Invitation: It’s getting real now! The Enterprise Connect 2020 conference, that is.

Enterprise Connect 2020. This year’s event will be critical to helping you understand the disruptions under way in the technology and vendor landscape. Don’t miss your chance to attend the only event focused on helping you optimize your investments in communications and customer experience systems, services, and architectures.

We are happy to announce that Eric S. Yuan, Founder & CEO of Zoom Video Communications, Inc., will be delivering a Keynote address, rounding out a roster that includes Pasquale DeMaio, General Manager, Amazon Connect; Amy Chang, EVP and General Manager, Collaboration Technology Group, Cisco; Jared Spataro, Corporate VP at Microsoft; and Stewart Butterfield, co-founder and CEO, Slack.

Finance Colombia readers receive special discounts by using the code FINCOL at registration.

We have lots more in store, both for the mainstage and for breakout rooms, but here are a few highlights.

This year’s conference features roughly 60 sessions across 10 tracks:

• Cloud Communications, to include topics such as UCaaS total cost of ownership, the intersection of UCaaS and communications platform as a service (CPaaS), and how to use session border controllers as your gateway to the cloud
• Communications & Collaboration 2023, providing an outlook on key technology areas to use in your strategic planning
• Contact Center & Customer Experience, to include topics such as artificial intelligence (AI) options for the contact center, how to make customer journeys actionable, and how cloud and AI are reshaping workforce optimization
• Embedded Communications & APIs, to include topics such as WebRTC’s use in the enterprise today, moving beyond early CPaaS use cases, and highlights from the annual TEDHack mini-hackathon running coincident with Enterprise Connect
• Management & Security, to include topics as delivering quality of service across disparate networks, network automation, and Internet of Things readiness
• Practical AI, to include topics such as conversational AI for customer engagement, AI’s impact on network management, and the latest in speech technologies
• Strategic Leadership, to include topics such as how to win at user adoption, the DNA of a successful customer experience, and strategic planning essentials for enterprise communications
• Team Collaboration, to include topics such as how to avoid gotchas, how to compare and choose the right app for your organization, and what to do about voice in team collaboration
• Unified Communications, to include topics such as SIP trunking for the cloud, 5G progress report, how to evaluate software-defined WAN options, and, back by popular demand, Cisco vs. Microsoft
• Video Collaboration & A/V, to include topics such as making monitoring, management, and analytics part of your plan; huddle rooms; and video collaboration security

In addition to these 10 tracks, the 2020 program will feature a one-day conference-in-a-conference, the WorkSpace Connect Summit. In this program, we’ll bring together experts not only from our traditional IT constituency but also Real Estate/Facilities and HR to advance our understanding of how to create effective collaborative workplaces — discussing everything from the right technologies to workspace layouts and design.

As always, we’ve lined up a topnotch group of industry analysts and IT consultants to present and lead panel discussions. As previously, Sheila McGee-Smith, of McGee-Smith Analytics, is heading our Contact Center & Customer Experience track, and Ira Weinstein, of Recon Research, our Video Collaboration & A/V track, and have independent consultants Brent Kelly and Phil Edholm leading our Cisco vs. Microsoft session, as well as Dave Michels, with TalkingPointz, our annual Innovation Showcase (this year: security). Other organizations represented on the speaker agenda include the BCStrategies group, the SCTC, and IT analyst firms such as Forrester Research, Frost & Sullivan, IDC, Nemertes Research, and Ovum Research. And, of course, you’ll have plenty of opportunities to hear from enterprise IT leaders on the mainstage panels and in breakout sessions.

I’ve only scratched the surface, but hopefully, I whetted your appetite enough to check out the conference program (come back often for updates). And here’s another enticement: We’re offering you, $200 off the early rates! All you have to do to save is register today and use the code FINCOL at checkout. Hope to see you at EC20, taking place in Orlando, Fla., the week of March 30.