Collaboration update Collaboration coming to an exhibition hall near you in May!


Next month sees two major events featuring collaborative technology solutions - one, UC Expo at Excel London on the 15- 16 May 2019, and the second - Exertis Plug-in at the Silverstone Circuit on the 16th May only. Here are some of the early announcements at both events.


NEC partners with UC EXPO


NEC Display Solutions has announced a partnership with UC EXPO, the first in a number of key vertical tradeshows to benefit from an industry collaboration which sees NEC place greater em- phasis on vertical expertise. For the corporate sector, NEC Display Solutions and NEC Enterprise Solutions will collaborate to present a highly targeted Unified Communications solutions set for com- puting and collaboration. As Europe’s largest dedicated unified communication and collab- oration event attracting over 7,000 visitors, UC EXPO provides the ideal forum for NEC to reaffirm its position as an expert consultant and key supplier of UC, IT and AV solutions to the corporate sector. The move, which places greater attention to the needs of the end user, sees NEC reassigning key elements of the highly acclaimed NEC Showcase in order to focus resource and relevance where it brings most benefit to the industry.


Bradley Maule-ffinch, director of strategy for UC EXPO, says:


"We're pleased to announce the partnership with NEC in bringing a world leading influencing brand to the event to share their in- sights, experiences and success stories.” With UC EXPO falling within London Digital Signage Week; end users, solutions providers and channel partners across a broad ranging interest group will appreciate the benefits and opportuni- ties which greater industry collaboration brings. “This is an exciting evolution, by investing in established verti- cal tradeshows, we can deliver a much more targeted experience, focusing resources where it will most benefit the end user, our partners and the wider industry,” explains Gill Slater, marketing manager at NEC Display Solutions. “We will be announcing in- volvement at other key vertical shows as the year progresses but we are already making plans for RBTE (Retail), Passenger Terminal Expo, InnoTrans (Rail) and IFSEC (Security), amongst others.”


UC EXPO takes place on 15-16 May 2019 at ExCeL London, registration is free using this link NEC@UCEXPO


Two new keynotes announced by UC Expo


Amy Chang SVP, Collaboration Technology Group, Cisco Cisco


Amy is the SVP/GM of Cis-


co’s Collaboration Technology Group. She also serves on the board of directors for Procter & Gamble, and has previously served on the boards of Cis- co, Splunk and Informatica. Post-acquisition of her start-up Accompany, by Cisco, she is now leading Cisco’s Collaboration business, which includes the WebEx suite of products, telepresence hardware and software, and unified communications. Accompany was a relationship intelligence plat- form for professionals which served Fortune 500 financial and pro- fessional services clients on their people and company data needs. Prior to Accompany, Amy was at Google, where she led the teams for Google Analytics, Website Optimizer, Trends, and multichannel attribution for over 7 years, growing Google Analytics to serve over 80% of the entire web. She previously led product for the paid search and affiliates channels at eBay, as well as worked in the semiconductor and software industries at McKinsey. She started her career in hardware with Intel, AMD and Motorola. She serves as an advisor to HubSpot, Optimizely, BloomReach, Origami Logic and Datorama. She holds a BS in Electrical Engineering with a hardware subspecialty and an MS in Electrical Engineering with a network systems subspecialty, both from Stanford University.


Lan Ye


General Manager Microsoft Teams Microsoft


As the GM of Microsoft Teams CMD (Calling, Meeting and De- vices) group, Lan leads a team of passionate PMs and engi- neers who are obsessed with making calling and meetings simpler, more inclusive, and always work. Lan “grew up” in Microsoft after college. In her own words “It’s been a thrill ride working on a wide range of consumer and enterprise products across Microsoft in the last 20 years.”


P10 AV News April 2019 Options


UC Expo provides the showcase for many of the major collabora- tion brands enabling you to make informed choices. In addition, AV News will be posting a number of introductory podcasts, look- ing at options for collaborative workplace technologies. These will be available through the AV News web site at avnews.co.uk and its Twitter feeds throughout April and May.


Collaboration choices on show at UC Expo


UC Expo exhibitor Gamma argues that: “If there’s one thing SMEs can’t afford to do, it’s waste hours in the day. As the old saying goes, time is money – and with limited people resource to rely on, employees at smaller organisations can’t be tied up on tasks that aren’t adding business value.” “With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why meetings can be an issue for many small businesses. The intentions behind calling a meeting are nearly always good. But the reality is usually some- what different. One team member hasn’t seen the agenda, and the person with the slide deck somehow can’t share their screen. An- other’s dialling in from home and keeps dropping out. And that’s assuming you can all work out how to dial into the conference call in the first place.” “It’s a recipe for disaster, offering little business benefit: almost half of the professionals in a survey by Wrike said that at least some of the meetings they attend are a waste of time. Yet the majority of respondents also said they attend over five meetings each week – and more worrying still, those who attended over six meetings a week were more likely to dislike their job. So, bad meetings aren’t just a waste of time. They could also be damaging all-important employee engagement.”


Rethink your meetings


“Something has to give. Obviously, we can’t do away with meet- ings altogether. But there is a clear impetus for businesses (espe- cially smaller organisations) to make meetings as streamlined and impactful as possible – not to mention a little more interesting to attend.”


“Fortunately, there’s a number of ways businesses can go about improving meetings. Including making them more inclusive, cap- turing attention, getting everyone on the same page, and simpli- fying proceedings – as we covered in our recent blog. But while these steps are effective, they all rest on having the relevant busi- ness collaboration tools in place. Along with new strategies and a shift in culture, the right tech is an important part of improving the effectiveness of your meetings. Especially since, with the rise of flexible workers and disparate teams, the need for remote meet- ings is only likely to increase.”


The video transformation


“One solution is to try and move away from relying on ‘voice only’ conference calls and shift towards video conferencing. For a start, these meetings will be more engaging. With everybody on a voice call, the chances are that busy employees will be multi-tasking, with one ear on the conversation and one eye on a spreadsheet. But during a video conference, everybody can stay focused on their screen, where they can see (and be seen) by the rest of the team.” “Creating a ‘virtual meeting space’ in this way can keep every- one on task, with the ability to share a whole desktop screen and display webpages or documents. This sort of meeting can also fa- cilitate a higher quality of communication. On a voice conference, it’s all too easy to misinterpret tone, miss a reaction, or talk over somebody and disrupt a train of thought. With cloud-based video calls, it’s possible to gauge reactions more effectively and respond appropriately. You’re in the room, without being in the room.” “Meanwhile, a simultaneous live chat function means questions can be noted during the meetings, instead of being followed up on in emails after. Best of all (for anybody who lives in fear of setting up a conference dial in) easy-to-access virtual rooms can eliminate any hassle. Instead of a clunky dial-in process, employees can simply click to join.”


Once, the decision to deploy collaborative technology was one that couldn’t be taken lightly: the choice between cloud based solutions and on-premise deployments ah series financial implica- tions and calculating the ROI was far from a simple matter Today, cloud-cased solutions are available for just about any business cir- cumstance, and the debate has moved on to the choice between all-in-one solutions and custom solutions assembled by systems integrators in response to detailed customer requirements. Let us start with some of the most popular all-in-in-one solutions and some further options for integrating a custom solution from best-in-class products:


Avocor Booth H120


Avocor has introduced the first Windows collaboration displays featuring the world’s most advanced touchscreen technologies to enhance and accelerate teamwork. The new collaboration displays are fully compatible with Windows 10 and deliver the power and productivity of Microsoft 365 at room scale. Most importantly, they offer a first-ever single-cable solution that solves the frustrating and often time-consuming problem of connecting devices and peo- ple in meetings. The new Windows collaboration displays by Avo- cor make it simple for teams to connect in a huddle space, across the conference table or even across the globe, allowing them to work together seamlessly and get more done. Teamwork in the workplace stimulates creativity, engagement and


innovation. In fact, teamwork yields better, faster results as well as a cohesive office environment. Unfortunately, while companies and employees aspire to collaborate more closely, optimum team- work is rarely achieved. One of the biggest hurdles is simply a lack of the tools necessary to connect people and their devices seam- lessly – allowing them to share, save and store important informa- tion easily. Another reason is that technology can be intimidating to many people, stifling collaboration and creativity. Finally, there is often a great deal of wasted time connecting people and devices to displays, to the internet and to power before meetings even start so collaboration on a global scale fails to reach peak potential.


Sharp Booth E125


Sharp launched its first Windows collaboration display (WCD) at ISE in February, the next generation of interactive displays designed to support and improve team work. The 70” 4K display meets Micro- soft WCD specifications, combining Sharp’s award-winning touch technology with sensors for a smarter workspace. USB-C and wireless connections make the device quick to connect to, eliminating delays when starting a meeting or when switching between different presenters’ devices. The display has been de- signed to work with the familiar Microsoft tools that organisations will already be using across their workforce, for example, Office 365.


Sharp also launched its latest BIG PAD for the corporate environ- ment. The TH1 range of 85”, 75” and 65” 4K Ultra HD (3840 x 2160) interactive displays offers 20-point touch and features the latest InGlass interactive technology for a highly responsive Pen-on-Paper experience. An integrated Android PC includes a whiteboard application and makes it easy to connect wirelessly to other devices.


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