UC EXPO’s return has been hailed a roaring success after thousands of attendees descended on London’s ExCel centre.
The two-day event was paired with its sister conference, Digital Transformation EXPO’s, for the first time, creating a huge exhibition covering everything from unified communications, to cybersecurity, to cloud infrastructure migration.
Hybrid working dominated the event from a unified communications perspective, with businesses showcasing the latest devices and software designed to help businesses prepare for life with employees working both at home and in the office.
Meanwhile, many businesses are wrestling with the challenge of connecting legacy systems to new platforms such as Microsoft Teams. To combat this, a host of businesses were shining the spotlight on their latest integrations and interoperability solutions, helping businesses overcome the challenge of multi-vendor estates by unifying their infrastructure.
Cutting-edge tech on was also on display, including Google Glass and virtual reality collaboration technology from the likes of Simply Video, which is integrating collaboration platforms with VR headsets.
An important undercurrent of the event was the importance of culture in businesses that have, or are about to, adopt hybrid work. Technology will play a crucial role in enabling hybrid work, but businesses will need to undergo a more fundamental shift in mentality if they are to successfully make the transformation.
Zeus Kerravala, Principal Analyst at ZK Research, spoke to UC Today Publisher Rob Scott about the innovation he is seeing in the market and the cultural shift businesses must make in order to transition to a hybrid workplace.
The UC Today team was out in force at the event and caught up with senior executives from the likes of Cisco (below), RingCentral, AudioCodes, Ribbon and Talkdesk.
James McGough, Managing Director at organiser Clarion Events, said that the DTX and UCX event had over 10,000 registrations combined as it led the way for a resurgence of face-to-face events for digital transformation and unified communications.
David Dungay, Editor-in-Chief at UC Today commented, “What a fantastic time to reconnect with the industry and catch up with the major developments from the UC vendors. Although there were some noticeable absences from the exhibitor list, those present were clearly focused on one theme – Hybrid Working. Businesses are making long term buying decisions when it comes to their Unified Communications and Collaboration technology.
“It does seem the industry is also fully embracing the importance of company collaboration and technology interoperation for the benefit of their customers. Vaughn Klein at Cisco told me that customer engagement isn’t about the platform people are communicating on but rather it is Cisco’s job to ensure that those engagements are the best experience.”
UC Expo is set to return to the London ExCel next year, on 12-13 October. There will also be Manchester event in April.
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