Collaboration is one of the most important considerations for any business today. As trends like remote working, globalisation, and mobility lead us into 2019, organisations of all sizes are searching for the best way to promote teamwork among their employees.
Collaboration Week NY is a new event created by the IMCCA (Interactive Multimedia & Collaborative Communications Alliance) to give companies a brand-new insight into the world of collaboration. The IMCCA is a non-profit association comprised of consultants, product providers, and technology users dedicated to providing its members a stronger understanding of the collaborative communication space.
We caught up with David Danto, the Director of Emerging Technologies for IMCCA, to learn more about the upcoming event and what it has to offer attendees.
Tell Us About Collaboration Week New York
David Danto told me that while there are plenty of industry events centred around collaboration today, most of them have an ulterior motive: “They want to make money by selling a product or service or prove themselves to be the biggest organisation in the industry. The IMCCA is a completely different kind of organisation.”
“We’ve always been an agnostic, non-profit organisation that works with some of the biggest players in the collaboration and communication space.”
As Director of Emerging Technology, David had examined the collaboration event space with his colleagues and questioned what they could do to showcase the latest technology to the industry without an ulterior motive. “We wanted to deliver information and experiences without the huge cost. I know a number of great vendors who avoid certain events simply because it’s so expensive to get a booth.”
As collaboration continues to change the business environment as we know it, the IMCCA believes that it’s essential for people to have a way of expanding their knowledge of emerging technologies. The Collaboration Week NY will deliver an innovative and informative experience ideal for this modern marketplace.
What Will Collaboration Week NY Involve?
According to David, “We came up with the concept of a collaboration week that’s about three days long, and each day features a breakfast, followed by a trip to a location where there will be three sessions. The sessions might include a keynote from an industry expert, an end-user panel, or something else entirely. The third session will be something that’s specifically personalised to the location we’re visiting. For instance, one of the locations is Google, so we might go on a tour of the Google workplace and see their collaboration tools in action.”
Collaboration Week New York isn’t just another industry event; it’s a unique opportunity for people to go and visit service providers and manufacturers in their natural habitat and engage with them in an exciting new way. The events include one-of-a-kind tours, fantastic networking opportunities, and even prizes for attendees to win.
“We have a lot of great sponsors already, and maybe about 10 venues to visit. Our plan is to strategically organise the venues that we go to so that everything flows naturally from a geographical perspective.”
Is There Anything Else Like This Event in the US?
Collaboration Week New York essentially takes attendee on tour around the Big Apple to show them first-hand how the latest collaboration and communication tools are used in a business setting. “This is going to be a unique event for us. We’ve done New York experiences before, but nothing like this.”
David told me that his long-term plan is to use the Collaboration Week in New York as a template to help the IMCCA move to other locations in the future. After all, sponsoring an event like this one would be a very cost-effective option for companies who wanted to demonstrate their solutions to end-users and integrators. With so many great hubs for technology around the world, there are plenty of locations where an event like Collaboration Week would thrive.
Aside from an opportunity to explore vendor locations, attendees to Collaboration Week will also be able to network with their peers, take part in on-site panel discussions, and even apply for the chance to win prizes during daily giveaways.
“It’s free for end-users to attend an unlimited number of sessions, and integrators are free to attend too, although we will be limiting how many integrators are at the event. For instance, we might only allow two integrators from each organisation to attend for free.”
For companies that want to sponsor the Collaboration Week, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved, including a low-cost sponsorship option of $500 for a logo spot. “Any other level of sponsorship is reserved for IMCCA members only, so people will need to sign up to be a member of the non-profit to get involved.”
Does the IMCCA Have a Lot of Members?
I was interested to find out whether the IMCCA already had a lot of members. According to David, the non-profit has more than 6,000 end-user members, along with a wide selection of large vendor members like Avaya, Cisco, Crestron, Polycom, Google and more. “The goal for us is to be as accessible as possible to companies. We don’t want to charge people a lot of money to be a part of Collaboration week or the IMCCA. We want to make sure that everyone can work together to promote the industry.”
David told me that the IMCCA don’t believe in pay-to-play events, and they’re never going to force their members to sit through a sales pitch. As the industry for collaboration continues to offer new and more exciting ways to collaborate and communicate, IMCCA has developed their event to celebrate the space in a new and exciting way.
Registration for Collaboration Week NY is set to open in mid-December, and you can go and check out the sponsorship opportunities on the website here.
