Summary Bullets:
• GENBAND is holding its Perspectives16 user summit in Orlando this year, from May 2nd to May 7th. Industry analysts (Current Analysis included) were invited, creating a combined customer/analyst conference.
• GENBAND isn’t the only vendor to combine analyst and customer engagements. Deriving value from the strategy requires transparency, dedicated analyst or media content and a forum for analyst-shared insights.
This week, I’m down in Orlando at GENBAND’s user conference, Perspectives16. It’s the first time I’ve attended in years and I’m looking forward to it as an opportunity to dig into some old ground (NFV and service provider network transformation) as well as some new ground (carrier strategies in hosted enterprise services). Plus, we’ve been promised entertainment by a famous “Mickey.” You can’t believe how happy I am that we’re talking about Mickey Thomas of Starship and not everyone’s favorite rodent.
Before the event kicks off, however, I’ve been thinking about GENBAND’s strategy of combining a user conference with an analyst event. Cisco does something similar at Cisco Live. Oracle does this at Open World. Metaswitch is doing something in a few weeks at Metaswitch Forum. Google, Intel, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, AT&T and a myriad of others invite analysts to their user and developer events. And in almost every instance, we’re asked a similar question: “Was it valuable?” Continue reading “GENBAND Perspectives16: Is It Worth Trying to Engage Analysts at a User Conference?”