Next Stop - Zoho Day, Austin - And So It Continues

Am flying to Monday for Zoho Day 26 in Austin. Never did figure out why they term this event in singular, when it runs for more than one day. Yes I’m a wordie, and these things keep me up at night.

Definitely looking forward to the updates, as it’s been a year since their CEO stepped aside to focus on AI innovation. Given that much of their AI is homegrown, am keen to learn what forms this is taking. Unlike most of the vendors I track, Zoho has its fingers in many pies, so I’ll also be learning about their activities and roadmaps in enterprise spaces well outside the worlds of UCaaS and CCaaS.

Bigger picture for me is that this is stop 2 of 5 for traveling to industry events over a 5 week period. Now, as it stands, that run has been extended, where I’ll be going to 7 different events over an 8 week period. More on those other events soon, but for now, it’s Zoho time!

Next Stop - ITExpo - And So It Begins...

I’ve been off the road for about two months, but that’s about to change.

Next week, I’ll be going to TMC’s ITExpo in its usual spot - Ft. Lauderdale. If you don’t know, I was Chair of the Future of Work Expo, which was part of ITExpo, and it ran for eight years. The event has run its course, though, and I’m coming back just wearing my moderator hat for ITExpo.

Before getting to the sessions, ITExpo marks the first of five weeks I’ll be travelling to various industry events, so this will keep me very much on the go til mid-March. I’ll have posts coming soon about each of these events, so stay tuned.

As things stand, I’ll be moderating four panels next week, and another one might be added. I’ll soon be posting details about the speakers for each session, and otherwise, you can check that out, along with the abstracts here on the event agenda page. Hope to see you there!

Moderating aside, I won’t be hard to find, either walking the show floor or in the press room. Drop me a line or text if you want to connect.

The Next Era of Cybersecurity: From Defense to Business Enabler

Tuesday, February 10, 2026, 11:45am-12:30pm, ITC 03

Is This the Year for RCS? Unlocking Trusted, Feature-Rich Messaging at Scale

Tuesday, February 10, 2026                 3:15-4:00pm          SP-06

Proactive Voice Trust: Real-Time KYC/KYT, STIR/SHAKEN, and Fraud Analytics

Wednesday, February 11, 2026           2:00-2:45pm        SP-09

Next-Gen Messaging & Identity: RCS, CPaaS, Branded Calling, and Verified Sender

Thursday, February 12, 2026               1:00-1:45pm          SP-14

February Newsletter Out Now

It’s a new month, and the February edition of my newsletter is out now. As subscribers will see, there was a lot of writing last month, and a full slate of travel to industry events starting next week. More on that shortly.

If any of that is of interest, I encourage you to subscribe - it’s free - and from that point on, you’ll stay current on my output and activities as in indie tech analyst.

Subscribing to JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review is easy - the signup page is here.

January Writing Roundup

For those who follow me, you’ll know I did a lot of writing in December, and much of that ran in various places over the course of January. Here’s the digest of all that, and I hope you check them out.

Platforms Not Pipes: the Three Business Drivers Shaping the NextGen Telco, preface on Telecom Reseller News for a longer article I wrote for Aizan Technologies, Jan. 27

Three Strategic Ways to Use AI for CX, ICMI, Jan. 19

Future of Work - Key UCaaS Trends for IT Leaders, TechTarget, Jan. 12

CX Trends Enterprise Leaders Should Know, TechTarget, Jan. 7

What Will 2026 Bring for Contact Centers?, Contact Center Pipeline, January issue (pg. 8)

Telecom Reseller News - Am Now a Contributor

The longer my run as an indie analyst goes, the more places I end up publishing in. So long as there’s a fit between the audience being served and the focus of my work, I view this as a win-win.

The latest example would be Telecom Reseller News, and it makes me wonder why this took so long. Doug Green is the driving force there, and we’ve been pairing up regularly at industry events for years. Turns out he’s from Toronto, and we have a lot of common ground outside of tech.

Their platform goes both wide and deep - definitely a broad reach across the communications tech space, but also with multiple niches, mainly with service providers - carriers, mobile players, MSPs, etc. I can’t think of a better place to reach that kind of audience, and I’m now on their roster of contributors - which you can see in the Thought Leadership section under the Writers tab.

I’ll be doing a mix of original posts there, along with sharing of things I’ve published elsewhere - both articles and reportage from industry events. Aside from my writing, of course, Doug’s main focus is producing video segments, usually 1:1 interviews. I’ve done several with him, and you can check those out in my profile.

While you’re there, this might become a rabbit hole for industry news and insights, and then you just might make this one of your go-to sites for staying current in an industry that never stands still.

Next Podcast - Talking Headless, with Shashi Bellamkonda

Shashi Bellamkonda wears many hats - analyst, podcast host, writer, foodie (yes!) - and we’ve been following each other for some time. I recently moved further into his orbit, and now we’ll be doing a podcast episode (it’s video, so not really sure if it’s still a podcast - ?).

He’s the host of Talking Headless, and we’ll be doing a LinkedIn Live episode next week - January 28 at noon ET. Joining us will be Arthur Bailey, and we’ll be talking about the analyst ecosystem, and how analysts and Analyst Relations folks navigate ways of finding value for each other. AI is making this trickier for sure, and it’s one of many themes we’ll explore.

If that’s on your radar, am sure you’ll enjoy the dialog. More details here from Shashi, including how to tune in, and watch later from his archive on YouTube.

Enterprise Connect 2026 - Am Speaking There

Lots of change this year for Enterprise Connect - that’s another blog post - and this is the first of several shout-outs I’ll be doing in the lead-up to the show, which runs from March 10-12 in Las Vegas.

For those who follow me, you may know that for 8 years, I did an annual update on the state of speech tech and AI for the enterprise, so I’ve been following this space for some time.

For this year, I’ll be doing a variation on that, but as part of a new track called Future Shock. This is a forward-looking focus on where things are going, and under that umbrella, my session is about how AI is going to change how we communicate in the workplace.

I’ll have more details coming soon, but to mark your calendars, the session is on Thursday, March 12 at 9:15am. For more detail, here’s the link from the event website.

Also, ICYMI, here’s a short video interview I did with Informa’s Erica Marois about what to expect at my session.

Otherwise, as usual, see my discount code below to save $400 on registration. Let me know if you take advantage of that, and hope to see you there!

January Newsletter Out Now

New month and new year- first newsletter edition for 2026 is out now. As subscribers will see, last month was pretty busy on both the video/podcast and writing fronts. If any of that is of interest, I encourage you to subscribe - it’s free - and from that point on, you’ll stay current on my output and activities as in indie tech analyst.

Subscribing to JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review is easy - the signup page is here.

Epica Awards - Final Winners Announced

I’ve been a judge for the Paris-based Epica Awards for a few years now, and have been sharing updates on LinkedIn during this year’s judging process. The awards are done now, and the final winners have been announced.

This is a very global competition, and the level of creativity is really impressive - it really broadens your view about what good advertising can be - both with a heavy dose of tech, including AI - and just old-fashioned great ideas and execution.

Over the course of this process, I judged about 120 entries, so I’ve seen a lot of great pitches, including one from our space - 8x8. Most entries are consumer-focused - but not all - and being a lifelong marketing guy, a lot of what I see here informs my thinking about what the vendors are doing in my world, mainly enterprise communications, and contact center/CX.

If any of this piques your interest around your company’s go-to-market plans, branding, positioning etc., I’d be happy to chat further. Coming back to Epica, to get a better sense for what the 2025 winners looked like, you can check those out here.

vCon Event Redux - Pix and Posts

This is mainly a for-the-record post, as I have shared takeaways from the recent vCon event in various forms, and unless you follow me closely, it will be hard to find them all. There were many timely, important messages from the event, and if you spend some time here, you’ll catch them all.

Otherwise, if you still have questions, I’m not hard to find. Also, there were many panel sessions, and I’ve only cited the session leaders here by name - please ask if you need the names and companies for the panelists.

Below are links from my activities, followed by some photos from the sessions.

• During the event, I posted commentary on LinkedIn - here’s my profile page, and look for posts on Dec. 3

• My full-length review, posted as an article, here on LinkedIn

• Interview with my takeaways just after the event, on Doug Green’s Telecom Reseller podcast

• Video recording of the session I moderated with Thomas McCarthy Howe and Perry Evans about the vCon ecosystem - thanks Doug, and he did the same for most of the other sessions

And now for some photos - all are mine except two, credited below.

Jeff Pulver with his vCon overview; Andy Abramson’s panel on building vCon apps

Doug Green’s panel on the state of vCon; Glenn Richards leading the panel on telecom policy updates

Panel on managing consent and permission-based marketing - moderated by David Carter; telecom fraud panel, moderated by Kevin Rupy

AI policy panel, led by Greg Ewing; my session about the vCon ecosystem, with Thomas McCarthy Howe, and Perry Evans (photo credit - Lauren Pulver)

Fireside chat with Jeff Pulver and Chris Fine

Mitch Lieberman talking about “conversational CRM”, me with Dave Michels at the VIP speakers dinner (thanks for photo, Dave!)