This is the first of two back-to-back events that week, and am looking forward to being at Avaya Engage.

This is a new event for me, and aside from taking in sessions and networking, I’ll be wearing two hats. First, I’ll be moderating a panel of consultants on Wednesday at 11:05 - Conversational AI and the Enterprise. Later that night, the consultants and I will revert to black attire, and do our thing as the SIPtones. How fun is that? Details are here on the event website, and updates will be coming, including a podcast.

I'll be wearing two hats for the Genesys CX18 conference, and definitely looking forward to both. First, I'm attending as an analyst, getting the updates I need to stay current with them in the fast-changing customer care space.

I'll also be wearing my musician hat, as the SIPtones are back on stage (you can check us out here), this time at The Valentine nightclub in the heart of Music City. I'll be mainly playing keyboards, but it might work out for me to play some guitar as well!

This will be my first time attending Enterprise Connect, and I'm one of the very first speakers. Bright and early at 8am, Monday, I'm presenting a tutorial on speech technology that I think attendees will really enjoy and learn from.

I'm already pretty booked up with meetings and briefings, but will do my best to spend time with you if interested, but please let me know ASAP for that to happen. Finally, as a speaker, you can use my speaker code with this link to get $500 off if you register before March 9. See you there!

February usually means ITExpo, and lately that means Fort Lauderdale. Good time of year to go south, and I'll be busy moderating three sessions. More details coming, but here are the topics and times:

Making Chatbots Your Most Valuable Assets - Hot Topics in Tech Track, Wed at 10

How AI is Changing the Customer Experience - Hot Topics in Tech Track, Wed at 1

The Rise of Messaging in the Enterprise - Business Communications Essentials Track, Fri at 11

Got 2 events the same week, so will only be able to attend the first part of BroadSoft Connections 2017 - but definitely looking forward to attending.

The 2017 BC Summit returns to Palm Springs, and I have no complaints about that.

Our agenda is still shaping up, but I'll be speaking on two panel sessions, along with other UC Experts. First is the Vendor Landscape on Wed at 10:30, and at 1 pm Thursday, I'll be part of the update session on contact centers, with an emphasis on new technologies like chatbots and AI.

Couldn't make it last year, but looking forward to returning to Genband's upcoming Perspectives 17 in LA.

For years, this time and place was for Interactive Intelligence's Interactions annual event, but having now been acquired by Genesys, that event will now be part of their event, G-Force. This is the bridge year for combining them, and going forward, am not sure if it will still continue in Indy, a city I've enjoyed visiting - and playing music in.

I'll be flying there on Sunday, and am looking forward to seeing how the two companies are coming together, especially for the mix between cloud and premise-based offerings. There's a lot to be worked out, especially for branding, channels and managing the two workplace cultures.

That aside, I'm looking forward to another gig with the SIPtones, and we're all practicing to get ready. We're playing Tuesday night, back again at the Slippery Noodle, Indy's top blues bar. It's a great spot for our music, and if you haven't seen us, here's my post from our last gig there, including a short video compilation of our show.

First of three events involving travel in May, so it's a busy month. Am looking forward to this annual event, and nice to be doing it in Canada for a change.

This will be Jeff Pulver's second Monage conference, and if this is new for you, here are my takeaways from the first one, held last fall in Boston. Jeff has put together another great program and speaker roster, and aside from attending, I'll be speaking on a panel about enterprise messaging on Thursday at 11am with my long-time industry colleague, Chris Fine.

Short trip this time - attending an analyst event for CafeX. Updates to follow.

Right after ITExpo in Ft. Lauderdale, I'll be heading west to Las Vegas for the Avaya Engage event. Will be very interesting to see what their roadmap looks like to emerge from Chapter 11. 

One of the mainstays in my calendar for years, I'm back for another ITExpo, TMCnet's flagship conference.

This time around, I'll be moderating two panels, both on the Friday:

10am - What's New in Unified Communications

11am - Hot Topics in Tech and Communications

Details for my sessions, along with the rest of the program can be reviewed here - just scroll down to Friday and the details will be there.

Next week, I'll be attending ShoreTel's Global Partner Conference in Orlando. As always, am looking forward to being there, and this should be my last bit of conference travel for 2016 - finally!

Aside from participating in  the regular conference sessions, I'm one of the analysts who will be speaking on the Industry Trends Panel. The website hasn't been updated to reflect that yet, but the session will be on Wednesday afternoon.

I'll be attending Nextiva's big customer event, NextCon 16, in Scottsdale. Should be a great event, and Tuesday, I'll be speaking on an analyst roundtable. Details coming, and will include a link once the Agenda is updated.