We recently concluded our first annual Customer Technology Expo (CTE) in Tampa, Florida. Held back-to-back right after the NEC Advantage Conference for our dealer community, the new, expanded conference, complete with a new name, built upon the success of the NEC Users Group and added additional NEC technology to the mix. A variety of information sessions were available that covered NEC Servers & Storage with the award winning ProgramableFlow, NEC Displays, the latest in facial recognition software from Japan. There was also a surprise appearance from our good friend PaPeRo.
Day 1
NEC Users Group president Mark Reynolds opened the conference, followed by the first keynote speaker Michael Vickers’ “Becoming Preferred” presentation.
A unique aspect of the expo is that attendees are provided with the opportunity to talk with NEC executives first-hand. The executives were in attendance to outline the company’s roadmap for the future and the importance of the North American market as we begin the transition to software and cloud offerings.
To elaborate on how NEC is preparing for the transition, Ram Menghani, NEC Vice President of Product Management, gave a detailed outlook on the recent UNIVERGE 3C and UNIVERGE Cloud Services (UCaaS) announcements.
There were breakout sessions galore, with topics ranging from “Can We UC&C with BYOD?” to “Software Assurance 101,” and, as usual, the technical training sessions proved to be a big hit.
For those looking for insight into rolling out UC and the software based UNIVERGE 3C in their enterprise deployments, there were customer-led planning and implementation best practices sessions with great planning tips provided by Northwest College.
All of this was just day one…
Day 2
Day two started off with the “New Standard for Business Communications” presented by Marty Parker. No stuffy presentations here – an exciting feature of the day was a live, interactive demo of the UNIVERGE 3C Client, with a multi-continent collaboration session provided by Senior Vice President Todd Landry.
Following the demo was a series of breakout sessions which included Martha Buyer’s breakdown of E911 risks and tips on how to minimize them.
Day 3
After all was said and done, it was time for the final sessions. The Expo wrapped up with Gail Kasek’s “Outside In: SMB Solutions for Remote Workers” which was both beneficial and informative, given the number of remote workers in organizations is on the rise. All in all, the expo proved to be just what it promised: customer-led and customer focused. We are already looking forward to the 2nd annual event in 2013! To stay informed and learn more about next year’s event subscribe to the blog.
