Way back in March, Enterprise Connect show management had to postpone the 2020 Orlando event due to the pandemic. Even the rescheduled conference, which was to have taken place this week in San Francisco, was not be. Instead, the Enterprise Connect team did some real magic.
Right now — this week — Enterprise Connect Digital Conference & Expo 2020 is happening. And, I’m impressed with what I’ve seen one day in.
Enterprise Connect has always been the conference for our enterprise communications and collaboration industry. Attendance is key for all of us who spend our days (and some nights and weekends) helping our organizations be fast, agile, facile, resilient, responsive, and successful. Until we can gather again in person, the new virtual EC format promises to be a good vehicle for keeping our industry connected.
Yet the standard package is really what blows me away. Enterprise Connect has brought the entire conference to my desktop with so many great features:
• All my favorite Enterprise Connect topics are on the agenda
• Each agenda item is a livestream, with chat during the session, plus a video archive within 15 minutes after completion
- The presenters are there on screen, so I’m right there “with” them rather than 50 or 100 feet away in the audience
- I can watch and review at my convenience
- No more having to choose between two important, but conflicting topics — I can go to one of them live and watch the other one later
- The on-demand sessions have real-time captioning, too, to enhance comprehension
• Vendors are well-represented. Every exhibitor has its own “booth” where you can:
- View the company’s video content
- Access the company’s YouTube channel
- Book a meeting with the vendor
- See a list of sessions where the vendor is presenting or participating
- Review other content the vendor has provided
All of this seems better, in many ways, than working through the exhibit hall. And, this is much more efficient than spending your time browsing a vendor’s website or having vendor briefings on-site at your location.
• Networking, which has always been a highlight of an in-person conference, is also possible. Scan the attendees list, and you’ll see that many have made themselves available for meetings within the platform. How great is that — chat with an expert in private without being interrupted by all the passers-by.
As you can tell, I’m hooked. Maybe we’ll get back to an in-person conference in 2021 or later, but for now this brings our industry together in a way that is far-reaching and persistent. It may be, as mentioned in several prior posts, that innovation during the pandemic will bring us even better ways to work, live, and thrive.
Sure hope you will
register for Enterprise Connect Digital Conference & Expo 2020, if you haven’t already. And be sure to invite your colleagues, since you won’t have to get travel and registration funding for each person. With this new format, the Enterprise Connect team is certainly helping us build and expand our community. My compliments to them.
This post is written on behalf of BCStrategies, an industry resource for enterprises, vendors, system integrators, and anyone interested in the growing business communications arena. A supplier of objective information on business communications, BCStrategies is supported by an alliance of leading communication industry advisors, analysts, and consultants who have worked in the various segments of the dynamic business communications market.
