ITExpo - Day 1 - It's a Hit

The 2012 edition of ITExpo East kicked off yesterday here in Miami. Some of us were here on Monday too, but the main program began on Tuesday. I've been pretty busy between briefings, ad hoc meetings and moderating panels, but the vibe has been consistent so far.

Across the board, I think most people will tell you the event is working really well. The hallways are full with activity, the sessions are well attended, the content is great, and the breadth of subject matter is far too great for any human to consume. This last point is to be taken in stride, as all conferences struggle with going either wide or deep. In recent years, TMC's model has been the former, and this cuts both ways. The quality of content here is quite good, but the net is cast so wide now, that for every must-see session you attend, you're going to miss maybe 3-4 others you would just as likely want to see.

Am not sure how you address that aside from sending a team to fan out and cover all the bases. Most people don't have that luxury, so you just have to pick your spots. My day was spent either in briefings or moderating, so I didn't have a chance to see any other sessions. It's too bad, since there's really strong content for me in tracks such as Cloud Communications, SIP Trunking, 4GWE, M2M - and others. Not to mention today's must-see event later on - the Sir Terry Matthews keynote followed by StartupCamp5 Comms Edition, hosted by Embrase. I'll be there!

Well, I think you get the idea. There's a lot of great content here, and that probably helps explain why attendance is so strong. Lots of people here all day long, and you could really see it when the show floor opened late in the afternoon. Not only was the traffic active, but the exhibitor hall was pretty big. Am told there are 200+ exhibitors here, and the range is pretty impressive. Having walked the floor, there's something for everyone here, with all kinds of VoIP providers, SIP trunking offerings, telecom systems, contact centers and cloud. Not that much video, social media or mobility, but a pretty rich pallette nonetheless.

I should add that my two sessions were totally full, and I heard the turnout for other sessions was strong as well. My panels has strong speakers, and I think the time was well spent for attendees. TMC is providing its own coverage of the sessions, and you can follow that on their site. Here's their coverage of our UC Business Case session.

Overall, I think TMC will be pleased with how the sessions are going, and if this continues, I'd say the odds are good that a lot of attendees will be back. That's pretty important, as turnover is a fact of life in this business. For both of my panels, I was very suprised to learn that the vast majority of the audience were first-timers. I think it's great that TMC is attracting new blood, but it also makes me wonder where all the regulars have gone. I'm sure the weak economy has taken its toll, but am not sure if some people have moved on to other events, or simply dropped out of this space completely.

Regardless, the news from Miami so far is very good, and I'm looking for more of the same on Day 2.

Welcome Aculab - new blog sponsor

Just a quick update - notice anything different about my blog today? Aculab is now running a banner in support of their current campaign around Aculab Cloud.

I've worked with Aculab off and on, and they're doing some interesting things with the cloud - you'll be hearing more about that shortly. The cloud, of course, is a big theme in 2012, and Aculab is going with the flow here, extending what's possible, not just for traditional customers, but also for reaching new customers who could not previously integrate telephony with their services or applications.

Closer to home, as an analyst, I'm happy to see them using Web-based media such as blogs to help get the word out. It's a natural fit for developers, and I hope they achieve the desired results!

I'll be leaving today for Miami and TMC's ITExpo, and I won't be hard to find there. The same goes for Aculab, so if you're attending the Expo and want to learn more about Aculab Cloud, you'll have no problem finding them at the Cloud Communications Expo, co-located with the main event. To be continued, but gotta get back to packing...

MobileMonday Toronto - Feb. 6 - You There?

Just a friendly shout-out for this event before I head off to Miami on Monday for the ITExpo. On Monday, Feb. 6, I'll be moderating the "Meet the Analysts" event at MobileMonday Toronto. It's part of a regular series held at the MaRS facility downtown, which is probably Canada's leading business incubator, especially for technology and health sciences startups.

This will be a fun panel, as we'll share our views on the outlook for mobility in 2012, with a particular focus on how the financial sector sees this space. Joining me will be buddy Ronald Gruia from my alum Frost & Sullivan, and Mike Abramsky from RBC Equity Research. Don't worry, it's free! Registrations have been strong, but there's still room, so it's not too late. Plus, if you're going to MWC, this will be a great networking event to get caught up on where mobility is going.

ITExpo - How Smartphones and Social Media are Re-shaping Call Centers

Got one more panel to tell you about for next week's ITExpo in sunny Miami. This is the third panel I'll be moderating, and it should be a lot of fun. As consumers, most of us can vouch for less-than-perfect contact center experiences, and our expectations sure are changing with smartphones and social media. Whether you're in the contact center space or just a frustrated customer, you really should come out to our session.

Joining me will be fellow Torontonian, Shai Berger of Fonolo, along with Rick McFarland of Voice4Net and Tina Valdez from TeleTech. We'll be presenting on Wednesday at 1:30, and you can find us in Room B210. Our session is part of the CE track - Customer Engagement - and you can read all the details here. See you there!

Using UC to Re-invent the Channel

Busy week here - and will be even busier next week at ITExpo. Well, the title of this post is self-explanatory. Earlier this month, we did a UCStrategies podcast about how the channel is evolving to support UC.

Lots to talk about there, but each of us only gets to speak for a minute or two. I wanted to expand on my ideas, and have done that in my latest posting on the UCStrategies portal. It's running now, and I hope you read it - I think there's a lot opportunity here for VARs and SIs to add new forms of value to UC that businesses will really like.

ITExpo Miami Preview #2: Building the UC Business Case

Show time, go time. A week from today, TMC's ITExpo in Miami gets underway with the full program. Tuesday is a pre-con day, but I'll be there as part of the team for TMC's Editors Day.

I'm moderating 3 panels, and this is a shout-out for the first one on Wednesday. As you probably know, UC keeps me pretty busy, and this panel speaks to business case issues. Sure, we'll touch on ROI vs. TCO, but there's lots more to explore, so come on out and join us. Alongside me will be fellow analyst Irwin Lazar from Nemertes, and two vendors - Nancy Maluso from Sonus Networks, and Chris Hasenauer from Allworx/Windstream.

Our session runs from 11:00-11:45 on Wednesday, and we're on the C&C track - Communications and Collaboration. You're coming, right?

12 Ways of Finding Jon Arnold

We're all busy, and we all seem to lead multiple lives these days - some real, some (or more) virtual. Being an independent analyst, I wear many hats and work in a variety of ways/places to make a living.

I don't expect you to be up on everything I do, but am pretty sure people I work with only follow me selectively - nothing wrong with that. Since I wear the Marketing and PR hats around here, every now and then I need to make sure my followers get a bigger picture update.

One reason for doing this now is the fact that both my blog and website trended upward in traffic last year, and have been maintaining those levels nicely for a while. Companies have noticed, and I'm about to add my second sponsor later this week. Am in discussion with another one - a major vendor - so something must be working here. There's room for you too - operators are standing by to take your call...

So, just to be sure you know how to find me across the spectrum of my activities and writing, here's a summary with all the links you need. Hope you add a few new ones, and maybe subscribe to some new feeds. Thanks!

1. My website - J Arnold & Associates - the blog is for my telling, and the website is where I do my selling. This is where you need to be to learn about my analyst practice for thought leadership, research and strategy.

2.Upcoming events/conferences - this page on my website tells you where I've been lately and where I'll be the next few weeks out.

3. My regular UC postings on the ADTRAN UC blog

4. My monthly column on hosted contact center trends - on Exony's website

5. My regular posts, articles and podcast contributions around the UC space - on the UCStrategies portal

6. How you can hire me for speaking engagements

7. Follow me regularly on Twitter

8. Follow me less regularly or network with me on Linked in

9. Check out my latest published articles, white papers, podcasts, webinars, TV appearances, and various other citings here on my website

10. Review or purchase a report on the U.S. Renewable Energy market I co-authored with my smart grid research partners, Zpryme. It's still pretty timely, and custom inquiries are always welcome!

11. On the lighter side, you can follow my YouTube channel. Don't post there much these days, but my Cisco TelePresence demo has over 120,000 views, and if you want to see prime video of the-world's-best-cover-band, the Herding Cats, you will not find better clips than here. Remember when live rock was fun? Gotta see these, esp Whole Lotta Love (in 3 clips) and You Give Love a Bad Name - these guys are great!

12. On an even lighter side, if you need a guitar or piano player for a pickup rock or blues band at your next event, I'm there. Here's one from the Battle of the Bands at the 2009 Interactive Intelligence event. Gotta have some fun, right?

Got all that? How many ways are you following me now?