It's amazing what a difference 12 months make. This is the third VoiceCon that I have attended and the most exciting and productive one to-date. In 2005 , it was as 3Com VP of Enterprise Voice Marketing; in 2006, it was as SVP of Marketing and Business Development for FirstHand Technologies (actually called SIPquest at that time) and this time it was as VP & Research Director, Communications for a Boston-area research firm.
As I recall, I spent the three days locked up in a room with my boss and our PR prime (Kevin Petschow) and focused on the long list of analysts trying to sell their wares. Most interesting process. I began the participation with an analyst briefing and ended it 50 hours later with an analyst briefing. I had the pleasure to meet with folks from Cisco, Avaya, Nortel, Microsoft, Aastra Intecom, Netcordia, Psytechnics, IBM, 3Com, Microsoft, NEC, Verizon, freeconferencecall.com, ShoreTel, Mitel, Radvision, AGN Networks, Prognosis, Citel, Adomo, AVST (who came to Boston for a pre-briefing tour) and Sipera.
Clearly, from my vantage point, the market is up. Users are looking to buy. How do I know?
- from my research, people are planning to deploy new stuff in unified communications
- from the activities on the show floor – the halls were crowded, the vendors were meeting with folks (besides people in the same colored golf shirts)
- from the vendor announcements – innovation, introduction of new big, market entrants (Microsoft, IBM)
