JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - March Edition

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

February was a busy month, but the highlight was the Future of Work Expo, with Jon returning as Chair for the eighth year. Co-located with the big-tent ITExpo, the program covered a wide range of topics related to the future of work, and the highlights were reviewed during the podcast. One was from Jon’s keynote, citing industry research about how difficult hybrid work is to manage, and what attributes are most important for being in an office setting. Another main theme was how the future of work is being shaped now by AI, and how important it will be for workers to upskill to adapt. Bigger picture, Chris and Jon discussed how there’s a hunger for data now in enterprises, where everyday workplace communication is being mined to help train AI applications that will define the future of work.

Jon’s view on how AI is driving the need to tap data from everyday communications:

“There’s a hunger for data now – businesses are recognizing (the need to) feed the AI machine. Now they’ve discovered that data in the workplace – our everyday communications and interactions – has value. So, now they are investing – mandating - that IT develop the capabilities to capture as much data as possible. That means all of our calls, all of our texts, all of our emails – they’re all digital – create these new forms of data that never have been tapped.”

  • NEWISH FOR WATCH THIS SPACE – we’ve added two new channels for broader distribution:

    • For EM360, a dedicated website has been created, and hosts the 10 most recent episode. You can read more about this, along with all the related links in this blog post of mine.

    • For TMC and Future of Work Expo, TMC is now a media sponsor for the podcast. This does not impact our content or topics in any way, but since the podcast is about the future of work, we’ll talk more about the sponsorship in the context of my Future of Work Expo. There’s a natural tie-in here, as the podcast is another way to support the Expo. In return, the podcast is now in regular banner rotation on three of their sites: TMCnet, our Future of Work Expo website, and their Future of Work Newssite. If you visit any of these sites on a regular basis, sooner or later, you will see banners for Watch This Space podcast, where all those clicks link directly to our WTS website.

  • AND… we’ve added an additional mail-out for newsletter subscribers, specifically about the podcast. In case you don’t check it out now, it will provide more detail about the episode to encourage you to give it a listen then. Watch for that in about a week’s time!

  • 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 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 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 last month, including my other forms of original content, along with my social media stats. Detail and links for most of these activities can be found on my blog, or posted on my website.

  • Industry events: back to it in February, with travel to three stops:

    • Zoho Analyst Day, Horseshoe Bay, TX, Feb. 3-5

    • Future of Work Expo, Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Feb. 11-13

    • RingCentral Analyst Summit, Yountville, CA, Feb. 24-26

  • Video segments:  

    • Enterprise Connect Preview, BCStrategies (recorded late February, but published March 4) – can view LinkedIn Live replay here

    • Big UC News, UC Today – latest news roundup, including takeaways from RingCentral’s Analyst Summit (recorded late February, but published March 4) – can view episode here

    • Future of Work Expo event, interviewed by Tom Brannen, posted Feb. 20 – clip starts at the 8:14 mark

    • Future of Work Expo, clip from my keynote presentation (51 seconds), filmed by Tom Brannen, Feb. 13 - thanks!

    • Future of Work Expo, interviewed by Rich Tehrani, Feb. 11 – but not yet published

  • New kudo:

  • Writing roundup for February – digest here on my blog – and if you just read one – this is it: The Future of Work Needs a Total Rethink

  • Media citings – four for February

  • 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 February:

    • I had 56,618 views and 61 posts – up four-fold from January, and the highest monthly tally since last February 

    • My top LinkedIn post registered 9,719 views

    • Overall, 7 posts had 1,000+ views, and 18 had 500+ views

 

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for March

  • Industry events continue, with three for March:

    • Remarkable, Vector Institute, Toronto, March 4-5 (remote attendance)

    • Cognigy Nexus, Dusseldorf, Germany, March 11-13

    • Enterprise Connect, Orlando, FL, March 17-20

  • Active work to keep watch for:

    • Will be a panelist on two sessions during Enterprise Connect March – details here – along with their “Best Of” awards, that I am a judge for

    • Enterprise Connect, part 2 – to save $400 on your registration, use promo code “Arnold400”

    • 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?
… the Future of Work Expo kept me in front of – and connected to – an audience for the better part of three days last month, and it was a great way to take the pulse for what’s happening as the workplace evolves.

To get a better sense of that yourself, these photos tie to citings for the video segments cited above. Below, being interviewed by Tom Brannen (link above) and Rich Tehrani (link coming soon), and the second iteration of my keynote talk - link to one video segment of me speaking is above, and I have others as well if interested. 

If you weren’t at the event, I hope this piques your interest, and it’s never too early to start talking about being part of it for 2026 – I’m not hard to find!