and not a billboard in sight!

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - December Edition 2023

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Having travelled to nine industry events over nine weeks, I had a broad perspective to share, and our discussion for this episode centered on Big Tech, triggered by the recent rollercoaster with OpenAI. Aside from exploring concerns and implications about Big Tech’s market power, we parsed out the different frames of reference between analog and digital generations about using AI, along with why we should expect some backlash in 2024. Wrapping up, I shared my thoughts on Verint’s analyst event, which will close out my travels for 2023.

  • 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 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 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 – just two events for November:

    • VON Evolution, New York, Nov. 1-2 – including a special edition live recording of our Watch This Space podcast

    • Verint Analyst Days Event, Scottsdale, Nov. 13-15


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for December

Following my recent stretch of travel to nine different events over nine-weeks, I’m happy to report that December will be travel and event-free. Will be a welcome break, not just to catch up on life, but to properly prepare for a wave of new projects and clients, much of which was a nice byproduct from my travels.
Active work to keep watch for:

  • Recorded a 2024 outlook video segment for EM360 – coming soon

  • Writing a 2024 outlook post for No Jitter – coming soon

  • Wrote a 2024 outlook post for Contact Center Pipeline for their January issue

  • Recorded a podcast about telecom fraud – details and date coming soon

  • Recording a video podcast with a leading conversational AI vendor – coming soon

  • Will be doing a live SCTC Fireside Chat episode – 2024 outlook – January 3

  • Ghost-wrote another article for a senior executive at a leading cloud comms provider – will run in a leading business magazine

  • Continued guest posts coming for two clients – Aizan and Upstream Works 

  • 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 – February 13-15 in Ft. Lauderdale – agenda is now firm, and we’re well along recruiting speakers. If interested in speaking on a panel or helping develop a topic for us to explore, please get in touch


Hey, Did You Know?

… there’s a time to work and a time to chill. Going into the last month of 2023, I’ve done my share of work and travel for this year, and expect things to be quieter in December. As you can see from the above, I’ll have plenty of work to keep me busy for 2024, and I’m grateful for that. 

To help close out 2023, if this photo doesn’t put you in a chill mode - with Zen thoughts for a better, calmer 2024 - I don’t know what will. This was taken just outside my room during the Verint analyst event in Scottsdale last month. I think I captured the moment pretty nicely – am sure Cézanne would have been all over this one if he was here now - and it’s one of my best photos from this year. 

Got lots more where that came from – some gets shared on my blog posts, but I try to post more of the fun stuff on Facebook as time allows. If that’s of interest, feel free to connect with me there.



JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - November Edition 2023

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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:

  • 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

Below: NICE Analyst Summit, Peru – Executive session with Barak Eilam and Barry Cooper, and at the top at Machu Picchu (photo – unknown)

Below: Avaya event at GITEX, Dubai – Executive briefing with analysts, skyline at night

Below: SCTC in Raleigh – my panel session (photo – unknown), and the SIPtones (photo – Fran Blackburn)!

Below: Cisco Webex One in Anaheim – Executive Q&A with analysts, my fireside chat session (photo - Cisco)

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - October Edition 2023

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During September, Chris and I both attended industry events in New York City, and we had lots to talk about. First up was the Cloud Communications Alliance Financial Summit, which I attended for the first time and spoke on the analyst panel session. We discussed how the current state of things – crowded and very competitive – is impacting valuations and growth opportunities. Bottom line – cloud providers need to expand beyond UCaaS into CCaaS and CPaaS, and be ready for what’s coming with AI. Chris recapped two events – CREtech and WORKTECH23, reviewing how today’s office spaces are adapting to bring workers back to the office. This is a key element for anybody’s future of work plans, and Chris also shared first-hand takeaways from tours to Cisco, Google and WestCap’s state-of-the-art facilities. Buckle-up, as we covered a lot of ground in this episode!

  • 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 September

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 – these were listed out last month as a preview for September, and all but one came to pass. October will be just as busy, with even more travel, and details for that are in the next section. Here’s where September took me with industry events:

    • Canadian Communications Technology Consultants Group (CCTC) Networking Event, Sept. 7, Toronto – I gave a keynote presentation and moderated a panel session – highlights are in a recent blog post

    • Avaya Analyst Roundtable, Sept. 12, Toronto – CEO Alan Masarek had to cancel last minute and couldn’t come to town, so this is being re-scheduled virtually

    • Digital CxO Summit, Sept. 13 – I spoke on a panel (virtual event)

    • Huawei Connect, Sept. 20-22, Shanghai, China – blog post coming, along with a feature article in a leading tech publication

    • Cloud Communications Alliance (CCA) Financial Summit 2023, Sept 26-27, NYC – I spoke on the analyst panel, and highlights are in a recent blog post

  • Profile Feature – USA Today – it’s not everyday I turn up in mainstream media, and maybe this will help broaden my reach:

  • Video interview:

    • The Role of Independent Analysts – I was interviewed by Zak Anderson of Evolve IP, Sept. 15 –details here, and the interview was broken up into several segments on their website

  • Webinar:

    • Where to Invest for Long Term Contact Center Success, hosted by ICMI and sponsored by RingCentral, Sept. 27 

  • Guest article – for Frontier Hub, publish date TBA

  • Ghost-writing – one article in a leading tech pub, written for a top executive with a Tier 1 cloud provider

  • Writing Roundup for September – 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 – three 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 Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for September:

For LinkedIn

  • I had 23,668 views and 28 posts – this is the 7th month from the past 8 with 20,000+ views

  • My top LinkedIn post registered 4,219 views 

  • Overall, 5 posts had 1,000+ views, and 11 had 600+ views 

For Twitter/X

  • Only 1,380 impressions – just up a tick from last month – as per last month, I think the end is near with me for this platform

  • My “top tweet” was for my recap post from the CCA event, with just 116 impressions - yeow


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for October

In terms of industry events, the world tour continues during October…September was busy with five events – and October is even busier:

  • UC Expo, London – Oct. 4-5 – will be on four different sessions, so I won’t be hard to find

  • NICE Analyst Summit, Machu Picchu, Peru, Oct. 10-12

  • GITEX GLOBAL, Dubai, UAE – Oct. 16-20

  • SCTC Annual Conference, Raleigh, NC – Oct. 22-24 – I’ll be doing a presentation, along with a short music set with the SIPtones! 

  • Cisco WebexOne, Anaheim, CA – Oct. 24-25 – attending as an analyst, but also speaking on a panel session

Active work to keep watch for:

  • Attending and speaking at VON Evolution in NYC, Nov. 1-2 – including a special edition live recording of our Watch This Space podcast

  • Three case studies I have written for a vendor in the Teams ecosystem – in the process of being published now

  • New CX Pulse podcast with NICE – should publish this month

  • New guest blog post coming for a leading contact center vendor

  • New white paper being written now for a leading contact center vendor

  • Writing a guest article for a leading tech pub about my recent China trip, where our group toured a smart port facility – I also have a shorter post coming about this on my blog 

  • Continued guest posts coming for three clients – Aizan, Upstream Works and TeamMate

  • Early-stage planning for my speaking role for Enterprise Connect 2024

  • 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?

… all this travel planning takes a lot work? It just doesn’t happen on its own, and I don’t have a chatbot assistant to handle the details. Maybe soon, but not yet, so that’s all I got for this section. Next month will be a different story, and I should have some nice photos to share from my stops along the way.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - September Edition 2023

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This month, our attention pivoted to the world of customer service, which is undergoing unprecedented transformation – and disruption. There are many themes to cover, and here’s the gist of what we talked about on this episode. The same technologies that contact centers have now embraced to better understand the customer journey can also be used to determine which customers are the most valuable, as well as those they’d rather do without. Ineptitude isn’t the only reason customers are driven away by bad service, and we explore how bad service can also be by design. Jon and Chris raise some darker realities of how customer service is evolving, and how transformative technologies like AI can be a double-edged sword, depending on how well business priorities are aligned with trying to be customer-centric.

  • 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 August

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 – just one for August, but it was a good one, as I gave two well-received presentations:

    • Cooperative Technologies Conference and Expo, August 8-9, Myrtle Beach, SC – highlights here on my blog

  • Guest blog post - for Aizan:

    • How AI is Transforming Voice Communications for Business, August 31

  • Guest article - for Contact Center Pipeline: 

  • Another guest article – ran Aug. 1, so you might have missed it earlier:

  • Video segments/interviews:

    • Big UC News – topics: Verizon/Bluejeans, Zoom Phone, WhatsApp, Back to Office Woes, Aug. 30

    • ARMdevices.net – my take on Mobile World Congress Shanghai and 5G trends, published Aug. 18

  • Podcast:

    • AI and the Contact Center, with Tim Shi, CTO, Cresta, Aug. 18 

  • New kudo:

  • Writing Roundup for August – just two pieces to share – hope you can read both - 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 – three 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 Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for August:

For LinkedIn

  • I had 32,784 views and 21 posts – views are double from July, mainly due to one particular post, but that’s the highest overall tally by month this year

  • My top LinkedIn post registered 11,237 views – by far, the highest post YTD 

  • Overall, 6 posts had 1,000+ views, and 12 had 700+ views 

For Twitter/X

  • Only 1,143 impressions, and 7 new followers – by far, the lowest monthly tally ever – I think the end is near with me for this platform – I’m not a big social media person, and clearly X and I don’t have much in common any more!

  • My “top tweet” was for my video interview during MWC in Shanghai, with a measly 183 impressions - wow  


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for September

In terms of industry events, September is busy with five events – and October is even busier:

  • Canadian Communications Technology Consultants Group (CCTC) Networking Event, Sept. 7, Toronto – am giving a keynote presentation and moderating a panel session

  • Avaya Analyst Roundtable, Sept. 12, Toronto

  • Digital CxO Summit, Sept. 13 – am speaking on a panel (virtual event)

  • Huawei Connect, Sept. 20-22, Shanghai, China – details coming

  • Cloud Communications Alliance (CCA) Financial Summit 2023, Sept 26-27, NYC – will be speaking on a panel; details coming soon

Active work to keep watch for:

  • Webinar hosted by ICMI – Where to Invest for Long-Term Contact Center Success, am a panelist, Sept. 27 

  • Three case studies I have written for a vendor in the Teams ecosystem – all will be published this month

  • New CX Pulse podcast with NICE – will publish this month

  • Two ghost-written articles that should be published this month

  • Was interviewed on a podcast for a leading cloud provider – publishing any time now

  • Was profiled in an article about digital transformation trends – should run this month in a major US publication

  • New white paper being written now for a leading contact center vendor

  • Writing my first guest post about 5G IoT deployments for an online publication – details coming, and will be doing more writing here

  • Continued guest posts coming for three clients – Aizan, Upstream Works and TeamMate

  • Another white paper that a client has started, and I’ve been engaged to help finish

  • Mapping out my various speaking roles for the UC Expo event in London this October

  • Mapping out a speaking gig at an event for a Top 3 vendor in this space for October

  • Early-stage planning for my speaking role for Enterprise Connect 2024

  • My Future of Work Expo 2024 – next February in Ft. Lauderdale – firming up the agenda now, and then I’ll be reaching out to start lining up my speakers – if interested in speaking on a panel or helping develop a topic for us to explore, please get in touch


Hey, Did You Know?
… I have a new mascot? Vendors send me lots of stuff, and many of these goodies make for fun mascots. As you can from above, it’s crazy busy already for the fall, and new things just keep coming my way. Some of them don’t make it to the newsletter, but am very glad you’re following along with me here. So, to counter all that busy-ness, it’s good to power down and keep things real simple, especially with the summer weather still here.
What could be simpler and calming – not to mention super soft and soooo cute – than this guy/gal? Yup – an alpaca from NICE – the vendor, not the city in France! They treat the analyst community really well – yeah, nice – last year they took us to Marrakesh, and this fall we’re going to Machu Pichu, Peru for their 2023 Analyst Summit. Wow, huh? Updates to follow on this fantastic event, but for now, how can this not put you in a good mood, and chill out a bit before all the craziness starts again after Labor Day.

Oh – for those who pay attention – bonus points if you know what the alpaca is standing on? There’s a clue in the para above.  

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - August Edition 2023

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We usually cover multiple topics on WTS, but my recent trip to China was so fascinating – and touched on so many tangents – that we didn’t talk about anything else. The main topic was my experience at the Mobile World Congress event in Shanghai, with some sidebars to my broader impressions of going to China for the first time. Technology-wise, 5G is the big story here, and not many Westerners have seen what I got see, so if you want to know what’s coming in the wireless world, this is the episode for you.

  • 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 of our podcasts here on my JAA website. 


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from July

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, 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 – it took some time to recover from China, and I was not the least bit road sick to have a travel-free July – plus plenty of events on the books for early fall

  • Guest blog posts - 2 for TeamMate:

    • Helping Customers Migrate to Teams Without Compromising on Telephony, July 18

    • Discover the Key Differences Between MS Teams and MS Phone System, July 11

  • Guest article: 

    • submitted a new writeup for Contact Center Pipeline, which will run in the September issue

  • Webinar:

    • NICE Talks – How AI is driving CX, with Lauren Maschio, July 20 

  • Judging – I got to announce the winner for Collaboration Leader of the Year for the UC Awards 2023 event on July 27 – Alan Masarek, CEO of Avaya

  • Writing Roundup for July – summarized 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 – three citations last month – apologies, the link to view these as a group has a glitch, and will have this fixed for next issue – however, citations can be viewed individually at the bottom of the home page on my website

  • 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 July:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 16,720 views and 23 posts – views and activity are well down from June, mainly due to my China trip, where most social media was blocked

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,570 views, and overall, 4 posts had 1,000+ views, and 10 had 700+ views 

    • For Twitter – there were 1,918 impressions, 211 profile visits, 25 mentions, 10 tweets and 4 fewer followers – very low numbers - same story as with LinkedIn, plus the overall drop-off in general for anyone using X - nee Twitter – with the new name and crazy rules, I expect that trend will only continue

    • My “top tweet” for my writeup about the Avaya ENGAGE event with 441 impressions 


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for August

In terms of industry events, just one for August:

  • Cooperative Technologies Conference and Expo, August 8-9, Myrtle Beach, SC – am speaking on two sessions:

    • Future of Work – What’s AI Got to Do with It? – solo presentation

    • Let’s Ask ChatGPT! – interactive demo with Generative AI platforms

Active work to keep watch for:

  • Guest article about the MWC Shanghai event for RCR Wireless

  • Three case studies in the works for a vendor in the Teams ecosystem

  • Two guest posts already written, and coming for August – each for different clients

  • Two more guest posts to be written for August with a leading UCaaS player

  • Being interviewed on a podcast for a leading cloud provider

  • New white paper and podcast in the works now for a leading contact center vendor

  • Mapping out my various speaking roles for the UC Expo event in London this October

  • Firming up details for two speaking gigs at industry events in the early fall

  • Two more speaking spots in place now – SCTC annual conference in Raleigh, and the CCTC annual event in Toronto

  • Early-stage planning for my speaking role for Enterprise Connect 2024

  • My Future of Work Expo 2024 – next February in Ft. Lauderdale – firming up the agenda now, and then I’ll be reaching out to start lining up my speakers – if interested in speaking on a panel or helping develop a topic for us to explore, please get in touch


Hey, Did You Know?
… Alexander Graham Bell (AGB) remains a giant in the world of technology innovation, and his contributions are still very much with us in 2023. I got first-hand evidence of this over the past few weeks - going from East to West - and you’ll be hard-pressed to come across this many far-flung connections in one place, and I have the photos to prove it. Here you go…

From East to West – first, at Huawei’s HQ in Shenzhen, China. During one of our campus tours, they had a rotating photo gallery of Western scientists and inventors who paved the way for modern communications, including of course, AGB. Now shifting West, during last week’s vacation to Nova Scotia, we did a pilgrimage to the AGB museum in Baddeck, which is a pretty coastal town on Cape Breton Island. This was Bell’s summer home, where he did a lot of great work – and telephony was just one of his many passions. You really need to visit to get a full appreciation of just how much he accomplished, and why I would take his legacy over Edison’s any day – and that’s not an easy thing to say. If you do visit, it’s worth noting that his summer home is still standing – but not on the site of the museum – and he’s buried there as well.

And now for something in between, and two telephony artifacts from that era that could still function very well in 2023. First, a very cool party line phone that was part of the décor at a Victorian-era guest house we stayed at in rural Nova Scotia. If you don’t know what a party line was, then that will be your homework for the next issue, and am happy to talk that over with you any time. Especially notable is how the front panel opens up, where you can see a rotary dial, along with all the mechanicals that made it work – I’ve never seen this variation of a party phone before – wow – was just lucky to stay in a place that was full of stuff like this. Next photo – also from the AGB museum – a vintage switchboard – looks good as new. VoIP and packet switched networks made this obsolete a long time ago, so it’s hard to appreciate now just how much ingenuity went into making phone service nearly universal.


JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - July Edition 2023

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While we intended to discuss a few current topics, our current episode ended up being mostly about June’s Avaya ENGAGE event. Given how interesting Avaya’s situation has become – what I now call Act III – our discussion also reflected on the broader state of technology, and how the pervasiveness of Big Tech should be of concern to all of us. Whether you want to see Avaya succeed or fail, I think you’ll find our take of interest, especially if you’re in the former camp.

  • 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 of our podcasts here on my JAA website. 


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from June

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, 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 – two events last month, and both were notable:

    • Avaya Engage, June 19-21, Orlando, FL

    • Mobile World Congress Asia, June 27-29, Shanghai, China

  • Guest blog post:

    • Raising the Bar for A2P Messaging, Aizan blog

  • Podcasts: 

    • Telecom Reseller – Enreach White Paper, June 21

    • EM360 – Talking Generative AI with Cresta’s CMO, June 1

  • White Paper:

    • Enreach – Converged Contact – Going Beyond Mobile UCaaS to Give Businesses a Competitive Edge

  • Judging – completed judging for the UC Awards 2023 – winners to be announced during the awards event on July 27

  • Writing Roundup for June – summarized 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 Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for June:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 24,510 views and 22 posts – up about 20% from May

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 2,303 views, and overall, 7 posts had 1,000+ views, and 13 had 700+ views 

    • For Twitter – there were 7,973 impressions, 598 profile visits, 31 mentions, 16 tweets and 6 fewer followers – as with May, another light month due to travel, but numbers were notably higher

    • My “top tweet” was about the Avaya ENGAGE event with 1,640 impressions, and 5 posts overall with 500+ impressions 

  • SIPtones update – have finally managed to add two recent video clips, both from our 2021 show in San Diego – Heard it Through the Grapevine (Gladys Knight version!) and a more polished version of Oye Como Va, one of my favorites. Others will be added in time for the August newsletter, both from the 2021 show, and our most recent gig in Dallas from October 2022 – hope you check these out!


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for July

For a change, no industry events or travel, and I’m not the least bit disappointed!
Active work to keep watch for:

  • My takeaways from the MWC event I just attended in Shanghai

  • Video interview I did with a tech blogger during my China trip

  • Second podcast segment coming for a contact center vendor about Generative AI

  • Four guest posts coming – one about AI-driven voice applications, two about integrating telephony with Teams, and one about how AI is impacting the contact center

  • Webinar on the role of AI in transforming customer experience for a leading CCaaS provider on July 20 – registration details coming soon

  • Interview to preview my session and what’s coming for UCX USA in September

  • Prep for my presenting role as a judge for the 2023 UC Awards on July 27

  • Prep for two sessions I’m speaking on at an August event in the Smart Grid space about Generative AI

  • Prep for my next guest article for Contact Center Pipeline

  • Prep call to plan out my speaking role for Enterprise Connect 2024

  • In discussion with a handful of vendors and agencies about new projects

  • Future of Work Expo 2024 – next February seems far away, but am already in planning mode – if interested in speaking on a panel or helping develop a topic for us to explore, please get in touch


Hey, Did You Know?

…they have Five Guys in China? Who knew? Well, they have a whole lot more than that of course, and being my first trip to Asia, I took a whole lot of photos. Am just going to tease you here with some, and I’ll be sharing others in various places soon.
So, Five Guys is alright, but I didn’t come to China for burgers. If you know me, then you’ll know that I’ll take the local food any day…

At Mobile World Congress in Shanghai – busy place and barely got through one of the five exhibit halls. Here’s a great demo from the Huawei exhibit – 3D video on a PC screen – without any 3D glasses. Can’t do it justice here, but very impressive.

As with all big cities, incredible contrasts, and the same can be said for what Iittle of China I saw. View from a Shanghai river boat - most spectacular skyline I’ve ever seen, and a humbler – but guarded - gateway entrance to an apartment courtyard near my hotel.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - June Edition 2023

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Our May episode started with my takeaways from Five9’s analyst event in Porto, Portugal, with a parallel discussion about how they’re using AI to transform customer service, along with how broader generational changes are increasingly AI and tech-centric. Our analog lens pre-dates these changes, and we explored how digital transformation is taking automation to new levels. We don’t know where it’s heading, but there’s a big difference between automating tasks and processes and automating thought and emotion. The singularity could be closer than Kurzweil predicted – 2045 – and we left off with the robotics of the mind for our listeners to ponder.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform – you can access it anytime 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 of our podcasts here on my JAA website. 


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from May

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, 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 – only one May, but it sure made for a great trip:

    • Five9 Analyst Summit, May 8-10, Porto, Portugal

  • Guest blog post:

    • How to Manage Telecom Fraud, Contact Center Pipeline, May issue

  • Podcasts: 

    • Cresta – Generative AI in the Contact Center, hosted by EM360

    • NICE – Improving Fraud Detection Through Training and AI

  • White Paper:

    • Aizan – Re-Thinking the On-Hold Experience

  • Webinar:

    • Mapping Out Your Business Case for a Successful Digital Transformation, hosted by RCR Wireless

  • Judging – returning to be a judge for the UC Awards 2023

  • Kudo – Top 16 UCaaS Influencers to Follow in 2023, 8x8

  • Writing Roundup for May – summarized 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 Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for May:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 20,286 views and 21 posts – lighter from recent months, mainly due to higher-than-normal personal travel that kept me off social media

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,993 views, and overall, 4 posts had 1,000+ views, and 12 had 700+ views 

    • For Twitter – there were 4,703 impressions, 171 profile visits, 38 mentions, 9 tweets and 5 fewer followers – another light month, and as Elon Musk continues to tinker with the platform, its utility becomes more problematic

    • My “top tweet” was about a new podcast with NICE, with 1,757 impressions 


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for June

Only one industry event at the moment, but two others are still in the works:

  • Avaya Engage, June 19-21, Orlando, FL

Active work to keep watch for:

  • Recording a second podcast segment for a contact center vendor about Generative AI

  • Three guest posts coming – one about AI, one about Generative AI, and one for the contact center space

  • New white paper publishing this month – in the collaboration space for an EU provider

  • In discussion with a handful of vendors and agencies about new projects, some of which could be starting this month 

  • Future of Work Expo 2024 – next February seems far away, but am already in planning mode – if interested in speaking on a panel or helping develop a topic for us to explore, please get in touch


Hey, Did You Know?
…Even though I had just one industry event, it was a pretty good month for travel. Three trips across successive weeks, with two being to Europe – that was a first for me. From Porto to the Palace, I got a taste of Portugal and the UK. 

If you follow my social feeds, you’ll know I was at the Five9 Analyst and Influencer Summit in Porto; and if you follow me on Facebook, I’ve posted a bunch of photos there from that trip with my partner, Sara. In lieu of that, here are some snippets from those travels.

From Porto – very Porto with that skyline and tile roofs everywhere, bunny house (?), Five9’s Jonathan Rosenberg giving a great overview of ChatGPT, and how this is not about chatbots.

From London – road to the Palace, what’s more British than a British Telecom phone box?, and highlight of the trip – finale from the Jeff Beck tribute concert at Royal Albert Hall – bet you’ll never see this collection of legends onstage together again - wow.



JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - May Edition 2023

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Our May episode took us to Boston and New York, where I recounted takeaways from Extreme Networks’ analyst event, and Chris did the same for Jeff Pulver’s VON reboot. Framing those highlights was a broader discussion about where AI is taking us, and what the new generation of tech entrepreneurs is bringing to a space where events like VON played a formative role. I also provided a reality check about how tech is driving today’s fan experience, and it has very little to do with watching the ballgame.

  • 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 of our podcasts here on my JAA website. 


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from April

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, 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 – just one for April: 

    • Extreme Networks, 2023 Influencer Summit, April 4-5, Boston

  • Guest blog posts – two for last month:

  • Podcast – Enterprise Connect Takeaways, Telecom Reseller Podcast

  • Webinars – busy month, with four:

    • CCSC – State of Play in the Contact Center

    • NICE – AI Building Blocks for Delivering Exceptional CX, with John Willcutts

    • SCTC – Fireside Chat #144 – Enterprise Connect Takeaways (replays only for SCTC members)

    • SCTC – Fireside Chat #146 – AI – Why All the Buzz?

  • Video segments – four more here as well:

    • NICE – LinkedIn Live – How AI Has Changed the CX Landscape

    • ZKast – Enterprise Connect Review, with Zeus Kerravala

    • Big UC News – Microsoft Teams, Enterprise Connect Announcements 

    • UCX USA – How to Keep Your Customers and Employees Happy in 2023

  • Writing Roundup for April – summarized 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 – just one citation 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 Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for April:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 28,350 views and 27 posts – third month running with 25k+ views

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,586 views, and overall, 8 posts had 1,000+ views, and 16 had 600+ views 

    • For Twitter – there were 3,300 impressions, 678 profile visits, 63 mentions, 21 tweets and 6 fewer followers – gotta take the good with the bad, and being a light month for using this app, the metrics show it

    • My “top tweet” was about a ChatGPT webinar with NICE, with 712 impressions 


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for May

Only one industry event at the moment for May:

  • Five9 Analyst Summit, May 8-10, Porto, Portugal

Active work to keep watch for:

  • Recording two podcast segments for a contact center vendor about Generative AI

  • Three guest posts coming – one about AI, one about Generative AI, and one for the contact center space

  • News posts coming both for No Jitter and TechTarget

  • Ongoing series of ghost-written posts for a contact center vendor

  • Two white papers that should publish this month – one in the contact center space, and one for mobility

  • Future of Work Expo 2024 – next February seems far away, but am already in planning mode – if interested in speaking on a panel or helping develop a topic for us to explore, please get in touch

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - April Edition 2023

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With in-person conferences back in full swing, the April episode served as a roundup of recent and upcoming events on our calendars, namely 8x8, Enterprise Connect, VON Evolution and HPE Aruba. Plenty to review and preview, but we also broadened our discussion around the current state of enterprise communications. In particular, we talked about what’s missing to make meetings feel more immersive, as well as inclusive. We even went out on a limb to talk about how collaboration vendors can borrow from the retail world to build their brands and showcase how great their experiences can be. Plenty of food for thought, and we hope you’ll check out the April episode.

  • 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 of our podcasts here on my JAA website. 


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from March

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, along with my social media stats. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry conferences – just two for March, but Enterprise Connect is the biggest industry event in my world, requiring a lot of preparation, and now being in the rear-view mirror, quite a bit of follow up for new business

    • 8x8 Analyst Day, March 10, NYC

    • Enterprise Connect, March 27-30, Orlando, FL

  • LinkedIn Live event – March 23 with NICE, in conversation with Elizabeth Tobey about the growing role of AI in the contact center

  • Webinar recording – recorded a session with NICE – part of a four-segment series that will be presented over the next few weeks

  • Video chats – two to share:

    • Genesys – State of CX interview done during Enterprise Connect

    • Big UC News segment – March 3 – Avaya Ch. 11, Zoho, and the state of Webex

  • Video segment – this was fun – March 9 – live recording, am interviewed by colleague Dave Michels for his video series Influence Me! – see Did You Know? section below for more detail and how to watch it

  • Podcasts – recorded two segments:

    • Telecom Reseller News – was a guest on Doug Green’s podcast, recorded at Enterprise Connect

    • New episode for NICE’s CX Pulse podcast series – coming soon!

  • New kudo – from 8x8 – 16 CCaaS Influencers to Follow on Twitter

  • Writing Roundup for March – just 2 public writeups last month, summarized 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 – no citations last month, but April will be a different story 

  • 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 March:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 31,091 views and 34 posts – up somewhat from previous month, and strongest stats since November

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 2,972 views and overall, 7 posts had 1,000+ views, and 14 had 800+ views 

    • For Twitter – there were 6,945 impressions, 685 profile visits, 78 mentions, 34 tweets and 9 new followers – down overall from previous month – no idea why

    • My “top tweet” was about SCTC speakers who will be at Enterprise Connect, with 541 impressions


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for April

Only one industry event on the calendar for this month, and it’s a new one for me:

  • Extreme Networks, 2023 Influencer Summit, April 4-5, Boston

Active work to keep watch for:

  • Video interview guest on another episode of Big UC News – Enterprise Connect highlights

  • Webinar coming for an industry association, where I’ll be providing a CCaaS overview

  • Guest post is coming for a leading publication in the channel space

  • Guest post coming on the blog site of a leading UCaaS player

  • Guest post coming for a leading publication in the enterprise comms space

  • Executive Q&A interview coming for a leading Future of Work publication

  • Contact Center Pipeline – new guest article coming

  • Two white papers that should publish during April – one in the contact center space, and one for mobility


Hey, Did You Know?

…Dave Michels says I’m “one of the funniest people I know”, so it must be true.

We’ve both been indie analysts for a long time, and Influence Me! is one of Dave’s video interview series, and this one is on the fun side, where he interviews his guests about what makes them tick, and what’s cool to know about our lives outside of tech. 

While at the 8x8 analyst event last month, we recorded this on the fly, so it’s literally Live-From-New-York, via the free WiFi at a Starbucks spot on Broadway. This segment was episode 5 in his series, and it was a lot of fun. We sure could have gone on for hours, and maybe we’ll do it again soon. So many stories, so little time; but hey, now you’ll get to know a whole lot more about me. Chances are you won’t know any of these things, and who knows where things can go from here? Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for having me as a guest, Dave! Click here to watch. 




JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - March Edition 2023

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Our last WTS episode was a Future of Work Expo Preview, and this one is about the FOW Expo Review. Over 3 days, we had 18 sessions, dozens of speakers, and a very engaged audience – to find out what you missed, this is the podcast for you. Chris and I discuss the highlights, and if you weren’t there, we hope this gets the event on your calendar for next February. For more about the event, including photos and press coverage, please visit my blog. 

  • 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 of our podcasts here on my JAA website.


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from February

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, along with my social media stats. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry conferences – was just my Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, Feb. 14-16 – the event was a success on many fronts, and my recent blog posts show and tell most of the story – hope you check those out, and feel free to share

  • White paper – for NICE, The Business Value of AI Beyond the Contact Center

  • Guest articles – three from last month – see blog for details:

    • Ooma – on their blog – 2023 Outlook for the Business Market: Taking Care of Business

    • Ooma – sponsored post on No Jitter – Managing Communications to Address Operating Challenges in 2023

    • TekVizion – Why Service Providers Need Continuous Testing to Support Microsoft Teams

  • Webinar – Feb. 28, with SkySwitch, hosted by Channel Futures – How to Boost Your Business with White Label UCaaS

  • Video chats – two last month:

    • Big CX News – Feb. 1 – AWS, Avaya and ChatGPT

    • Big UC News segment – recorded Feb. 24, but not published yet

  • Video segment – I recorded some segments for UCX USA, and these will surface over the next few weeks

  • Writing Roundup for February – 5 public writeups last month, summarized 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 – had 4 citations last month from a variety of media outlets

  • 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 February:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 26,7891 views and 29 posts – up substantially from previous month, mostly due to activity during Future of Work Expo

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 2,313 views and overall, 10 posts had 1,000+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 9,736 impressions, 807 profile visits, 122 mentions, 23 tweets and 5 new followers – up substantially from previous month, due also to activity during Future of Work Expo

    • My “top tweet” was during FOW Expo, with 1,654 impressions 


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for March

At the moment, there are 3 industry events on the calendar for this month:

  • 8x8 Analyst Day, March 20, NYC

  • AudioCodes Analyst Day, March 16, virtual

  • Enterprise Connect, March 27-30, Orlando, FL

Active work to keep watch for:

  • Contact Center Pipeline – working on a new guest article

  • NICE – a new CX Pulse podcast episode is in the works

  • Guest post is coming for a leading tech publication

  • Starting a new series of guest articles for both a well-known UCaaS player, as well as a leading cloud services provider

  • Two white papers finishing up – one in the contact center space, and one for mobility

  • Will be a guest on an episode of a fun video series – stay tuned 

Hey, Did You Know?

… You can save $400 on your registration fee to attend Enterprise Connect later this month? If you or anyone you know can use this towards making some plans to go, feel free to apply the discount code in the visual below. While at the event, I sure hope you attend my session, running Wednesday, March 29 at 4pm. We’ll be talking about the state of AI-driven speech tech for the enterprise, and joining me will be speakers from Zoom, Dialpad and LumenVox.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - February Edition 2023

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Our February WTS episode is titled “Future of Work Expo Preview, and Highlights from the Leesman Powering Hybrid Work 2023 Study”.  I’m returning as Chair for Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, and Chris will be active there too, so with the event fast-approaching, we started this episode with a preview of what to expect, and for those who can join us, you won’t be disappointed. Following that, Chris walked us through five key themes from this new global study, co-produced by Aruba Networks and Leesman. Never a dull moment, and the research confirms many foundational notions that business leaders need to base decisions on for supporting hybrid work.


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from January

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. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry conference roundup – thankfully, a much-needed break from travel, and with many new projects on the go now, I had plenty to keep me busy from the comforts of my home office

  • Webinars – did two last month:

    • an IR webinar as part of BCStrategies on Jan. 12, 2023 Crystal Ball for Collaboration

    • a NICEtalk webinar on Jan. 26, highlighting a recent white paper I did for them

  • Video chats – two of these ran during January:

    • for UC Today, Biggest UC Trends for 2023, recorded in December, but posted early January

    • return guest on Bix CX News on Jan. 26, talking about Avaya, AWS and Chat GPT

  • Video segment – pre-recorded some segments for UCX USA, and these will surface over the next few weeks

  • New kudo – was named a 2023 Top 100 Collaboration Influencer by UCX USA

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for January – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies – just one public post this month, so pretty light at the moment on that front

  • Media citings – was a busy month, with 6 citations from a variety of media outlets

  • 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 January:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 16,731 views and 25 posts – up slightly from December, but lower than previous months, likely due to not going to any industry events

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 1,444 views and overall, 7 posts had 700+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 4,135 impressions, 292 profile visits, 22 mentions, 12 tweets and 9 new followers – similar to December, and these lighter numbers reflect my generally declining Twitter usage

    • My “top tweet” was for my upcoming webinar with NICE, with 541 impressions 


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for February

  • Main event for me will be Future of Work Expo, Feb.14-16, 2023 – agenda published now – the program is pretty much complete, and just learned that our sessions will now be running in a larger room – that’s great news, as last time, the room was full most all the time 

  • Running an event is WAY more work than attending one, and the intensity of preparing for FOW Expo pays off when the speakers do their thing, along with having an engaged audience – then, not long after that, I need to shift focus to Enterprise Connect, where I’m running a panel session on speech tech, and am one of the judges for the Innovation Showcase, hosted by colleague Dave Michels

  • Judging – Talkdesk CX Innovator Awards – I was one of five judges, and our evaluations were done a few months ago - and the results are being shared during this webinar on February 1

  • Regarding active client and industry work, all I’m going to say here is that in addition to ongoing work with some regular clients, a number of new projects have started up with new clients, and inquiries from companies looking to see how we can work together have been coming in on a regular basis.

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - January Edition 2023

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Season 6 of Watch This Space kicks off 2023 with an episode titled “Our 2023 Outlook – High Hopes for AI, But We Think Analog Tech is Still Cool – Plus Future of Work Expo Preview”. As we usually do at this time of year, Chris and I provide our take on what to expect in 2023. We haven’t had this much economic uncertainty in many years, making our outlook more about survive than thrive, but also with a sense of promise for AI. For fellow analog lovers, Chris shares a treat, the NY subway “traintrackr”; and a preview for my Future of Work Expo, running Feb. 14-16 – more on that in this newsletter.


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from December

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. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry conference roundup – just one event, where I was a moderator:

    • Internet 2.0 Conference, December 19-21, Las Vegas 

  • Speaking events – I spoke/presented virtually three times last month: 

    • Five9’s CX Canada Summit - on cloud migration strategies for contact centers

    • SCTC Fireside Chat – I’ve Been Everywhere, Man! – takeaways from my recent run of travel to various industry events

    • Big CX News – Episode 3 – roundtable review of recent industry news items along with other analysts – talking about RingCentral, AWS and Salesforce

  • Here’s my Writing Roundup post for December – it’s a monthly digest of my thought leadership across various channels, including Tech Target, No Jitter and BC Strategies – just one public post this month, but more will be coming for January – if you’ve ever wondered why telecom fraud is so problematic, you’ll find my post a good read

  • Media citings – I had 3 citations for December

  • 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 December:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 15,958 views and 16 posts – big drop-off from recent months – not sure why – but also had half the number of posts last month compared to the last few months

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 2,011 views and overall, 7 posts had 900+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 4,062 impressions, 523 profile visits, 128 mentions, 17 tweets and 6 fewer followers – much lower than November, and these numbers have generally been trending downward most all year, and likely reflects broader trends for declining Twitter usage

    • My “top tweet” was during the Five9 CX Canada Summit, with 1,285 impressions 


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for January

  • No industry events this month to kick off 2023, but two are on tap for February, and a third one possibly being added

  • Two upcoming podcasts/interviews in January

    • IR webinar – Crystal Ball for 2023 trends

    • Clarion Events Tech Tuesday – expert discussion – topic TBA

  • Future of Work Expo, Feb.14-16, 2023 – agenda published now – am full-on in speaker recruitment mode now – contact me if you think there’s a session here you/your company should be on, as well as any interest in sponsoring 

  • In terms of active client and industry work, here are some current highlights:

    • Two white papers - one being finished up, and one due to launch soon

    • Another webinar being scheduled for a system integrator on cloud migration

    • Continued guest posts and podcasts coming for different vendors in the CCaaS space

    • Guest post coming for a vendor in the testing space

    • Ongoing research for a series of articles coming for a VoIP services start-up 


Hey Did You Know....

2022 was my strongest year to date, and 2023 looks to be just as promising. To provide readers with a sense for how this adds up to reflect all the various things I do, below is my annual “by the numbers” tally. First for my social media metrics, trending monthly for LinkedIn and Twitter. Following that is a breakdown of the things that kept me busy during 2022.

Social Media Footprint – 2022 By the Numbers

Diverging trends between Twitter and LinkedIn compared to 2021 – Twitter impressions are now less than half what they were a year ago, while LinkedIn views are up 58%. Even before Elon Musk came into the picture, my sense is that Twitter use has been declining for some time, at least in our space, so on that basis, I’m not surprised at the drop in impressions here.

Interestingly, if you tally these two data sets – the combined gross number is almost the same as 2021. Whereas last year, my total tallies for Twitter and LinkedIn were very close (actually a tad more for Twitter), for 2022, LinkedIn is now more than 3X that of Twitter. Keep in mind that I’m equating impressions and views at face value, and that’s probably not a valid comparison. I’m not expert enough in social media to say if one is more valuable than the other, but for what drives my business, I put much more stock my LinkedIn traffic than Twitter.

Speaking of Twitter, I’m not 100% certain I’ll stay on the platform through 2023. I’m not optimistic about where Musk seems to be taking things, but I also don’t have the inclination to cut bait yet and migrate to a new platform like Mastodon, as some of my colleagues have started doing. I’ll give it a few more months, and if things go from bad to worse, I might be done with Twitter.

Thought Leadership and Business Activity – 2022 By the Numbers

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

  • 28 conferences/industry events – mostly live, 10 involved   speaking and/or moderating

  • 50 published articles/guest posts/ghost written

  • 89 posts on my JAA blog

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

  • 11 webinars/video segments

  •   5 white papers/e-books

  • 12 editions of this newsletter 

  • 35 JAA citings in the media

  •   6 new industry accolades    

  •   1 event serving as a judge 

  •   1 SIPtones gig

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - December Edition 2022

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Season 5 of Watch This Space wraps up with an episode titled “Zoom + Tesla, Twilio and Digital Execution, Mavenir and Industry 4.0, and Our 2022 Takeaways”. I attended three more industry conferences during November, and along with Chris, we explored the future of work implications – and there were many. Being the December episode, we closed things out with our 2022 takeaways, and will resume next month with our 2023 outlook. 

  • As we head into Season 6, thought I’d mention that the November episode had the most downloads to date for WTS, and the past few months have been trending upward nicely. We’re hoping that’s a sign that we’re finally finding our audience – or maybe it’s the other way around.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on my website, or on the Watch This Space website.  

  • NEW: podcast updates on my website – we’ve added two new features to encourage listener engagement, as well as making earlier episodes easier to find:

    • We now have a comments box, where listeners can give us feedback or to suggest new topics for future episodes – just scroll down here a bit, and let us know what you think – we’d love to hear from you!

    • Podcast archive is now taking shape, and the same will be coming soon for the newsletter – using that same scroll down link from above - following the comments - you can access thumbs and links for all the 2022 episodes – Season 5

    • Scroll past that, you’ll a see click box to access 2021 episodes, Season 4 – the links are there now, and thumbs coming soon – and following that, we’ll be adding earlier seasons

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms – namely iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights 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 industry event calendar, other forms of original content, and my social media stats on LinkedIn and Twitter. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry events – following an epic month of travel to conferences, I had a more manageable three to attend during November:

  • New Advisory Board role – for UCX USA, produced by UK-based Clarion Events – I’m one of many advisors for this newly-created event that launches next September in Austin, TX – stay tuned

  • White paper – AI for the Contact Center – It’s so much More than Chatbots, for NICE

  • Insight report - The AI Opportunity: Enhance the Agent and Customer Experience with AI Application Integrations, for Upstream Works

  • Podcasts – two last month:

    • with Mark Sher from Intermedia, talking about cloud migration, hosted by EM360

    • guest on NICE’s CX Pulse podcast, talking about the digital agent experience

  • 2023 predictions – updates coming when each of these runs:

    • Video segment done with a panel for Today Digital – focus on UCaaS 

    • Short writeup about contact center predictions for Contact Center Pipeline

  • Writing roundup – three public postings last month – you can read them here

  • Media citings – just one for November - here

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of JAA’s reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for November:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 51,833 views from 32 posts – down a bit from October, but it’s the eighth strong month in a row – all with 23,000+ views 

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 7,491 views, and overall, 7 posts had 1,000+ views, and 16 posts had 700+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 10,700 impressions – double from October, 1,057 profile visits, 139 mentions – also double from October, 42 tweets, but also 28 fewer followers 

    • My “top tweet” was about my webinar with Five9, with 2,363 impressions, and 8 tweets had 300+ impressions

  • SIPtones highlights – if you don’t know, we’re a music band of consultants, and we perform when we can at industry events. You can check out video clips and photos on the My Music tab, and new clips are coming from our still-fresh gig the 2022 SCTC conference, and eventually something from our 2021 San Diego gig. Until those come, here’s a photo from our SCTC gig in Dallas (thanks to Cyndi Crews):


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for December

  • At the moment, there is just one travel event during December:

    • Internet 2.0 Conference, December 19-21, Las Vegas – this is a new event for me, and I’ll be moderating a panel on the Metaverse on Day 3 – details coming soon

  • Five9 CX Canada Summit – Dec. 1, Toronto – virtual presentation on CCaaS and cloud migration for the Canadian market 

  • In terms of active client and industry work, here are some highlights for what’s coming:

    • Three white papers - one going now, and two done that should launch soon

    • Continued guest posts and podcasts coming for different vendors in the CCaaS space

    • Guest post coming for a vendor in the testing space

    • Ongoing research for a series of articles coming for a VoIP services start-up

    • UPDATE on Future of Work Expo, Feb.14-17, 2023 – agenda published now – am full-on in speaker recruitment mode now – contact me if you think there’s a session here you/your company should be on 

    • Enterprise Connect, March 2023 – update for my annual talk on the state of enterprise speech tech – we’re expanding this to a panel, and once speakers have been added, I’ll share that on my blog

    • New judging role – for a major industry event – details coming soon


Hey Did You Know....

…. as an analyst, I get to see a lot of CEOs up close (not many women CEOs I’m afraid), and it’s always great to get the updates from the top. Some are better speakers than others, and they all have their own style. Last month, I got to see three in action – Eric Yuan from Zoom, Jeff Lawson from Twilio and Pardeep Kohli from Mavenir (all photos mine). Very different types of leaders, but they’re all effective, and I learn different things from each one.





JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - November Edition 2022

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Season 5 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “October Events Roundup – Surveillance, Audio Watermarking, Intelligent Customer Service, Private 5G and Another SIPtones Gig”. Industry conferences were in full swing last month, and the topics in this title provide a sense of what Chris and I talked about. October travel took me to three continents, so our perspectives are broad, and we don’t think you’ll mind this being a longer-than-usual episode. 

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on my website, or on the Watch This Space website.  

  • NEW: podcast updates on my website – we’ve added two new features to encourage listener engagement, as well as making earlier episodes easier to find:

    • We now have a comments box, where listeners can give us feedback or to suggest new topics for future episodes – just scroll down here a bit, and let us know what you think – we’d love to hear from you!

    • Podcast archive is now taking shape, and the same will be coming soon for the newsletter – using that same scroll down link from above - following the comments - you can access thumbs and links for all the 2022 episodes – Season 5

    • Scroll past that, you’ll a see click box to access 2021 episodes, Season 4 – the links are there now, and thumbs coming soon – and following that, we’ll be adding earlier seasons.


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 the previous month, including my industry event calendar, other forms of original content, and my social media stats on LinkedIn and Twitter. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry events – maybe my busiest month ever – I attended all six below in person, declined an invite to another in-person event, and simply ran out of time to track another one that ran virtually:

    • Canadian Technology and Communications Consultants Networking Forum, Toronto, Oct. 6 – I gave the lock note presentation

    • NICE Analyst Summit, Marrakesh, Morocco, Oct. 10-11

    • UC Expo 2022, London, Oct. 12-12 – I spoke on two sessions

    • Cisco WebexOne Analyst Summit, San Jose, Oct. 20-21

    • SCTC 2022 Conference, Dallas, Oct. 24-26 – did the lock note, and our SIPtones gig

    • RingCentral Analyst Summit, Napa, Oct. 27-28

  • Video segments – got three to share, including one that I forgot to post from last month:

  • Writing roundup – just one public posting; one of my regular contributions for TechTarget

  • Media citings – there were five for October, and you can see them here

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of JAA’s reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for October:

    • For LinkedIn – I had 63,571 views from 342 posts – seventh strong month in a row – all with 23,000+ views – the second-highest tally since I started tracking this in 2020, and by far, the largest so far for 2022

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 11,741 views, and overall, 6 posts had 2,000+ views, and 16 posts had 1,000+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 5,420 impressions, 1,464 profile visits, 56 mentions, 26 tweets, and 9 fewer followers – numbers are mixed from prior month, but impressions were up quite a bit

    • My “top tweet” was about Cisco’s Analyst Open House event, with 663 impressions

    • Am wondering with Musk taking over now, will this be peak Twitter, and be all downhill from here?

  • SIPtones highlights – if you don’t know, we’re a music band of consultants, and we perform when we can at industry events. You can check out video clips and photos on the My Musictab, and new clips are coming from our still-fresh gig the 2022 SCTC conference, and eventually something from our 2021 San Diego gig. 


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for November

  • At the moment, there are three in-person events on tap for November:

    • Twilio SIGNAL, Nov. 1, San Francisco 

    • Zoomtopia, Nov. 8-9, San Francisco

    • Mavenir Analyst Summit, Nov. 15-17, Dallas

  • In terms of active client work, here are some highlights for what’s coming:

    • Two white paper projects - one going now, and one that’s done and should launch this month (and a follow-on podcast coming)

    • December webinar in the works now for a leading CCaaS vendor

    • Doing another EM360 podcast, where I’ll be interviewing a leading cloud communications provider

    • Continued guest posts coming for different vendors in the CCaaS space

    • Research underway for a series of articles coming for a VoIP services start-up

    • Programming mostly in place now for the Future of Work Expo 2023 


Hey Did You Know....

…. My October travels took me to three continents, four countries and six cities. Not nearly enough sight-seeing, but got my usual share of photos, many of which are on my blog and LinkedIn, and some others on my Facebook page. Got two sets here that I though summed up October pretty well.

First – a tale of two cities 

Hotel room views; the lushness of Marrakesh, then the cramped quarters from my London hotel, where the shower literally steamed up the whole room. Where would you rather be?

Second – group shots are a thing now

Well, it takes three instances to call it a trend, and this is my version of trendspotting. This almost never happens at events, but all of a sudden it’s a thing, and there were three of them from last month’s travels. First, from the Cisco WebexOne analyst event, and last, a similar effort from the RingCentral Analyst Summit. Takes a lot of work to get everyone in, so kudos to the photographers. 

Finally, in the middle, at the SCTC event in Dallas, a group shot after our SIPtones gig. Joining us were members from the opening band, Southern Flight, who jammed with us to close out the show – the fun side of life on the road, huh? And, in case you’re wondering, I am the only person in all three of these group shots. Call me Forrest Gump, call me Zelig, but last month I definitely got around!

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - October Edition 2022

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Season 5 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Quiet Firing, Return to Office, and Digital HQ from Salesforce”. The hybrid work pendulum continues swinging back and forth, and following our discussion of quiet quitting last month, we look at the flip side this episode with quiet firing. We also examine new drivers for evolving workspace design, and what we think Salesforce is on to with their bold launch of Digital HQ.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on my website, or on the Watch This Space website.  

  • NEW: podcast updates on my website – we’ve added two new features to encourage listener engagement, as well as making earlier episodes easier to find:

    • We now have a comments box, where listeners can give us feedback or to suggest new topics for future episodes – just scroll down here a bit, and let us know what you think – we’d love to hear from you!

    • Podcast archive is now taking shape, and the same will be coming soon for the newsletter – using that same scroll down link from above - following the comments - you can access thumbs and links for all the 2022 episodes – Season 5

    • Scroll past that, you’ll a see click box to access 2021 episodes, Season 4 – the links are there now, and thumbs coming soon – and following that, we’ll be adding earlier seasons

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms – namely iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from September

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 industry event calendar, other forms of original content, and my social media stats on LinkedIn and Twitter. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry events – none for September, but will be plenty busy throughout October

  • Guest blog posts – three ran last month:

    • Contact Center Pipeline – my first guest post with them, and more to come

    • NICE, two posts on their blog, Sept. 7 and 21

  • Writing roundup – here’s the digest, and my top choice would be: “Vonage AI Studio – Have They Cracked the Code with AI?”, running on No Jitter 

  • Media citings – there were 2 for September, and you can see them here

  • Judging – I completed the judging process for Talkdesk’s 2022 Innovator Awards – details coming when the winners are announced

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of JAA’s 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 had 29,371 views from 22 posts – seventh strong month in a row – all with 23,000+ views

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 3,375 views, and overall, 6 posts had 1,000+ views, and 12 posts had 700+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 3,648 impressions, 3,077 profile visits, 88 mentions, 29 tweets, and 7 new followers – numbers are mixed from prior month, but profile visits were way up

    • My “top tweet” was about Vonage’s AI Studio launch, with 422 impressions

SIPtones highlights – if you don’t know, we’re a music band of consultants, and we perform when we can at industry events. You can check out video clips and photos on the My Music tab, and new clips are coming from our latest gig in November at the 2021 SCTC conference. We’ll be performing at the 2022 conference this month, and hope to get some clips from that on my site later in the year.


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for October

  • October starts the busy season for industry events, and here’s what’s on tap:

    • Canadian Technology and Communications Consultants Networking Forum, Toronto, Oct. 6 – am giving the locknote

    • NICE Analyst Summit, Marrakesh, Morocco (really!), Oct. 10-11

    • Google Next (virtual), Oct. 11-13

    • UC Expo 2022, London, Oct. 12-12 – speaking on two sessions

    • Cisco WebexOne Analyst Summit, San Jose, Oct. 20-21

    •  SCTC 2022 Conference, Dallas, Oct. 24-26 – doing the locknote, and SIPtones gig!

    • RingCentral Analyst Summit, Napa, Oct. 27-28

  • Guest article coming in Channel Futures about the cybersecurity opportunity

  • In terms of active client work, here are some highlights for what’s coming:

    • Two white paper projects - one about to start up, and one that should launch in October

    • Continued guest posts coming for different vendors in the CCaaS space

    • Strategic advisory role for a VoIP services start-up

    • Early planning underway for both Future of Work Expo 2023 (programming) and Enterprise Connect 2023 (speaking)


Hey Did You Know....

… In a few days, I’ll be “riding on the Marrakesh Express, they’re taking me to Marrakesh”.

Yup, kind of. I’ll be on a plane, not a train, but still, I’m going to Marrakesh, courtesy of NICE, one of the leading vendors in the contact center space. That’s a first for me.

If you’re of a certain age, you’ll know that lyric above, and now you can’t get that CSN classic out of your head. It’s ok - neither can I - so just give in to your impulses, and click the link to play the song, and sing along…

JAA’s Communications and Collaboration - September Edition 2022

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Season 5 of Watch This Space continues with an episode titled “Crashing Tech Stocks and Quiet Quitting – Is There a Connection?”.  Quiet quitting has become the nom du jour in hybrid work circles, and aside from examining the implications, Chris and I explored if there might be a connection to what’s behind the drastic falloff in tech stocks - especially those in the collaboration space. Hybrid work continues to face headwinds, and we also discussed how this is as much an HR problem as it is a tech problem.

  • For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on my website, or on the Watch This Space website.  

  • NEW: podcast updates on my website – we’ve added two new features to encourage listener engagement, as well as making earlier episodes easier to find:

    • We now have a comments box, where listeners can give us feedback or to suggest new topics for future episodes – just scroll down here a bit, and let us know what you think – we’d love to hear from you!

    • Podcast archive is now taking shape, and the same will be coming soon for the newsletter – using that same scroll down link from above - following the comments - you can access thumbs and links for all the 2022 episodes – Season 5

    • Scroll past that, you’ll a see click box to access 2021 episodes, Season 4 – the links are there now, and thumbs coming soon – and following that, we’ll be adding earlier seasons

  • If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms – namely iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.


What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from August

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 industry event calendar, other forms of original content, and my social media stats on LinkedIn and Twitter. More detail for most of these activities can be found on my blog.

  • Industry events – only one, which I elected to track virtually:

    • Zoom Perspectives 2022, Aug. 23-25

  • Webinar - with Servion and Cisco, about helping contact centers with digital CX, Aug. 11

  • Podcast – in conversation with Patrick Sullivan, co-CEO/Founder of 2600Hz, hosted by EM360, and posted Aug. 23 

  • Guest blog posts – two ran during August:

    •  tekVizion – wearing my BCStrategies hat - posted Aug. 31 on their blog

    • NICE, posted Aug. 2 on their blog – and more posts coming soon

  • Writing roundup – here’s the digest, and my top choice would be: “Is Hybrid Work Working? It Depends Who You Talk To”, running both on Workspace Connect and No Jitter 

  • Media citings – there were 3 for August, and you can see them here

  • Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of JAA’s 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 had 39,812 views from only 15 posts – sixth strong month in a row – by far, the best month this year; and second-best view tally since I starting tracking in 2020

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 12,702 views, and overall, 8 posts had 1,000+ views, and 13 of 15 total posts had 500+ views

    • For Twitter – there were 8,260 impressions, 1,884 profile visits, 62 mentions, 27 tweets, and 9 new followers – numbers are up a bit compared to July

    • My “top tweet” was about Alan Masarek becoming Avaya’s new CEO, with 1,135 impressions - and overall, 7 tweets had 500+ impressions

  • SIPtones highlights – if you don’t know, we’re a music band of consultants, and we perform when we can at industry events. You can check out video clips and photos on the My Music tab, and new clips are coming next month from our latest gig in November at the 2021 SCTC conference. We’ll be performing at the 2022 conference this October, so it will be time to start practising soon!


What's Coming? JAA Outlook for September

  • As with August, a very light event calendar with just one on tap - I’ll be tracking NEC’s Visionary Week 2022, but only for sessions related my coverage

  • A quiet September is really just the calm before the storm – starting October 6, I’ll be on the road to 7 different events before the month is out, plus one that’s virtual - and November isn’t looking much different, yeow – details coming in upcoming newsletters, and of course my blog

  • Two new contributor roles to showcase my thought leadership with leading publishers – watch my blog in early September for details:

    • Contact Center Pipeline

    • UK-based Enterprise Management 360

  • In terms of active client work, it’s largely a continuation from August, but other things are very much in the works:

    • Speech tech opportunity assessment for a major vertical market segment

    • Two new white paper projects - one about to start up, and one already in progress

    • Continued guest posts coming for different vendors in the CCaaS space

    • Strategic advisory role for a VoIP services start-up

    • Early planning underway for both Future of Work Expo 2023 (programming) and Enterprise Connect 2023 (speaking)

    • Mapping out keynote topics for two SCTC-related events coming in October


Hey Did You Know....

… speaking of calm before the storm for fall travel to industry events, here’s the calm. Taken while driving up to Haliburton for a rustic getaway last month. Yup, that’s calm, but already it’s starting to feel like it’s in the rear-view mirror…