We’ve got big news on the awards front here at VoiceCon: We’ve overhauled our Best of VoiceCon award, and we’re going to give it a much higher profile at VoiceCon Orlando 2010.

In the past, Best of VoiceCon has been voted on by attendees, but starting this year, Best of VoiceCon is going to be a juried award, in which my co-chairman, Fred Knight, and I will be joined by a panel of five judges to scrutinize entries. We’ll hold a preliminary round of voting to choose up to 6 Finalists, then we’ll hold briefings with each of the Finalist entrants, preparatory to a vote for the final Best of VoiceCon winner. It’s a significant time commitment on the part of the judges.

Our previous method of having the attendees choose the Best of VoiceCon wasn’t a bad way to do it, but we feel that this year and going forward, the entrants will be subject to much more intense and focused scrutiny than the average VoiceCon attendee had time to put into their votes in previous years. As a result, we believe that the new Best of VoiceCon award will be a major event for the industry, something that the Winner and the Finalists can point to as a meaningful recognition of the importance of their offered products.

VoiceCon Exhibitors who want all the specific rules and the online entry form can go here—and the deadline for entries is THIS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5.

I want to emphasize that the purpose of these awards is to recognize forward-looking, even revolutionary product offerings. We’re at an inflection point in the communications industry: A lot of the fundamental assumptions about architectures and elements of communications systems are being called into question. What will the future really look like in enterprise communications? Of course we hope that the whole VoiceCon event, conference and exhibition, will help you answer that question, but we especially hope that the new Best of VoiceCon award will become a lodestar for the migration.

Fred and I will be joined in the Best of VoiceCon judging by the following distinguished panel:

* Michael Finneran, President, dBrn Associates
* Marty Parker, Principal, UniComm Consulting
* Sorell Slaymaker, Communications Architect, Unified IT Systems
* David Stein, Principal, PlanNet Consulting
* Allan Sulkin, President, TEQConsult Group

We’ll present the award on the Wednesday morning of VoiceCon Orlando, March 24. Again, exhibitors and everyone else can get more info on the award at http://www.voicecon.com/bestofvoicecon/. I’m excited about the judging process and the award that it will result in.

One of our major goals is to make VoiceCon a year-round, ongoing event that never stops, so that Crystal has even less free time so that we get the most out of the huge amount of content that this operation generates. More specifically, we want to integrate the on-site events with the on-line world–for the benefit of those who attend the shows, as well as for the benefit of those who never do.

A key idea is that each VoiceCon live event session should really be a node on a network of discussion about that session’s topic. The session shouldn’t just last an hour in San Francisco in November, then be over forever. As soon as we come up with the session, it should come to life on the Web, as a place where everyone can discuss that topic, post links to materials, etc. In turn, that online discussion should inform the session that’s actually conducted on site. And then the results of that on-site session should feed back into the online discussion.

That kind of a setup helps on-site attendees use their time on site more efficiently. They can “preview” the sessions, bone up on the topic, generally get a better sense of which to attend live, and get more out of that particular session. And obviously, those who can’t attend can still get a lot of information from this sort of session-based Forum.

The ultimate goal is to link these session-based topical Forums to the wealth of content we generate out of VoiceCon: Slides, videos, slidecasts; as well as collateral that can be added by anyone: White papers, Comments, links to blogs, and anything else that anyone can think of.

We’ve made a start on this effort, though I’ll be the first to admit it’s a little bit of a kludge. If you go to the VoiceCon SF program webpage, every session description has a link that says, “DISCUSS THIS SESSION.” Clicking on that link will take you to a feedback site where you can discuss the session topic. We’ve seeded each of these feedback forums with Discussion Topics which are basically the Key Questions that we include in each VoiceCon session description. You can discuss the topic by giving your thought on those session questions, or if there’s an issue we didn’t include in the session questions, you can start up a new thread by entering your topic in the box underneath where we ask, “What else?”

For example, if you’re interested in our Tuesday session, “I’m a Nortel Customer–What Do I Do Now?” just go to that session description and click on the “DISCUSS THIS TOPIC” link. It’ll take you to this page, where you can weigh in.

The feedback forums feature a voting system that let you tell us which questions/topics you think are most important. I’m happy to get this type of feedback, but I think the real value of this format is going to be just in the discussion threads.

It’s tough to start a community on the Web by just telling people, “Discuss.” Hopefully, building our forums around the session topics will jump-start things and build toward a productive experience that may be highlighted by a show in Orlando or San Francisco, but doesn’t begin or end there.

The VoiceCon operations team is headed to San Francisco for a visit at Moscone Convention Center. This step in the process ignites the VoiceCon timeline. The “weeks out” calculation gets down to the single digits, working on the weekend becomes the norm again and my lists get very, very long.

This stuff makes me a little happier than it probably should. I can’t help it. It’s the fun part - we get to be creative. How will we design the show and what will everything look like? This is how we make an empty building turn into VoiceCon! How cool is that?

Every VoiceCon is different…
 

What will it look like in San Francisco? 

Of course, nothing compares to the actual event but this is my next favorite part. It’s impressive to watch the team engage and do what they each do best. I’m anxious to see what we create. If you join us in San Francisco, November 2-5 you can see it too.

Check back for some video of “VoiceCon – Behind the Scenes.” I wonder if The Flip camera editing tool has the capability to bleep over audio?

VoiceCon Orlando is a Tradeshow Week 2009 Fastest 50 winner!  Again!

I ran a couple victory laps around the office when we received this news today.  I also invaded personal space and gave some unsolicited hugs.  This is so exciting!  It is the third time VoiceCon has been a Fastest 50 winner; 2005, 2007 and now 2009.

TSW recognizes the fastest 50 growing events each year.  I know people say it is an honor just to be nominated but it is so much better to be a winner! 

I am lucky to be part of VoiceCon.  I’m often reminded of this, but this reminder comes with a trophy and that is the best kind of reminder.  The event team, attendees, speakers, sponsors/exhibitors and vendor partners all contribute to make this an incredible show!

I hope everyone will join us and celebrate this accomplishment.  I will be toasting VoiceCon tonight!

Virtual VoiceCon took place last week on June 10 and, phew…what an experience!  I’m excited and relieved to say it was a success.  We received positive feedback all around and people continue to login to explore and experience the virtual environment. 

As the event day approached I was surprised to find myself getting nervous.  I underestimated how similar the virtual event launch would be to opening day at a live event.  It became especially obvious the morning of, when I transformed into “onsite Crystal” (complete with furrowed brow and bossy behavior).   I did not see that coming, although a couple of the VoiceCon team members claim they saw it coming.

About an hour in, my butterflies faded.  Things were going great and even I started to relax.  We had turned our conference room into a war room, where we camped out with our laptops, listening to webcasts, chatting in booths, searching for people we know.  There were some fire drills but with IM, cell phones and team work we solved problems quickly.  The lesson learned, putting on “live” VoiceCon proved to be very applicable for executing Virtual VoiceCon.  Yay!

I was on Cloud Nine at the end of the day.  I planned to celebrate at home with one (or more) congratulatory drinks.  But, surprisingly, I got home and realized almost instantly that I was exhausted; I felt as if I had just finished a week on show site. I had a virtual VoiceCon hangover.  Again, I did not see that coming.

PS – No need to worry.  I perked up the next day and in the evenings that followed (yes, evenings plural) I have celebrated plenty – with real, not virtual, cocktails.

Go to the Virtual VoiceCon site to register.

No, it’s just an empty threat.

www.voicecon.com/virtualevents

They must be talking about the session that Brad Shimmin of Current Analysis is going to be doing:

For you to attend Virtual VoiceCon:

That’s http://www.voicecon.com/virtualevents

I’m cleaning up my to-do lists in preparation to be out for vacation next week.  I’m also making my vacation to-do list (I really like to make lists) because I’m not going anywhere — I’m spending the week at home.  A lot of people tsk-tsk at me when I say I’m not going anywhere but I think the at-home vacation is underrated.

I enjoy extended time at home to work on projects and relax.  I need to update the photos in my picture frames, reorganize some drawers, read a few books, finish a jigsaw puzzle (green frog on a green leaf with a green background – what was I thinking?) and re-watch my favorite movies: The Sandlot and The Maltese Falcon.

I’ll try not to think about work but I will.  I get worried when I’m out of the office.  If I’m not here “cracking foxy” (Bogart, The Maltese Falcon) on Fred and Eric, there is a possibility they may get distracted.  They’ll work on projects they like, instead of what comes first on our group VoiceCon to-do list.  So, I’ll rest up on vacation.  Then I’ll be good and ready to do some catch-up “cracking foxy” with our VoiceCon chairmen when I return.

Fast forward to 1:20