Click on a date to view recorded sessions for that day.
Events were live May 11 - 14, recorded, and posted in Cloud Conventions.
Monday, May 11th
Dr. Sandra Newes
Develop Resilience to Weather the Crisis
Nationally-recognized psychologist Dr. Sandy Newes specializes in helping individuals develop resilience to manage through difficult situations. Join her as she shares how to translate what she does in her individual practice to help you or your team develop resilience in times of crisis so they can stay focused, productive and mentally healthy.
Panel Discussion with Survey Monkey Executives Rebecca Cantieri and Leela Srinivasan
When coronavirus came, everything we leaders thought we knew about managing teams went out the window. In the absence of a best practices playbook for leadership during pandemics, we’re all having to write the rules as we go. Join Chief Marketing Officer Leela Srinivasan and Chief People Officer Becky Cantieri for an open conversation about how SurveyMonkey’s executive team is leaning into employee feedback during this crisis to lead their employees with confidence. Leela and Becky share their experiences and take questions from attendees.
The Changing Landscape – Contact Center Operations after COVID19
Contact Center Operations, especially centers run by major enterprises and BPO’s have traditionally been firmly anchored in the “bricks and mortar” model and have maintained large Contact Center facilities across the United States and throughout the world to provide voice, email, chat and social media support services.While many have deployed virtual home-based agents as part of their workforce, these groups have been smaller teams and represent a small percentage of the overall Contact Center operation. In recent years some enterprises and BPO’s have emerged with fully virtual, purpose-built Contact Centers designed specifically to remotely recruit, train and operate. Others have deployed hybrid models incorporating a mostly home-based workforce with a smaller “bricks and mortar” presence.Since March 2020, Contact Centers across the world have been forced to almost instantly deploy all teams and agents to a completely virtual model. Hear from industry experts, how this is impacting the Contact Center industry and what their predictions are for what will come next.
Going Virtual - Surviving and Thriving in Times of Change
Join NexRep, CEO Teddy Liaw for an insightful conversation moderated by Cloud Conventions 2020 Chair, Carolyn Bradfield. Liaw is a successful serial entrepreneur and an early investor in purpose-built virtual businesses and technology platforms. He’s an engaging and energetic speaker and he’ll share his thoughts on the emerging virtual workforce, Contact Center operations, the Gig Economy and how companies can develop successful “go forward” strategies to not only ensure survival during these challenging times but to thrive.
Transform Working from Home into ‘WOWing from home’!
The impact of Coronavirus has turned contact centers upside down, and sent companies and agents scrabbling to be able to provide acceptable levels of service from home. But is this enough? Can we do more? How can companies make sure home working agents are effective and provide service levels and sales performance they can be proud of? From across the Pond, learn how Pete Jones is helping contact centers fight back, by using technology to turn the crisis into an opportunity, bringing visual interaction to calls, creating a brand new & unique multi-sensory experience, making it fun for agents, WOWing customers, and strengthening connections between them both. Also, check in with Pete on how he, Boris and the UK are weathering the crisis and getting ready to re-emerge from lockdown stronger than before.
Has this ever happened to you? “Your price is too high.” “Is that your best price?” “What kind of deal can you give me if I buy from you instead of XYZ company?” These are among the most dreaded words a sales person can hear. An average sales person may say: “Is there anything else that may convince you to buy this product?” Some sales people are somewhat successful by using a “planned” script or dialogue, but more often, most stammer, offering a weak response. In either case, they often get the sale at the expense of their margin, or lose it all together. Hopefully, you’ve never lost the sale using an ultimatum like: “That is my best price. Take it or leave it!” More often than not, this sales person will lose the sale altogether forfeiting not only the sale, but future sales by abusing the relationship.
Join this interesting panel moderated by Mike Schmidtmann, frequent speaker at Channel Partners and sales training expert, who talks to the “Rainmakers” in the channel and in sales to give you an idea of what has made them successful. Mike is always on point, always interesting and will help you discover the secrets to becoming a Rainmaker.
Why do some brands, even in supposedly mundane categories like car insurance and enterprise software, attract not just customers, or even loyal customers, but passionate fans? These brands have learned to provide the human connection people are now longing for. David Meerman Scott calls it a Fanocracy. Creating fandom isn’t just for actors, athletes, musicians, and authors. Fandom can be rocket fuel for any company or organization that chooses to focus on inspiring and nurturing true fans. This is especially true during the Covid-19 situation we’re all living under right now. In today’s lockdown reality, marketers and salespeople have an opportunity to use online media and especially video to engage viewers when face-to-face interaction is no longer an option. An understanding of what’s going on in our brains as we watch a video teaches us a simple but powerful way to make our videos more effective, driving engagement, and building fans.
Prepare your favorite cocktail and join your party hosts for a lively cocktail and conversations event.
Tuesday, May 12th
Roger Grannis
The Four Languages of Sales
Have prospects ever gone silent on you? Have you ever lost a sale and weren’t sure why? Do you click with some customers and clash with others? If you answered yes to any of these questions, it may be because you’re communicating with every customer the exact same way. To be successful in today’s competitive environment, you need to master the art of speaking not one, but four Sales Languages. In this energizing session, you will learn how to:- Easily identify each customer’s sales language - Speak their sales language - Tailor your message so that it “feels right” to every customer - Close more sales
Contact Center Compliance Strategies that Reduce Risk
Contact Centers transactions can present an inherent risk to companies and how these organization engage the marketplace, process data internally, and manage long-term vendor relationships and downstream liability. The prospect of compliance often seems daunting and complicated. Every industry is continuously navigating new threats and vulnerabilities to the safety and security of their customer’s and prospect’s information. Its’ not a matter of if, but when your systems will be tested. Make certain your business processes, technology solutions and framework are as strong as possible. Ken Sponsler will help you understand the basics of this complicated compliance landscape.
Mike Song is one of the world’s leading technology and time management experts. His speeches and workshops motivate participants to get organized, prioritized and energized to excel.
Join us as we reveal what is going on with Microsoft Teams and how you can Boost your Sales with this innovative solution! Are you ready to make money selling Microsoft Teams? Join CallTower's Chief Revenue Officer, William Rubio, as he reveals what is going on with Microsoft Teams and how you can Boost your Sales with this innovative solution!
Social Selling. Keeping business moving and acquire customers in the face of adversity
The old adage of what keeps people up at night, has personally and professionally become the Corona Pandemic. A new Digital Normal has been forced upon all of us, if you are ready or not. Join our session to learn critical tools essential to overcome these challenges and redefine your digital brand, and be successful in your mission.
Darlene’s 30 years running a contact center consulting organization makes her uniquely qualified to share how contact centers have evolved and the changes in strategy that will result from the COVID-19 crisis.
Join Hagop (Jack) Bouroudjian (co-founder and director of the UCX Tech) David Friend (CEO of Wasabi), and Michael Welts (CMO of Wasabi) as they discuss the ways in which cloud infrastructure has helped solve the problems faced with the advent of the pandemic: Remote learning, remote working, etc.
Too many companies face a roller coaster of inconsistent sales results, often accelerated by ineffective or random acts of marketing as well as unsustainable fire drills, short-term thinking and a lack of a solid foundation for profitable, predictable growth. Learn how growth-oriented companies deliver repeatable, scalable and profitable marketing-driven results.
Until recently, Zoom was known as a video conferencing platform. With the launch of Zoom Phone in 2019, that completely changed. Now a full-stack collaboration solution offered in a single, unified platform, Zoom is the future of communications. And in today’s world, as businesses shift to enable flexible and remote working environments, now is the time for Partners to start capitalizing on this opportunity. Join Kevin Thomsen, Head of Zoom Master Agent Channel, and Josh Stanley, Zoom Phone Strategy & Enablement, as they uncover why you should be positioning Zoom Phone ahead of the competition.
Rethink and Recover: Using Disruptive Technology to Lead Your Clients to Growth and Success Post COVID-19
Jack Shaw, innovation and technology strategist will describe how you can provide transformational leadership and technology strategies to ensure you and your customers will not only survive but thrive in the new business environment of the 2020s.
60% of small businesses are “soft targets” for cyberattacks and most of them will not survive without financial protection. Learn from insurance expert, Andrew Gates about why every business needs to protect themselves financially so they can afford to have their systems restored and back online.
Join Jon Arnold, communications industry researcher and strategist, to navigate the digital transformation of the workplace in our new virtual work from home environment and beyond. The marketplace is now disrupted, but learn how disruptive technologies will help us recover and rebound.
Avaya Cloud Office by RingCentral — A Solution Like No Other
In this session, you’ll learn the details of the partnership between Avaya & RingCentral, how together they developed Avaya Cloud Office—a solution that is different than any cloud UCaaS service, and why it’s the right service to grow your business.
From wearable sensors, to improved point-of-care diagnostics, telemedicine, artificial intelligence and robotics, there are a great and growing number of breakthroughs in biomedical technology which are set to fundamentally change the way that patients interact with their healthcare providers. Learn more about the technology of the healthcare future from author, speaker, entrepreneur and healthcare technology strategist Robin Farmanfarmaian.
Help customers transition to their "new normal" working environment
Join PGi’s VP of Channel Business Development, Frank Paterno to learn how you can help your customers ensure a productive business during this transition period. He will demonstrate how to help them maintain open lines of communications with customers, vendors, partners and investors to ease anxiety and ensure transparency. Frank will discuss alternatives to live events, face to face meetings and maximizing features of tools and resources currently available to them using PGi’s GlobalMeet Webcast and Collaboration solutions – which are Better Together.
Relationship Differentiation...Your Path To Trusted Advisor Status! One of the greatest opportunities you have in business today is mastering the principles of Relationship Differentiation, which will put you on the road to gaining Trusted Advisor status. It can propel you to the top of your prospect’s list of potential vendors in your marketplace.
Former Microsoft Channel specialist Sherman Crancer has formed his new company The Crancer Group to show partners that sell Microsoft solutions how they can optimize their relationship with Microsoft, secure much-needed marketing support, and transform their business. Learn how you can become the “Partner of Tomorrow” from Sherman Crancer.
Who Is Thryv And Why Are Their Services Essential To Small Businesses?
Join Ryan Cantor, VP of Product and Marketing at Thryv as he discusses the problems that Thryv's platform solves for small businesses especially as as we continue to face COVID-19. Ryan will also share his vision on how the Thryv roadmap will continue to help local businesses.
How to Triage, Reposition and Future-Proof with Outsourcing and Virtual Assistants
Due to high-takeaway value, Verne Harnish asked Brad to be his first guest and share this content with over 2,300 attendees on his recent live summit. When COVID19 hit, Brad immediately had his team datamine the web to get a list of over 125+ new product/service growth opportunities emerging from the crisis to help entrepreneurs brainstorm pivot and reposition opportunities. He’ll share the list with all webinar attendees and review specific case-studies of how you can rapidly uncover and point your business toward new markets. He’ll also cover creative and surprising strategies to generate revenue from your existing customer database without asking them to buy anything. And he’ll show low-cost and free ways to create content, generate leads, launch marketing and establish operations for repositions and pivots.
Although it may seem counterintuitive to attempt to grow your business during the COVID-19 crisis, Marketopia CEO and founder, Terry Hedden shares strategies to look at this disruption as a growth opportunity. Tune in to learn the secrets of how MSPs, VARs and Agents can grow their business.
Prepare your favorite cocktail and join your party hosts for a lively cocktail and conversations event.
Wednesday, May 13th
Andy Winig
Your First Impression Starts with the Elevator Pitch
Andy Wining is the master at teaching you how to create a winning first impression that differentiates you and your value proposition to use when you are networking and prospecting. Learn this easy to follow a process to create that all-important Elevator Pitch
Dan is the founder and managing editor of Digital Health Today, a podcast/media platform featuring leading health innovators. He has +20 years experience in health technology in Europe and the US.
My favorite question to ask sales professionals and entrepreneurs is “How are your offerings different from and better than those of your competitors?” Anytime I get a response like, “Well... Uh......” I know I am talking to someone in big trouble. The key to gaining market share and prospering in today’s competitive environment is to differentiate yourself, your company, and your offerings as distinctively and creatively as you can. You need to stand out from the crowd! My second favorite question to ask them is “How many of your differentiators represent ways you are personally distinctive and creative in serving your customers and providing them with a solution?”
Bruce Wirt, the EVP, Chief Business Development Officer at Telesystem will be joined by Chris Donlan, the Solutions Architect / SD-WAN Evangelist at MicroCorp and Shawn Nace, Telesystem Sales Engineering Supervisor. The team will be discussing the value of selling managed solutions. The discussion will highlight a large multi-site, multi-solution case study in which the partner won the opportunity due to the breadth of the available products and services under a single provider's solution.
Patient Centric Care: A Unique Opportunity in Mobility
The disastrous events of the past few months could have at least one bright side. We believe COVID-19 has shown healthcare facilities, life science companies, and regulators that there is better way. After years of little progress telehealth is here. Patients are no longer interested in participating in care or clinical research studies that are inconvenient and geographically biased meaning that participation is limited to only those willing to travel to a doctor’s office. This wave is hitting every clinical site in the ecosystem. What this means is a unique opportunity to deliver hundreds or thousands of wireless connections per project. Those connections are local, national and international and carry with them specific regulatory, security and management requirements. At any given moment, my last company had 100,000 or more connections supporting dozens of clinical trials. This presentation will discuss how you can be seen as a valued thought leader and solution provider during this wave of change.
How effective are you being remote, working hard? Today as most of us are working remote, we are working harder than ever to ensure clients are supported and we're delivering to our company's bottom line. The question was how effective are you being. In this webinar, Terry Hedden, CEO of Marketopia, will share best practices to help you be effective and successful in our remote selling world. There are simple changes you can make to your day, that will allow time for making and winning more deals.
Make the most of your online meetings regardless of location, device, or connection
Join PGI’s VP of Channel, Diane Ratigan as she takes you through a journey of how several new and current customers have leveraged online meetings, secure operator assisted calls, and live broadcasts to tens of thousands of attendees. She will discuss why these tools will continue to be important as more and more organizations realize the value of leveraging alternate work locations and hosting virtual events. In addition, she will announce a new promotion that will allow for partners and customers to add these solutions to their technology stack to make it even more affordable to Work Wherever.
Let’s face it – the Holy Grail of agent agreements is an evergreen clause that pays you forever. It’s what every agent wants … and what every provider dreads. But agents usually don’t know what to ask for when negotiating evergreen language. This session will help you learn what issues to look out for and how to address them.
Our friends, family, businesses and the country are going through unprecedented difficult times. Retired Colonel Lee Ellis knows all too well how to lead people through difficult times as a POW in Vietnam for 5 1/2 years with John McCain. Lee will inspire you, challenge you and motivate you to lead others with honor.
Easy for Your Customers to Use. Easy for You to Offer. It’s Avaya Cloud Office
Businesses are always looking for ways to improve collaboration, boost productivity and drive results with their staff, all while reducing overall costs for their organization. They are looking for solutions that are quick to get up and running, easy-to-use and cost-effective.
With Avaya Cloud Office, you can provide your customers the ability to call, chat, meet and collaborate on any device, in any location. Your customers experience the easy of having a low, monthly bill for their services, and agents benefit from a monthly recurring revenue stream, as well as the support to help them be successful with the offer. Avaya Cloud Office brings together the power of two industry leaders—RingCentral’s unrivaled UCaaS platform and Avaya’s industry leading services and technology capabilities—providing your customers a solution that works where and how they do.
Deb Forney, one of Jenne’s resident cloud experts, will review the key features of Avaya Cloud Office, as well as the benefits and support available to agents. She’ll also review Jenne’s services and support for agents as a Master Agent for the offer.
Join Bob Paff, author of Communicating to Win in Life, Love and Business, to share strategies about how to elevate your communication so that employees, customers and prospects know how you will help them navigate through these difficult times and not only survive but be positioned to thrive in the new business normal of 2020.
Now more than ever, company leaders and partner organizations need guidance on what and how to communicate. Join speaker and strategist Marissa Levin to apply the GRACE leadership model so you can lead and communicate with Grit, Resilience, Adaptability, Connection and Empathy.
You’ve been offering services in the channel the same way for years through relationship selling; however, the COVID-19 crisis has expanded our thinking to incorporate new digital and online strategies. Join the team at UCX Markets to look at the future of channel selling and how you can win with an online marketplace.
Lead Generation: What now? How to Grow in a Down Market Turbulent times may have you asking, ‘What do I do now?’ If history has shown us one thing, it’s that innovative companies use down markets to cement their thought leadership, sharpen their strategies, and overtake competition. This session will explore sales and marketing strategies that will not only keep you afloat, but also allow you to grow during uncertain times.
The customer experience has become the focus of attention for most organizations around the world. Your customers no longer compare you to your direct competition. They compare you to the best service they have ever had. Customer service is not a department. It’s a philosophy to be embraced by everyone in an organization.
In difficult times, it is more important than ever to maintain or boost the customer experience. Don’t erode the relationships you have with your best customers. Exploit the opportunity to show them you are there for them and build even stronger relationships.
Before Marc Gutman started Wildstory, he was in conferencing and collaboration with a focus on the channel. Before that, he wrote for a little-known guy named Oliver Stone and propelled Chris Rock into animation folklore as a writer on Osmosis Jones, the story of a white blood cell that has to stop a deadly virus from killing its human host. This was in 2001, not 2020! Join Marc as he shares the secrets of creating the right story for your company to elevate your brand, your customers as your heroes and to become memorable.
The Post-Pandemic Contact Center: Five Predictions for 2021 and Five Just-In-Time Tools You Need to Know About Now
The world has changed rapidly already, so what will the next twelve months bring? A return to the way things used to be, or an entirely new normal? Join this session to discuss predictions for the contact center of 2021, and learn about five emerging communication and workforce technologies you’ve likely never heard of, but are going to be exactly what you need to navigate the this new age. Buckle up, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, but with the right preparation and tools, this can be just the time to soar over the competition. It won’t be easy, but if there’s one thing we know how to do in the contact center, it’s answer the call.
Many agencies, VARs or MSPs think they are too small to attract the interest of a buyer when they want to exit their business. Join financial expert Tim Mueller to learn how to determine what your business is really worth, when is the right time to sell, and how to get your business ready to get the best price.
Prepare your favorite cocktail and join your party hosts for a lively cocktail and conversations event.
Thursday, May 14th
Paul Green
Stop Selling and Start Building Relationships
Join MSP marketing expert Paul Green, and discover why out and outselling is a big "no-no", especially with the current situation. Instead, you must build multiple audiences of prospects and build a relationship with them, months BEFORE they're looking for a new partner
Are your cloud services really compliant with HIPAA and other regulations?
Does your organization collect and share consumer health information? When it comes to privacy, you’ve probably thought about the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). But did you know that you also need to comply with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act? This means if you share health information, it’s not enough to simply consider the HIPAA Privacy Rule. You also must make sure your disclosure statements are not deceptive under the FTC Act.
Recently, many companies have experienced a dramatic shift to a fully virtual workforce. This change from a primarily premise-based worker to a home-based worker has left companies scrambling to deploy technology and operational solutions. The training required to keep this workforce and its leaders educated, motivated and skilled will need to be custom-tailored to meet the demands this new work environment.
American business is facing an unprecedented challenge in responding to the COVID-19 crisis: how and when can employees safely return to work, and how and when will customers feel comfortable returning to physical business establishments and resuming face-to-face interactions? Solving this challenge will require a tremendous amount of technical and logistical innovation and coordination. How should businesses plan for a safe and successful re-entry?
History has many examples of markets being recreated due to pairs of technological and behavioral shifts. The winners who thrive are the ones who can recognize the new behaviors and are willing to pivot - even when they missed the early signs.
In a short session with a Genesys Cloud Evangelist, find out what Ice Cream, Video Games, and The Next Normal all have in common and why you will thrive in a distributed world of asynchronous living.
All In…Connecting the Customer and Employee Journey… Where Better Experiences and Greater Outcomes Matter.
"With urgency, both large and small organizations are looking at the future through a new strategic technology lens, one that acknowledges the necessity to connect more than ever, with new touchpoints and more modalities. So how and where can you impact the Experience Economy by enabling remote work? That is what we will cover in this session. The virtual worker wants and needs engagement, empowerment and innovation to deliver results . The “extend” your office to your “new” office opens a shift to working where and how you need through better experiences and greater outcomes. Experiences we have every day and the technology connecting us has changed dramatically, forever…a paradigm shift in real-time. See how you can be the expert to help your customers and their customers and employees deliver better experiences, greater outcomes.
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CYBERSECURITY – VOICE IS DATA. IS YOURS PROTECTED?
COVID-19 has exposed cybersecurity issues with popular web meeting tools. What about the phone system? Digital voice recordings, voice messages, and recorded web meetings need to be secured and compliant with regulations. VOIP is nothing more than an on-premise or cloud-based computer system that needs the same security considerations as sensitive databases and document storage. Cybersecurity and compliance expert Mike Semel will help you leverage security as a competitive advantage.
Sharks, cockroaches and independent brick and mortar retailers; they’ll be around forever!
The COVID-19 virus is only the most recent alliteration of what is to be the fatal blow to brick and mortar retailing. With the closing of a long list of regional and national chain stores and mass merchants over the past ten years, it is easy to believe this period of “shelter in place” could be the end. However, there is a big difference in the chain stores and mass merchants and independent retailers. The resiliency of independent retailers is not to be challenged. With over 98% of the trade being small retailers, 40% of all retail employees working in these same small businesses, and 91% of Americans shopping in at least one small retailer every week, we see a group that is like sharks and cockroaches – they’ll be around forever! Tom Shay is a fourth-generation retailer. He teaches how to improve the operation and profitability of the business.
Alberta IoT is a membership based organization focused on second stage businesses in the IoT space. Our objectives are to support the growth of our members through training programs, major events, educational initiatives and exposure to government. Alberta IoT and it’s over 130 members support the Alberta economy with IoT businesses that branch into most parts of the world with their solutions and services. From agriculture, mining, oil and gas to transportation, technology and IoT are the foundation for future business growth. Brenda will be speaking to the variety of IoT solution and businesses coming out of the Alberta and Canadian markets.
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