Next Conference: Aastra User Group
This is my year for conferences, about one a month.
Next up is the Aastra User Group Conference in Santa Monica, CA May 1 – May 4th.
I am really excited about this one because I don’t normally attend very many user groups – and when you boil it all down – it’s the users that matter the most.
I didn’t know much about Aastra a few years ago; they just weren’t in my world – but the company has quite a story. I first wrote about them in 2009 on NoJitter: The Aastra Operation. In a nutshell, long term profitable history, acquisitive, and far more pervasive than many realize. The company is playing in just about every key sector of the industry: very large systems (largely a result of its Intecom acquisition), mid market – especially in Europe (largely a result of its Ericsson acquisition), active with Asterisk and SIP endpoints (see There’s an App for That), DECT with their lineup of wireless phones, and Microsoft Lync with a Microsoft partnership for Lync endpoints.
Not to mention, the company is almost always listed first among its competitors
Last month, Aastra announced its newest product, the BluStar 8000i. Quoting myself: 
Aastra’s BluStar 8000i has a whopping 13″ color LCD display suitable for video and/or collaboration. In an Aastra environment, the solution renews the ViPr line of video and collaboration products, but it is also suitable for non Aastra environments as an impressive SIP video phone. A planned BluStar server appliance positions the solution for non Aastra environments that support SIP.
I always enjoy trips to California (this event is dubbed Peer to Pier). The nice folks at Aastra invited me to present my views on life, video, and dial-tone. Should be fun, but I am a bit worried because I can’t find my tap shoes.
At Enterprise Connect 2011 – Aastra brought back the great tradition of Infotainment with this clever spoof on The Office. Check it out to learn more about the new BluStar.
