Cloud Communications Alliance 2025 Event - Photo Highlights

Am back now from Cloud Connections 2025, the main event run by the Cloud Communications Alliance. I’ve known CCA for some time, but this was my first time attending - and speaking - at this particular event, held in St. Petersburg, FL.

For this post, I’m just sharing photos, and it’s really a companion to my takeaways post that is live now on LinkedIn. Also, I posted photos and commentary regularly on LinkedIn during the event.

Below - Masters of all ceremonies, Clark Peterson and Amy Bailey - great job all around. Center-of-the-universe Mike Tessler sharing his view from on high, including his Top 5 strategies for success with AI.

Michael Quinn and Brian Kornmann from Q Advisors, with their PE perspective on building value for your business, and key reasons why deals succeed or fail. Next - Clark Peterson moderating the analyst panel, with Robin Gareiss, Matthew Townend, Elka Popova and myself.

Master entrepreneur and Shark Tank alum, Kevin Harrington - this is the kind of vision MSPs need to keep growing, and he gave them plenty of food for thought - and a free book. Nice social shot, where a few us got in the mix with him before he left.

Two more solid panel sessions. First, Dino Di Palma, with Brian Beutler of Alianza, and Peter Eisengrein of XTIUM - talking about the climate now for M&A. Brian has “never been more excited” about the future for growing his company. Next - Gerry Christensen of 46 Labs, moderating a fascinating panel about branded calling and KYC. Lots to talk about here, and he’s with Alexis Buese of Bradley Law and Chakra Devalla of tekVizion.

Brandon Knight of Zoom, Doug Green doing a podcast with me, and Mr. CCA, Joe Marion kicking off the first night fun.

Event venue - the Vinoy - very Florida and very upscale. Loved the music and pool - who wouldn’t?

Next Webinar - with Cognigy, Agentic AI

Agentic AI is arguably the hottest trend in AI, especially for the contact center, and if you need to get up to speed - especially for CX leaders - you’ll want to join us on April 24. The webinar is being hosted by TMCnet’s CUSTOMER Magazine, with Erik Linask moderating.

I’ll be in conversation with Cognigy’s Alan Ranger, and we’ll be covering the latest developments, along with how agentic AI is being used to great effect today. We’ll also share learnings from Cognigy’s recent Nexus 2025 conference, where several success stories were shared for both agentic and conversational AI.

We hope you’ll join us - it’s at 2pm ET on April 24 - and details to register are here.

8x8 Analyst Summit - Photo Highlights

Been going full-out since back from last week’s 8x8 analyst event in Southampton, UK. I’ve written an extensive review on the BCStrategies website, which has just been updated, so that’s another reason to go visit.

My review just went live - read it here - and before doing that, I’ll share some of my photos from the event, along with some social time while there. I hope you enjoy these, along with my review of the event.

Below - CMO Bruno Bertini and CEO Sam Wilson

Hunter Middleton and Fabio Ramos

At the harborside hotel, and an obligatory Guinness at the soccer match

Customer panel, onsite at the stadium; some images from their new branding

Partner panel, executive Q&A panel near the end of the event

More social - at the soccer stadium, pub stop with Blair Pleasant, followed by dinner with Simon Harrison

Inside the stadium before the game, and the marching band outside - loved it

April 1 - No Foolin' - New Podcast and Newsletter Editions Out Now

Last month, publishing was a week late, but for April, we’re right on time. Both newsletter and podcast editions are live now, and I hope you check them out.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This month’s podcast was a recap of three March events - Leesman Focus Forward, Enterprise Connect, and Cognigy’s Nexus 2025. Lots to talk about, and you can hear all about it here.

Cognigy Nexus 2025 - Quick Take and Pix

Coming out of back-to-back events, I’m behind on, well, just about everything.

Two weeks ago, I attended Cognigy’s Nexus 2025 event in Dusseldorf, where the company’s HQ is. This is their customer event to showcase their technology, and more importantly, the kind of successes their customers are having with AI-driven CX. Pretty impressive, and I don’t think anyone is doing it better at the moment.

Too much time has passed for an in-depth writeup, but if you follow my LinkedIn posts from the event, you’ll have a pretty good sense of that. I’m also doing a webinar next month with Alan Ranger about all this - details coming soon.

In lieu of that - and for the record - here are some of my photos from the event, both for the sessions, and the social side of being there. Loved the experience, and can’t wait to go back!

Below - opening welcome from Alan Ranger; CEO and co-founder, Philipp Heltewig; Kane Simms doing the final keynote talk on the impact of AI on automation

Customer demos and success stories from DHL, Bosch and Santander. Each would make for a great case study - all were quite different, but tangible results, both for ROI and improving CX.

Another customer session - Skoda; presentation from Metrigy sharing some new CX research; and a technical breakout from Deepgram, a company I’ve followed for some time.

As seen when arriving at Dusseldorf airport - can’t-miss-advertising, right off the plane - love it. Upstairs view of the venue for the conference - was twice the size from last year - another indication for how well the company is doing.

Customer panel, and a vendor panel, led by Jarrod Davis on the theme of AI or Die

When in Germany - outing to Fuchschen - one of seven bars that brew their own Altbier - a special type of beer that Dusseldorf is known for - why would you drink anything else?

Some old-town flavor, by day and by night

With Nicolas Ehrlacher, RingCentral and Jessica Gopalakrishnan, Cognigy; Amy Stapleton from Opus Research; my beer!

Out with folks from 8x8, and colleague/he’s-everywhere, Dave Michels

VR demo with Lufthansa, checking out what flying first class kinda looks like (pretty good idea for upselling, actually!); Victor Belfor from 8x8 and that Dave again; riverfront walk by the Rhine - that’s a first for me.

Podcast with PolyAI - Agentic AI and Customer Experience

Got a few posts to catch up on for sharing after travel to back-to-back events the past two weeks. This one is for the latest Tech Transformed podcast with EM360. For this episode, I interviewed Nikola Mrksic, CEO of PolyAI, talking about AI’s impact on customer experience and the contact center.

It’s a broad topic for sure, and yes, we touched on the trend-du-jour, agentic AI, among other things. If you missed it earlier, here’s the link, and I hope you give it a listen.

Time for March Newsletter and Podcast Editions

Things are a week off-schedule this month, but the March editions are now out.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This month’s podcast was a recap of the Future of Work Expo, which was the main focus for me last month. There were lots of interesting takeaways, and to hear all about it, you can listen to the episode here.

February Writing Roundup

Am posting this on the late side, mainly due to February being a short month, along with my recent travel schedule. Along those lines, I’m including a writeup that ran in early March, which were in fact, written last month. Here’s the digest of my public, bylined writeups for last month.

The Future of the Workplace Requires a Total Rethink, No Jitter, Mar. 4

RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos, my blog, Feb. 28

ZohoDay25 - The AD Era, Build vs. Buy, and Playing the Long Game, No Jitter, Feb. 13

New Research From Aizan - Reimagining the On-Hold Experience, Aizan blog, Feb. 10

RingCentral Analyst Summit - Quick Take and Photos

Am back now from RingCentral’s 2025 Analyst Summit, and it was time well-spent. Hosted at the upscale Bardessono hotel in Yountville - the heart of Napa - the setting was more than comfortable, making the almost two-hour drive from SFO a small inconvenience. More importantly was the intimate setting with a small group of analysts and pretty much all the key people we need to know and hear from at RingCentral.

Momentum is strong on many fronts, and it adds up to continued growth through 2025. There were many updates to keep track of, most notably:

• Strong Q4 results, with 2024 revenues hitting $2.4 billion

• Launch of AI Receptionist - AIR - which brings CAI and agentic AI capabilities that any business can use to automate the handling of incoming calls

• Appointment of Kira Makagon as President and COO - further solidifying an already-strong leadership team

• Updates on RingCX - powered by RingSense AI, their CCaaS offering is clearly gaining traction, both with and without the AI feature set

There were other updates of note as well, but I’m not doing a full-on review here. I posted commentary and photos regularly during the sessions on my LinkedIn feed, and with longer analysis coming on two video segments.

One is with UC Today on their Big UC News roundup, and another is a similar roundup with our group at BCStrategies. Both should run publicly next week or soon after, and I’ll share the links in case you don’t catch them.

To complement those takeaways, here are some of my photos, some of which you may have seen in isolation from my LinkedIn posts.

Below - nice overview visuals here. It’s easy to forget that RingCentral has been going for 25 years, and the first photo is a great timeline for their innovations and milestones. Second visual emphasizes a key message from the event - they have a complete, “multi-product portfolio”, and have a come a long way from from being a VoIP provider.

Some of the bright stars on their team, ball-hockey guy/MC/Mr. Canada - Amir Hameed, Kira Makagon, and Kristen Koenig (from their Hopin acquisition - another good growth story)

Zane Long leading the partner panel; RingCentral brain trust for the Exec Q&A, including Vlad Shmunis

More smart people, especially on the AI front - Jim Dvorkin, Dr. Antonio Nucci, John Finch

AI Receptionist demo (hard to see, but the 8 avatars on the screen represent the different personas that AIR can take on); the Two Mikes - Mike Stowe and Michael Brandenburg talking about what makes their platform distinct.

Thought you’d never ask - the hotel was right out of Central Casting for what you’d expect in Napa; world-famous, we-are-not-worthy French Laundry restaurant; and of course, an organic lemon tree in the garden area of the property.

This is how you do Zen at Bardessono; the personalized welcome screen in my room - nice touch, and it’s fair to say this hotel gets it with CX.

Enterprise Connect - Speaking Update

Enterprise Connect 2025 is about three weeks away, and I’ll be there for just about all of it. My calendar is getting pretty full for meetings and briefings, and if you wanted to meet, please get in touch ASAP - jon@jarnoldassociates.com. No promises at this point, but nothing to lose for trying.

If you don’t know, I’ve been presenting a state-of-the-market update on speech tech for the enterprise during the past seven years, but we’re moving on now to other things. During that time, I’ve certainly gained a deep understanding of where speech tech is going for businesses beyond the contact center - especially of course, for how AI is driving this in ways we couldn’t have imagined a few years ago. I still work closely with vendors on this topic, and if it’s a space you need some help in, feel free to reach out.

In terms of speaking, I’ll be a panelist on two sessions, both on Thursday.

First, at 10am, is a session on the “future of the workplace” - details here. Having recently run my Future of Work Expo tracks at ITExpo, this is a topic I’m well-versed in, and will share some of these perspectives on this panel.

Next is the Locknote session at 11:15am, which closes out Enterprise Connect. The format is to hear collective perspectives on the event - and the year ahead - from analysts and consultants. This is my first time being on the Locknote, and will be in pretty good company, namely Sheila McGee-Smith, Dave Michels, Brent Kelly, and Steve Leaden - details here.

Finally, as a speaker, I get to offer a discount code on registration, so if you want to save $400, use promotion code ARNOLD400. Hope you can use it, and if so, you can buy me a coffee there!

Future of Work Expo Recap - Photos and Media Coverage

I’ve been Chair of the Future of Work Expo for eight years now, and as technology evolves, the future of work is always interesting. Last week’s 2025 edition went to plan, and we had a solid roster of speakers, a timely mix of topics, and an attentive audience.

During the event, I posted photos and commentary regularly on LinkedIn, so you’ll have to check out my feed to pick up on that. At this point, I’m not going to write anything more, and instead will share some photo highlights, along with media coverage in the form of articles about specific sessions, covered by Future of Work News.

First, here are the writeups from FOW News:

• Cybersecurity and Privacy panel session

• Review of Jabra’s solo presentation - Great Expect AI tions - Welcome to Work in the Age of AI

• Role of UCaaS in Shaping the Future of Work

Now for the photos.

There are too many speakers from the panels to cite here, but you can find them all on the Agenda page. Unfortunately, Squarespace isn’t letting me insert a hyperlink now, so here’s the URL - www.futureofworkexpo.com/agenda.aspx.

Below - I, Robot - the future of work? Very cute! Next - Day 1 program, and me with Mr. TMC, Rich Tehrani.

My opening keynote, joined by special guest, Jeff Pulver.

Glenn Goldberg moderating the panel on AI Business Transformation, and John Stafford with the panel on the Changing Role of IT with FOW. Thanks guys!

With Hardy Myers of Cognigy; thumbs way up with Justin Robbins of Metric Sherpa; Khurum Shafi of Twilio, with his souped-up BlackBerry (yup!) to record the session on the evolving role of the contact center.

Moderating panels on the evolving role of contact centers with FOW, and how UCaaS is driving the FOW.

Nice roundup representing SCTC attendees - Vern Fernandez of Jabra, myself, Tom Brannen of OnConvergence, Bill Magnuson of NexusBlue, and Dave Clardy of Mitel. Next - from my UCaaS panel, with Leo Boulton of Zoom, and Luiz Domingos of Mitel.

With Jeff Pulver; Harry Chapin and his classic hit, Taxi. Sorry folks, but you had to be at my keynote to get what this has to do with the future of work.

Panel of AI Innovation and FOW Skills Gaps; and Employee Engagement session.

With Brett Shockley of Journey; reprising my keynote talk in the Solutions Theater on the showfloor; speaking during opening session.

Thanks to those who took many of these photos - too many to credit here. Also, still to come - some video clips of me being interviewed by Rich Tehrani, by Tom Brannen, and a clip from my keynote talk.

Finally, if you like what you see, I’d love to tell you more about the event. It’s never too early for me to start planning for 2026, so if you want to speak, moderate, sponsor or exhibit - or just share your thoughts about the future of work - I’m not hard to find!

New Month - Time for New Watch This Space Podcast and Newsletter

The February editions of my podcast and newsletter were published yesterday, and I hope you check them out. If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

The current episode is an excess review of all the excess around AI at the moment. Inspired by DeepSeek’s entry into the fray, we started there, then moved on to various forms of deepfakes that pose all kinds of risk to just about everything we do.

As always, we framed this through our analog lens, a perspective that digital natives lack, and we feel provides some levity to all this. Chris and I didn’t stop there, and to get the whole story, you can listen to the February episode here.

January Writing Roundup

Very disjointed month, as I was in Israel for two weeks, then flattened with a cold the entire week after getting back. Totally good now, though, and thankfully I got all my latest work done ahead of all this, so I do have some writing to share from January.

The Channel Partner Opportunity to Deploy UCaaS, CCaaS Together, Channel Futures, Jan. 28

How Call Testing and Monitoring Enhances Telephony and CX for Brands, No Jitter, Jan. 10

Getting Past the AI Hype, Contact Center Pipeline, January edition

New Month, New Year, New Newsletter and Podcast

I’ve definitely hit the ground running for 2025, and being the first full week of the month, the latest editions of my podcast and newsletter were published yesterday.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This marks the start of Season 8 for my podcast, and as you can see below, it’s got a new look. I hope you like it, and same for the episode itself, which you can listen to right here.

Finally, a quick heads-up - soon, you’ll be seeing an animated version of the WTS banner. It’s kinda fun, and better reflects the vibe we’re after. Watch for it on LinkedIn and on my website.

Getting Past the AI Hype - My Latest Contact Center Pipeline Article

I’ve been a guest contributor to Contact Center Pipeline for some time, as well as being a member of their Advisory Board.

Getting Past the AI Hype is my latest article, running now in the January 2025 edition.

There’s great content in the current issue, which covers a lot of ground for the big themes and challenges facing contact centers in 2025. I hope you read my article, and here’s the link to explore the rest of the issue. If you like what you see, you can easily sign up for free to get the digital edition.

A good starting point would be long-time colleague Brendan Read’s overview - What Will 2025 Bring for Contact Centers? It’s a compilation of insights from various thought leaders - myself included - thanks - and here’s the link to read it. Plenty to digest in this issue, and am sure the CCP folks would love to hear from you.

December Writing Roundup

December was another busy month on the video front - details on that in my next newsletter - but there was writing as well, both with my byline and without. Here’s the bylined writing, and if you missed these, I hope you give them a read.

Getting Past the AI Hype, Contact Center Pipeline, January 2025 issue

How Vendors Could Help Small and Medium Businesses Navigate Change Amidst Rapid Change and Complexity, No Jitter, Dec. 17

Where Does the Human Element Stand in the Age of Automation?, Future of Work News, Dec. 16

Tech Adoption Challenges for SMBs - My Latest for No Jitter

My writing cycle is in high gear again, and I have a number of articles and papers coming to market soon. As part of the BCStrategies team, we have a regular rotation of articles for No Jitter, and my latest is out now.

The focus is a big topic that is easily overlooked - adoption of new technology for SMBs. While many cloud communications vendors strive to move upmarket, this sector is too big to ignore, but it’s a different sell than for large enterprises. One reason is a variety of challenges SMBs face to stay current with technology, and that’s the focus of my writeup.

You can read the article here, and if you like it, I’d love to hear from you!

December Editions of Newsletter and Podcast Out Now

It’s a new month, and time for the last editions of both my newsletter and podcast for 2024 - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review, and my Watch This Space podcast, finishing up its 7th season.

If you’re not a subscriber, signing up to my newsletter is easy - JAA’s Communications and Collaboration Review - the signup page is here.

For my Watch This Space podcast, you can subscribe on all the major platforms, or listen to any episode directly here on my website, or here on the dedicated WTS website.

This month’s episode is a first for us, with a review of a sci-fi classic novelette, With Folded Hands. If you’re wondering where things are heading with AI, this will be time well-spent, along with our review of recent events and 2024 highlights - you can check out the December podcast here.

Next Webinar - with NICE - AI, Automation and the Customer Journey

I’ve been working on a few fronts with NICE about this topic, and we have a webinar coming up on Dec. 12 to talk it through. I’ll be leading with a presentation, and will be in conversation with Elizabeth Tobey. We make a good team, and hope you can join us! Details are here, along with the registration form to attend.

November Writing Roundup

Am a bit behind on things, being away most all last week for Thanksgiving, and how month-end fell on the calendar for November. Did a lot more video than writing last month, but here’s the roundup of public posts.

Talkdesk Analyst Summit - my takeaways, on LinkedIn, Nov. 25

Pros and Cons of a Hybrid Contact Center Architecture, TechTarget, Nov. 14

NICE Analyst Summit Takeaways (ICYMI, being month-end), No Jitter, Oct. 29