Yesterday was the first full day, and I took in a solid mix of keynotes and panel sessions. We heard first from Guvinder Ahluwalia from IBM, talking about where the cloud is going, and how distruptors like Uber are developing new business models based on shifting physical assets into the cloud-based digital world where they become much more liquid. As much as I'm not a fan of Uber's tactics, every industry is ripe for re-invention when the Internet of Things and the cloud become the drivers (no pun intended!)
Next up was Mitel CEO Rich McBee, and he provided a nice overview of how techology diffusion is a long process. We take it for granted when new things gain rapid adoption, but that's more the exception that the rule. His main point is that UC remains a work in progress, and TDM will be with us for years to come, so success requires solutions that work across new and old technologies. He also gave his 10 predictions for UC, and at the core of things, he contends that voice quality is still a big deal. I agree, and it shows that after all these years of innovation with IP communications, this basic need has still not been perfected.
Moving along, we next had a great one-off panel to celebrate 20 years of VoIP. I don't know the next time you'll see all these people in one place, but it was pretty special to pull this together, so kudos to Rich Tehrani, Andy Abramson and others who made this happen.
There's lots to say about what they talked about, and I prepared my thoughts for my current contribution to the UCStrategies portal. It's running now, and if you have a warm spot for VoIP, or want to know what some pretty smart people think about innovation, I hope you'll read my post.
Another highlight from yesterday was the Net Neutrality panel, and we heard again from many of the above speakers. There is a lot at stake here as it affects all of us - not just in the communications space, but as consumers too. Am glad the topic was covered at the conference, and I wish it would get more attention at every event out there.
Otherwise, the show floor opened at 5, and it was the usual rush to the bar and then a walkabout to check out the exhibitors. Great energy out there, and a pretty healthy mix of vendors from across the whole telecom ecosystem. If there's one theme that stands out, it's M2M, and those exhibitors were getting plenty of traffic.
I've also been taking my share of briefings, and am moderating panels today and tomorrow, so it's constant motion. I'll try to blog again before the show ends, and otherwise, feel free to follow my tweets - @arnoldjon.
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