March 30, 2017

Enterprise Connect 2017 Day Three

Ok so I didn't get around to part two of day two's wrap up. Basically I spent it touring the booths and getting a better understanding of everyone's products. After the show was over for the day, Blue Jeans had a cocktail hour that I went to. I got to catch up with former coworkers who were also there in attendance which is nice. It seems like these shows end up being sort of like a family reunion with all the former coworkers I do run into.

On to Wednesday
Apparently, I must have slept in because I forgot what happened in the morning until I attended Google's keynote. Actually, I spent most of the morning on the phone but whatever.

Google's keynote featured G-Suite and their soon to be released Jam Board. Of all the touch screen devices that are out there, it seems like between all of them, the Jam Board would suit my needs the best. That being said, I only partially use Google's suite of products relying mostly on Office 365 for my own business. I could see me switching to Google's services if I ever received a Jam Board. I don't see myself getting a Surface Hub though. The only thing I wish Google would do is fix their video chat quality. It's been notoriously lacking in quality, lagging behind everyone else in the space. That really surprises coming from such a large company that puts time and effort into their product.

After a second or so thought about it, before I switched to Office 365, I was on Google's services and didn't like their proprietary nature of documents and spreadsheets (in favor of Microsoft's proprietary documents and spreadsheets). It disrupted my workflow and transferring documentation to a non-Google user was always a pain.

After that I headed to the Speaker Services room to get ready for my presentation. They treat speakers very well as Enterprise Connect and I was honored to be among them. I was treated to a nice lunch and coffee was available all day. Then it was off to my talk.

Our presentation of "telepresence performance on an SMB budget" ended up being a talk on cameras. Logitech, Huddly, Altia and myself with Array were the guests with Andrew Davis from Wainhouse being the host. I think it went well. My problem since I'm not in sales or marketing I tend to answer questions short and directly. It's the engineer in me that loathes long answers to short questions. I don't spin tales so I think all my answers were shorter than everyone else. I tried to make a long winded comment about integration (since our product is the only integrator friendly product) and that didn't go so well. Other than that, it was fine. Once it was over and I realized that I didn't die or make a fool out of myself it was time to relax. I spent the rest of the afternoon back on the show floor in one final review of everything. AVI-SPL had both the Surface Hub and the Spark Board in their booth and since I'm on good terms with those guys I spent a long time reviewing both of them, checking their camera captures (it's a habit) and their other features. Of the two, I would choose Surface in a heartbeat, but would still prefer the Jam Board over all three.

That was it for the day. I got a latte and watched the world go by for the next hour of so before heading to my room for some room service and sleep.

I'm typing this on Thursday morning, where I have three more presentations to see, then it's back home this afternoon.