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9 Key Questions: 1 Big Answer at UC Expo

What’s human hacking? And vishing? And what’s the deal with Teams? Head to UC Expo in this month for the answers.

This year’s UC Expo show is so close you can almost touch it with your augmented reality data glove.

For anyone in the European UC business, this is the big one. It’s a two day event in London on May 16 to 17 comprising keynote presentations, over 100 seminars, multiple technology showcases and a chance to meet all your partners in one place. Including Formation and Avaya, obviously.

It’s free to attend, and the organisers expect over 5,000 to show up. It’s at ExCel which isn’t the easiest place in the world to get to…but you can’t have everything.

We’re excited about it. We’ve been gabbing away trying to figure out what to expect at the show. So here’s our little preview of the nine big questions we want answers to.

1. What is the future of work?

Quite a big question, we’ll grant you. But one that should interest anyone in the unified comms space. UC Expo takes the question seriously enough to make it the subject of a panel debate at the show.

2. What is a chief human hacker?

There was a time when the only corporate officer that mattered was chief executive. Not any more. Now there are chief officers for technology, data, security, creative, experience. On it goes.

But even still ‘chief human hacker’ took us by surprise. To find out more, head to Christopher Hadnagy’s keynote. He describes himself as a CHH. He’s also a formidable security expert, and he’ll be sharing insights into the threats facing enterprises and how to counter them.

3. Are bots BS?

A note to clarification: this is not the actual name of the session. But it might as well be. This seminar looks into the promise of AI, machine learning and bots as part of the UC environment – and whether this promise is likely ever to be fulfilled.

4. What is smishing and how is it different from vishing?

You probably know about email phishing. You may even have been a victim. But it’s just the lead singer in a growing band of security threats. Smishing does something similar with SMS. Vishing is the phone version. This seminar session lifts the lid on all the ‘shings’.

5. Will you meet your dream partner?

No matter how unlucky you’ve been in UC love, you have to believe there’s someone out there who’s perfect for you. With dozens of exhibitors attending, here’s a chance to get out and mingle. Find (attractive, single) Formation on the Avaya stand.

6. What’s Avaya up to?

In January, Avaya hosted its first post C11 Engage conference. What an exuberant affair that was. Full of announcements. There was the Spoken deal, which should accelerate Avaya in voice recognition. And there was the creation of a new cloud division too.

Eager to know more? Well, pop over to the Avaya stand and ask them face-to-face. That’s what they – and we – will be there for. It’s also worth going to the ‘Digitally Transforming the Customer Experience’ keynote to hear what Avaya’s Gregg Widdowson has to say.

7. Will Microsoft Teams destroy Slack?

Microsoft’s drive into the cloud is paying dividends. This year, it will take another important step and merge Skype for Business with Teams. Specifically it will make Teams the core communications client in Office 365, replacing the current iteration of Skype for Business. How will that play out? And what will it do to Slack? Find out in this interactive panel session.

8. Are you doing enough with your data?

The data you collect when you do UC has latent value. Are you ready to monetise it? A UC Expo seminar will show you how to share your customer data with CRM & analytics tools and make it ready for analysis and reporting.

9. How can you turn GDPR into a positive?

If you go to the above session, probably best to go to this one too. It’s cool to get data insights. But only if you have permission from customers and have secured your systems properly. GDPR regulation will make sure you do. And if you don’t, it will fine you by up to €10m or two per cent of turnover (for mid market firms).

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