IMCCA Collaboration Week NY 2020
The State of The Industry
What Are The Users Saying – Moderated by Starin Marketing’s Chris Neto
An analyst’s opinion is all well and good, but what are the end-user organizations saying and dealing with on a day-to-day basis? What aren’t the manufacturers and service providers hearing and or acting upon? The panel discussion defines the top-of-mind issues for the user community and the rest of this conference.
· Panelists:
The Importance of Collaboration Metrics In The Enterprise – Presented by Vyopta’s Marc Haimsohn and Nick Wiik
How important is it to an enterprise manager to have a clear read of what is being used, what is not and the resulting analyses? Metrics go a whole lot further today than they ever have before. Host sites and other firms make use of them as part of their collaboration management strategy. The session explains how organizations are making the most of the newest insights to optimize their user experiences.
Modernizing Endpoints
Not Your Father’s Endpoints – Presented by Poly’s Sam Kennedy
Collaboration endpoints used to be complex, expensive boxes–mostly full of air, and telephone ‘boat-anchors’–both of which were complex to install and probably locked you in to a specific service. As we pass 2020 this has all changed, as the new generation of endpoints are inexpensive, reliable, flexible and will allow you to use the services of your choice–a choice which you can continue to have available even after purchase. No more forklift changes needed.
The New Fluidity of Service Providers – Moderated by Sam Kennedy
Enterprise end users tell us their stories of changing collaboration service providers—what was easy, what was difficult, what was unexpected and how has it gone?
· Panelists:
o Gary LaSasso – Amicus Therapeutics
Where Are The Battle Lines Today
Where Are The Battle Lines Today – Presented by Dr. S. Ann Earon
Who would have thought, more than 20 years past the launch of Unified Communications, our industry would still be just about as un-unified as possible. There are manufacturers/providers who believe all systems must meet their specific specifications to interoperate. There are those that believe producing natively interoperable solutions is a better direction. There are those who believe that the future of collaboration is a form-fitting PC or Mac with peripherals, and there are those who believe appliances are safer and easier to scale and support. The session explores in detail the pros and cons of the various entrenched camps in our industry.
The Users Speak – Why Are You In Your Collaboration Camp? – Moderated by Dr. S. Ann Earon
End users explain why they are in the hardware or software, closed system or open system camps and what they’ve experienced as a result.
· Panelists:
The Host View of Collaboration With G Suite – Presented by Google’s Sandy Jones
The session looks at how Google’s Sandy Jones views the collaboration space and what initiatives they are bringing to market.
The Experts Speak
Collaboration Trends Explained – Presented by Nemertes Research’s Irwin Lazar
2020 is poised to be a year of dramatic change for UC&C. Video is becoming pervasive, the shift to the cloud is accelerating, and AI is creating opportunities to drastically transform work and the workplace. The session, based on Nemertes’ extensive benchmarking of hundreds of end-user organizations, will share the key trends that are shaping Enterprise collaboration now and into the future, and how organizations should approach emerging technologies to determine their value. Highlights include many more organizations moving to the cloud and moving to “video-first” cultures.
Thriving On The Bleeding Edge of Multimedia Technology – Presented by Greg Harper
Harpervision’s Greg Harper opened the eyes of attendees to the exploding world of emerging technologies such as AI, graphical compute engines and 5G–and made the point that AV and collaboration professionals need to expand their vision to include awareness of these new technologies that may not be core to their space (today).
Emerging Technology Fellow Awards
Honoring Crestron’s Randy Klein
Randy Klein, President and CEO of Crestron Electronics, Inc., received the ETF Lifetime Achievement Award. A 30-year veteran of the company, Randy began his career with Crestron in 1990 as the National Sales Manager. His progression within the organization was steady, culminating in his current position as President and CEO in 2014. Welcoming remarks by Carol Zelkin, IMCCA Executive Director.
Honoring Zoom Video Communications’ Eric S. Yuan
Eric S. Yuan, Founder and CEO of Zoom Video Communications, Inc., received the ETF Industry Impact Award. Eric founded Zoom in 2011 to bring teams together in a frictionless video environment. Zoom’s video-first Unified Communications platform continues to dramatically transform the way leading global enterprise companies communicate. Welcoming remarks by Carol Zelkin, IMCCA Executive Director.
State of the Industry Panel Discussion – Moderated by Dr. S. Ann Earon
Panelists include speakers from:
o Crestron, Ted Colton
o Intel, Jason Goecke
o Pexip, Karl Hantho
o Shure, Vanessa Jensen
o Vyopta, Jeff Shiffman
o Yorktel, Ken Scaturro
o Zoom, Gary Sorrentino
A Day At The New Office
The Workspace Of The Future – Just What Is An Office? – Presented by Mark Peterson of Shen, Milsom & Wilke
Remote workers and societal transformations are changing how office facilities are designed and built. Picture a 1970’s office. It had walls, doors, desk phones, a lunchroom and a few meeting rooms. Now picture a 2020 office. It may be the “dreaded” open office, it may be an airport terminal, a home basement, a shared working space or anything else. UC&C 2020 means that technology works to connect colleagues regardless of where they are. What does this reality do to space design, home office design and our ability to concentrate on work?
Keeping Employees Informed Throughout The Workplace – Presented by Lainie Mataras of Planar
The session looks at how digital signage overlaps with and complements enterprise collaboration.
How Generation Z Uses Technology in the Workplace – Presented by Mark Beal of Rutgers University
Mark Beal, Partner at Taylor PR and a Rutgers Professor, shares his research about how Generation Z works and uses technology. Get an eye-opening glimpse from a panel of Millennials and Generation Z workers, born and raised using technology, and learn how they collaborate in the workplace.
· Panelists:
o Adam Gray, Account Coordinator, Virtual Force
o Sydney Groves, Account Coordinator, Taylor
o Sally Meli, Marketing Advisor, Compass
Teams, Teams, Teams – The New Workflows
The New Workflows – Presented by Michael Goldman of CDA
The industry’s big players are fighting it out over the new workflow approach to working. Microsoft, Slack, Cisco and others brag about DAU (Daily Active Users) and debate what active really means. Michael breaks down the similarities and differences between the various services, explains the pros and cons, and details how organizations can successfully adopt new workflows.
Teams – Successes and Failures – Moderated by Michael Goldman
Enterprise end users tell us their stories of deploying team-chat platforms and workflows—what was easy, what was difficult, what was unexpected and how has it gone.
· Panelists:
o Tom Stoner, Bessemer
o Jason Moss, QSC
Collaboration Week Locknote – Moderated by David Danto
A review of what we heard and what we learned at Collaboration Week NY 2020. A highlight of the discussion–which included many of the audience participants–was a rousing debate of the health of the AV and Collaboration industries. Many of those in attendance stressed the urgency for traditional AV firms to pivot, with hopes that industry messaging would move from its current “look-at-us” themes and instead begin to focus on the urgency to evolve.
· Panelists:
o Dr. S. Ann Earon
o Michael Goldman, CDA
o Sean Lessman, Synergy SKY
o Jerry Berger, Legrand