Enterprise Connect 2011
Next week is Enterprise Connect, and it looks like it’s going to be a good conference.
Most of my time is scheduled in briefings. You know why briefings are important? Because no one can understand press releases. Seriously. There is a ton of news announced at this conference, and the press release game makes it fun. The object of the game is to use the most adjectives and commas conceivable to obfuscate the message. The briefings are the fun part, I ask questions to guess the meaning. If I can guess it in less than 20 questions, then I win! But, I don’t win very often.
Here are some selected items from my schedule – where I will be and what I am looking forward to.
MONDAY: .
I will start off with the UC Implementation options deep dive. Looks like a good panel.
Speaker – Marty Parker, Principal Consultant, UniComm Consulting
Panelist – Frank Fender, Unified Communications Product Manager and Architect, Siemens Enterprise Communications, Inc.
Panelist – Bryan Tantzen, Senior Director – Customer Transformation and Market Development, Voice Technology Group, Cisco
Panelist – Albert Kooiman, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft Corporation
Panelist – Allan Mendelsohn, Director, UC Emerging Markets & Applications Marketing, Avaya
TUESDAY
9 AM I will be in the General Session introducing two of the four Innovation Showcase winners. This will take place during the first 10 minutes of the general session.
Keynotes: Cisco, Avaya, and Skype. This is the first time Skype is doing a keynote, should be interesting.
2:30 PM Eric Krapf and I are moderating a panel Choreographing the Cloud: Finding the Right Mix of Cloud vs. On-Prem Functions (Location: Sun C). I was selected to moderate this because I am known for my excellent choreography.
Panelist – Jeri Korkki, Global CTO, Integrated Communications Cloud Services, IBM Global Services
Panelist – Andrew Sinclair, Sr Director, Enterprise Product & Engineering Management, Skype Enterprise
Panelist – Tom Daniel, Group Manager, UCC Product Development and Management, Verizon
Panelist – Ziv Fass, Senior Product Manager, Microsoft
Moderator – Dave Michels, Principal, Verge1 Consulting
Moderator – Eric Krapf, Editor, NoJitter.com, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect
WEDNESDAY
9 AM I will be in the General Session introducing two of the four Innovation Showcase winners. This will take place during the first 10 minutes of the general session.
Keynotes: Microsoft and HP (HP?) Gurdeep will not be doing the Microsoft keynote this year, instead its some other VP – Kirk Koenigsbauer.
3:45 PM: I am hosting a panel on Open Source. Check out this line-up. I hope I don’t piss off Dan again like I did at ITEXPO.
Speaker – Kevin Fleming, Director of Software Technologies, Digium, Inc.
Speaker – Thomas McCarthy-Howe, CEO, Light and Electric
Speaker – Dan York, Director of Conversations, Voxeo
Moderator – Dave Michels, Principal, Verge1 Consulting
THURSDAY
10 AM Consumerization of IT: Is Resistance Futile? (Location: Sun B). Personally, I thrive on resistance. As a former enterprise IT manager, I intend to dig in my heels here. Let them eat cake.
Panelist – Dave Michels, Principal, Verge1 Consulting
Panelist – Robert Harris, President, Communications Advantage, Inc.
Panelist – Sorell Slaymaker, Communications Architect, Unified IT Systems
Moderator – Eric Krapf, Editor, NoJitter.com, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect
11:00 AM Locknote (Location: Sun B). I’ve already prepared all my observations from the conference so this will be easy.
Panelist – Melanie Turek, Principal Analyst, Frost & Sullivan
Panelist – Gary Audin, President, Delphi Inc.
Panelist – Dave Michels, Principal, Verge1 Consulting
Panelist – Michael Finneran, Principal, dBrn Associates Inc
Panelist – Marty Parker, Principal Consultant, UniComm Consulting
Panelist – John Bartlett, Voice Video and Data Application Performance, NetForecast Inc.
Moderator – Eric Krapf, Editor, NoJitter.com, Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect
Moderator – Fred Knight, GM/Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect, Publisher, NoJitter.com
After the Conference
I do plan to award Disconnects again, for the Worst of Enterprise Connect. A benefit of being an independent contractor. If you have any nominations, please do share.
Next Conference is UC Summit.
