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

For this episode, we explored what technology innovation looks like both in physical and virtual spaces. Just back from the ISC West event, Chris shared how technology is now being applied in the physical security space, and how commercial property managers are thinking about smart buildings. Following that, we reviewed a recent demo I had with Welo, illustrating use cases for virtual workspaces and new forms of visual collaboration. To better envision this, please see the visual in the Hey, Did You Know? section below. Welo isn’t the only player in this space, but this is a good starting point to re-think workspaces as the physical and virtual worlds further overlap.

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 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 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 – no travel during April – there were five events on tap that I had to decline, as I was grounded recuperating from foot surgery – life happens, but I’ve got others lined up for May and beyond, so April is really just a blip on this front

Video segments – recorded and published:
- LinkedIn Live – in conversation with Jeff Pulver
- LinkedIn Live – in conversation with Doug Green on his Telecom Reseller podcast
- LinkedIn Live – Enterprise Connect review with BCStrategies
- Big UC News – Enterprise Connect and other news topics, April 9
- UC Today – State of AI in 2024 – interviewed by Kieran Devlin
- UC Today – in conversation with Valerie Berezuk of Intermedia
Video segments – recorded but not yet published:
- CX Today – in conversation with Content Guru about barriers to cloud adoption - recorded April 23
- Big UC News – news roundup, including NEC, Intermedia and Microsoft Copilot – recorded April 25
Webinar – with Enghouse Interactive, about cloud migration for contact centers, April 30
Podcast – in the current edition of NICE’s Ignite CX Newsletter, two of my recent podcast interviews were featured
Industry awards judging – am back as a judge for the 2024 UC Awards, and registration to submit entries opens April 29, so the process is underway now – details here
Writing roundup for April – details here – and if you were to read just one, this would be my choice – The EU AI Act – the Shape of Things to Come
Media citings – two citings to report for April
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 – so, here are my approximate tallies for LinkedIn during April:
- I had 25,727 views and 36 posts – about half of March’s tally, largely due to not travelling to any industry events during April
- My top LinkedIn post registered 1,006 views
- Overall, 14 posts had 500+ views

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for May

There are two industry events on the May calendar:
- Zoom Perspectives, May 20-21, New York City
- Verint Analyst Days, May 22-23, Dallas

Active work to keep watch for:

One new white paper will be publishing soon, and another one is in the works now
Three new speaking gigs are in place now, and two others are pending
Every so often I get approached to write and publish a book – the latest pitch is getting me thinking about it again – hmm…
Continued guest posts coming – some with my byline and some without – will post about these as they are published
New projects are in play with several vendors, both current and new clients

Hey, Did You Know?

… visual collaboration and virtual workspaces are things now? Tech never stops evolving, and here’s the screenshot from my recent briefing with Welo, and their approach to this 2D+ form of working. If you give the latest Watch This Space podcast a listen, this image will help you visualize what Chris and I are talking about.

While not as immersive as 3D, it’s richer than 2D, and not as clunky as the Metaverse, which requires annoying headgear and often legless avatars. That world still has a long way to go, at least for enterprise use cases, but players like Welo are here now. First generation platforms like Second Life and web.alive were 10 years too early, but the technology is so much better now, and it’s time to give platforms like Welo a closer look.