Season 4 of Watch This Space closed out with an episode titled “2021 in Review – Hybrid Work Realities and Consolidation Trends 2021" did not lack for interesting developments as we all struggle to make sense during these challenging times. Chris and I summed things up by focusing on two broad trends that we feel will set the stage for 2022. One would be the emerging hybrid work environment, both in terms of technology innovation and balancing the needs of workers and employers. Second would be industry consolidation, which saw both large and small deals, largely driven by the need to acquire AI pieces. As AI’s star ascends, we consider the impact on who will be driving the buying decisions, and what’s driving their thinking.

Flipping the switch from summer to fall seems much easier than coaxing workers to shift. Chris and I examine the role collaboration technology plays in all this, along with what else is needed to keep workers happy and in the fold.
For those of you who don’t subscribe to our podcast directly from a commercial platform, you can access it any time here on the new Watch This Space website.
If you don’t know where to subscribe to Watch This Space, it’s posted now on many of the leading platforms. More are in the works, and I’ll soon be adding links to all of these on the WTS website. Currently, you can subscribe on iTunes, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Amazon Music, and Stitcher.
The Watch This Space website will host our episodes for 2020 and beyond. The site is formatted specifically for podcasts, including an embedded player so you can listen directly from the site – check it out here: www.watchthisspace.tech. Our earlier podcasts – Seasons 1 and 2 – can be accessed here on my JAA website.

What’s Up? Part 2 – JAA Highlights from November

While the Watch This Space podcast is the main form of original content for this newsletter, Part 2 here is a digest of JAA activities from the previous month, including my other forms of original content, and my social media stats. More detail for most of these will be on my blog.
Conference roundup – there were three virtual conferences, and my first in-person event since the pandemic – finally!
- SCTC Annual Conference - Nov. 1-4 – in person
- Mavenir 2021 Analyst Day – Nov. 9
- Genesys 2021 Analyst and Influencer Summit – Nov. 9-10
- Slack Frontiers 2021 - Nov. 16-17
Speaking opp – I provided another lock note talk to close out the SCTC conference
SIPtones gig – always fun, and we got to play at SCTC – video clips coming soon, yeah
Podcast – I was a guest on the Channel Futures podcast, Coffee with Craig and James, talking about Copper Sunset and implications for decommissioning the PSTN.
Guest posts – in addition to this month being my regular turn to write for No Jitter wearing my BCStrategies hat, I had two guest articles run; one about the benefits of deploying UCaaS and CCaaS together, and one about NAOV – New Age of Voice – links to both are in my Writing Roundup post, as well as on my blog
Spotlight on voice-enabling UCaaS – in addition to these No Jitter posts, I did a spotlight post on my blog, taking the form of a Q&A interview with Dawn-Marie Elder, COO of SIPPIO
Writing roundup – summary of my public writing is here – much busier this month, and if I had to pick one, it would be this writeup on No Jitter: Start Saying Goodbye to the Contact Center
Media citings – was a busy month, with 7 citings
Social media highlights - since these stats change every day, the metrics are just a basic snapshot, but they provide a good sense of reach beyond my blog and newsletter. For my business, I use Twitter and LinkedIn, and here are some approximate tallies for November:
- For LinkedIn – I had 33,078 views and 26 posts – by far, the most views I’ve ever tallied, mainly due to the traffic for one of my posts from the Genesys event, featuring CEO Tony Bates
- My top LinkedIn post registered 13,891 views and overall, 11 posts had 500+ views
- For Twitter – there were 11,500 impressions, 1,590 profile visits, 52 mentions, 32 tweets, and 15 new followers
- My “top tweet” was about the Genesys Summit event, with 1,789 impressions, and overall, 4 tweets had 500+ impressions

What's Coming? JAA Outlook for December

As the year comes to a close, event activity takes a breather – thankfully - I only have one on the calendar, and it’s in-person:
- Avaya Engage, Orlando, FL, Dec. 12-15
Speaker recruitment continues for the Future of Work Expo coming this February - I’m returning as Chair, and here’s the Agenda page - please get in touch to learn more, either for speaking or sponsoring/exhibiting
On the branding front, I’ve been working on new logos to better reflect my business focus for 2022 – one for my company JAA, and one for this newsletter – coming soon!
In terms of December client work, here are the highlights for active projects:
- Another live Twitter event with Huawei, Dec. 6
- Speaking gig for a leading contact center vendor, for their virtual Canadian event, Dec 8
- Two year-in-review writeups; one for a contact center vendor, and one for a leading publisher
- Guest post to run on the company blog site for a leading cloud comms vendor
- Starting a new white paper for a Tier 1 collaboration vendor
- Starting a series of thought leadership pieces for a leading contact center vendor
- Due diligence on the CPaaS space for an investment banker

Hey Did You Know....

…it takes a lot of planning to manage all these virtual events. As with last month, here are some of my screenshots and photos from the various events I was tracking or attending.

Slack Frontiers and Mavenir Analyst Day