Telecom 2015 Conference - Quick Take

During the last two days, the Telecom 2015 conference ran here in Toronto, and I spoke yesterday about UC trends to watch for in 2016. The event is in its third year, and while small, we had a pretty engaged group with a good mix of vendors, consultants and end users.

I summarized my takeaways in a post that is running now on the UCStrategies portal. Since my focus for the event was on UC, I figured this was the best place to run it, and I hope you give it a read. Otherwise, here are a few photos from the event.

Future of Work panel discussion, moderated by the FOX Group's Susan Dineen

Demo at the Panasonic booth, done for me and my running mate, Ronald Gruia. Pretty nice touch screen IP PBX handset here. They also had a nice demo of their cordless phone systems, so innovation isn't totally dead in the desk phone space, folks.

Event organizer, Michel Bruyere doing the prize drawings at the end of Day 1. Small world - the winner here was John Sneyd from Panasonic - he gave us the demo just cited above. Maybe we brought him good luck!

BroadSoft Announces Tempo - UCStrategies Podcast

Today marks the start of BroadSoft's Connections event, and with that comes lots of news. One item was the launch of Project Tempo, their new cloud-based UC "hub". Anyone following the event will have the news by now, but for another take, that's what our latest UCStrategies podcast covered.

We were briefed on Tempo last week, and during this podcast, we were joined by key BroadSoft marketing execs, so it was a pretty interactive session. To align with Connections, the podcast was posted earlier today to our portal, and I just want to be sure you know about it.

So, You Think You Can Collaborate? My Next Webinar

Got another Ziff Davis webinar coming up, and it's on a topic I've been writing about a fair bit lately. Collaboration these days is easier said than done, and it's just as much of a moving target as Unified Communications. Lots of great promise from the underlying technology, but many types of obstacles as well.

That's the gist of what I'll be covering, and the registration page was recently posted on their IT Management portal. The webinar will be on Wednesday, November 11 at 2 ET, and I hope you can join us.

Next Event - Speaking at Telecom 2015 Next Week

There aren't many conferences in my space right here in Toronto, let alone Canada. Of course, technology keeps changing, and at some point we need stop calling these things telecom conferences, but for now that label is still sticking.

On that note, I've been asked to speak at Telecom 2015 next week, and it's always great to do this in town. It's a fairly new event, and having attended last year, I'm happy to be back, especially as a speaker.

The conference runs next Tuesday-Wednesday, and the website provides all the detail for the agenda and registration. I just put my presentation together, and will be speaking on Day 2 at 2:20 pm. My topic is 5 Trends Shaping UC for 2016, and if you're attending, I hope to see you there!

Slack May be the Uber of the UC Space

I sure think so, and that's the focus of my current Rethinking Communications column with TMCnet. These columns usually run in their long-running flagship publication, Internet Telephony. These days, a magzine title like that seems dated, but that's another conversation. The pub continues to pull strong readership, both in print and online. The digital edition is posted now, and you can read my latest column here.

Speaking of TMCnet, their next ITExpo is in late January - perfect time of year for Fort Lauderdale. I'll be there, moderating some sessions as usual. Planning will be underway soon, and I'll provide updates here.

SCTC Conference Coda - Our SIPTones Gig

I'm keeping my day job as an analyst, but the more I get to play with the SIPTones, the better we sound. Music is hard work, but great fun, and whether playing piano or guitar, it's always enjoyable.

Am finally catching up from back-to-back road trips, and two weeks ago, I attended my first SCTC conference in Atlanta. On the last night, the SIPTones played a set, and our devoted bandleader, Rick Hatahway always tapes the performances. He puts together a highlight reel, and this time around, he got it done quickly, and it's posted now on YouTube.

If you're not inner circle with the band - don't worry, I don't think that's a thing just yet - you may never find it, so I'm doing the hard work for you. Without further ado, here's 14 minutes of what do when we're not talking about UC, collaboration, SIP trunking, cloud, etc.

Three Buying Principles for UC - New Feature

This is the third installment in my UC feature series with TechTarget, and it was just published the other day. Am catching up from being away, and if you didn't see it yet on their site, I'm sharing it here. The series is getting strong readership, and the post includes links to the first two features in case you missed those as well.