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Next week I will be hosting a panel discussion at SpeechTEK '19 , a technology conference focused on speech, voice, and AI. The event will take place at the Renaissance Washington DC Hotel in Washington, DC April 29 - May 1, 2019. I will post an update after the event with takeaways and insights from our discussion. In the meantime you can read a 451 Research spotlight report published earlier this year where I cover some of the topics we will be discussing, and includes an overview of some of the companies featured in our panel discussion next week. To read the full report follow this link . C205. PANEL: Speech Technologies Inside The Enterprise Tuesday, April 30: 4:15 p.m. - 5:00 p.m. Voice is rapidly emerging as the main user interface for many apps and devices. Speech recognition and natural language understanding will change how knowledge workers interact with computers and applications, opening opportunities for innovation in human-computer interaction, including intelli...

Slack's annual user conference wrapped up yesterday after two days filled with product and business updates. The opening keynote featured founder and CEO Stewart Butterfield and tennis star Serena Williams. I'm still processing all the information but here are my initial thoughts. Key announcements included integration with video communication platform Zoom and a 'bridge' to connect with email and calendar. For a nice summary of Day 1 announcements follow this link . These announcements signal team collaboration is expanding as a core productivity tool Workflow automation and third party integrations were once again, central topics in the keynotes, breakout sessions and show floor. These highlight the emphasis that Slack is placing on workforce productivity.  Coming up soon: a company impact report with my thoughts and key takeaways from the event for 451 Research subscribers.

"Don't tell me what I'm doing right ... tell me where I can improve ... it's constructive criticism ... I'm competing with someone that is working as hard -or harder- than I am ..." great insights from @serenawilliams at #SlackFrontiers — Raul Castañon (@rcastanonm) April 24, 2019

Full house for opening keynote at #slackfrontiers #Collaboration #Workforce productivity pic.twitter.com/aPtAeUlVCU — Raul Castañon (@rcastanonm) April 24, 2019

I attended Enterprise Connect again this year; this was my fourth time attending and probably the busiest ever. I had the opportunity to meet with many vendors including Poly (formerly Polycom/Plantronics), Dolby Labs, PGi, LogMeIn, Voiceimplant, Ribbon Communications, Bandwidth, Twilio, Google Cloud, RingCentral, Cisco ... too many to list here. In the past I have been critical of the event which in many ways reflects its near 30-year legacy rather than looking at the future. However EC has experienced a major turnaround in the last 2-3 years; it also continues to be an important event for education and technical training. Check out the excerpt below from my EC '19 report. The full report was made publicly available by 451 Research at:  http://go.451research.com/mi-enterprise-connect-2019-aws-google-cisco.html Enterprise Connect is one of the largest events for business communications and enterprise networking, gathering 6,500 attendees and more than 200 exhibitors this yea...

I had the opportunity to attend the Cisco 2019 Collaboration Analyst Summit in San Jose. This was very good timing on Cisco's behalf. The company shared upcoming updates that will be announced next month at Enterprise Connect; the event also provided an opportunity to meet Amy Chang, SVP and GM of the Cisco Collaboration Technology Group. My main takeaways are that Cisco is streamlining its Collaboration portfolio and improving the end user experience with a strong focus on workflow integration; it is also working on improving how it does business with its customers and partner network. 451 Research subscribers can read my comments following this link .