Enterprise Connect Photos and Shirts
Last year I tweeted this photo of the Acano team at Enterprise Connect. @RowanTrollope wanted to know more, so he asked me about Acano. I explained that this little upstart had some wicked technology that was actually better than Cisco’s. He was intrigued, and agreed to check them out. Less than a year later Cisco acquired Acano for $700 million. Obviously I can’t take full credit for multiple reasons including the possibility that this story isn’t true. 
Regardless, what is important is that I have an Acano T-shirt – a valuable collectors item. I have a special section of my closet designated as historical archives. It’s an impressive collection -Nortel, NewBridge Networks, Voxeo, CBeyond, Aastra, Tropo, VON, GTE…
These are badges of honor, and if you collect 50 of them you become an industry Eagle Scout. So pay attention at Enterprise Connect and never turn down a shirt. Unfortunately though the vast majority of my collection has ended up with my kids since few vendors seem to realize how full of knowledge, er how large I am.
If you would like to see some other photos from Enterprise Connect 2015 – check out my photo album here. I will be at EC16 with a new selfie stick, come by and say cheese.
By Dave Michels
Dave is an independent analyst and founder of TalkingPointz which is focused on enterprise communications. In addition to this (free and paid) content on TalkingPointz, he contributes to industry sites, can be found at major industry events, and provides advisory services to vendors and financial analysts.