I had the chance to stop by Cavell Group’s Cloud Comms Summit 2020. This year’s version of the conference was held online, thanks to the novel Coronavirus. At first glance, I can say that the event was one of the most well-organized conferences I have attended online during this period in which most functions have been forced to go digital.
“We wanted the event to cover everything from how the pandemic has changed the workplace forever and how enterprise requirements have developed over the past six months.” I’m told by Francisca Dinga, Events and Marketing Manager, Cavell Group. She added, the industry and its key players have reacted to the novel Coronavirus crisis with several internal and external changes – refreshing their offerings and adapting to their customers’ newfound work from home requirements.
The convention, which wrapped up yesterday, had an abundance of sessions ranging from regulatory issues to integrations, to new office environments, and best practices for operations and migrations. It is also necessary to highlight one of the event’s most insightful sessions, ‘The #DigitalNormal is NOW: Will the Channel as we Know it Survive?’ Janet Schijns, CEO & Co-Founder, JS Group, ran the gathering and touched on the monumental shifts the pandemic has brought our way.
Schijns, a go-to-market expert, shared JS Group’s research, findings, and recommendations for harnessing the power of sales and marketing in the new normal. She posed key issues such as “Will certain indirect channels as we know them, exist in the future? Which channels will thrive, and which ones will enter the market/how will we harness them for growth?” Schijns further touched on how the channel game has changed as well as how solutions will continue to evolve to match the channel’s new reality.
Augmenting that concept, Alan Rihm, CEO, CoreDial, LLC, said the channel has to be more skilled and to think about the value of what they’re selling given the context of the pandemic, adding: “We must help channel partners get up-to-speed on how to sell these evolving solutions.”
There was also a breakout session sponsored by Voxbone, which covered how to bring platforms and networks together via integrations where Mehmet Hussein, Technical Pre-Sales, Voxbone told those in attendance: “Companies are moving to the cloud, moved data, platforms, and communications, this will happen until there are no more PBXs. In the future, you should have a choice at every layer, on a carrier level, for deployment, risk profiles, financial suitability, service providers, too.”
Cisco, Ribbon Communications, RingCentral, 2600Hz, Metaswitch, Mondago, Poly, Uboss, Dubber, and a host of other vendors were on display in the event’s virtual exhibition hall. Looking toward 2021, with all the uncertainty that COVID-19 presents, I’m told, the event could very well be online next year, but that determination will be made at a later date.
If you’re considering attending next year, I’d say Cloud Comms Summit is one of the most worthwhile events in the space, and it’s free. When it comes to value, if you do attend – you’re sure to get something out of the experience, no matter which area of unified communications you’re affiliated with.
