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The UC market is growing at a rapid pace, expected to reach $167.1 billion in the next five years. While NA is the dominating region, competing markets aren’t far behind. And this isn’t a one-off trend in response to the pandemic – Gartner found that between 2015 and 2018, UC solutions have grown by over 20% every year. You can explore these informative statistics in more detail here.
Technology giants from around the world have lined up several exciting events for 2021, discussing the recent spurt of industry activity in UC, enduring trends, and what lies next on the horizon. Here’s our roundup of the top ten UC events that await your RSVP in 2021.
ENGAGE is the telephony and UC giant Avaya’s premier user event taking place in Q1 of each year. 2020’s edition saw 3000+ attendees, 95 exhibitors, and 150 breakout sessions across four days in February. The company has some of the industry’s leading names (as well as familiar non-industry faces) take an active role in ENGAGE. In 2020, NBA Hall of Famer and Entrepreneur, Earvin “Magic” Johnson was among its keynote speakers, along with experts from Gartner and Not Impossible Labs.
Avaya ENGAGE 2021 has been pushed from Q1 to Q2 (June 6-9), scheduled as a live in-person event at the Swan & Dolphin, Orlando, FL. The agenda is TBD for now – you can view more details here.
Enterprise Connect is a series of conferences and sessions that bring together 200+ exhibitors across diverse UC technologies, such as cloud, collaboration, and voice every year. While 2020’s chapter took place online, Enterprise Connect returns next year with a physical event at the Gaylord Palms, Orlando, FL.
Here’s all you need to know:
Note that event details might change as per COVID-19 regulations.
Google Cloud Next is the search engine giant’s annual cloud developer conference. The event has always inspired game-changing announcements and launches, defining the future of UC products by Google and others. This year, Google Cloud Next transformed into a fully virtual event — Next OnAir. The company veered from its usual three-day schedule to adopt a multi-week format, carrying on from July until September.
Google has posted a short message on its website saying “See you in 2021. Until then, stay safe and healthy.” But apart from this, there hasn’t been any official announcements around Google Cloud Next 2021. Click here to be among the first ones to find out more and watch this year’s session on demand.
UC Expo is among Europe’s most definitive UC and collaboration events. 2021’s edition will be even more interesting, as the UC Expo co-locates alongside its sister show – Digital Transformation Expo Europe – to bring you the best of both worlds. Here are the details:
SIGNAL is the CCaaS giant Twilio’s annual customer and developer conference, a forum for discussion, resource sharing, and official announcements. In 2021, Twilio SIGNAL will be held on October 20-21 – you can book your seat right here.
Let’s look at some of the key event details:
GITEX is one of the world’s largest consumer technology trade shows and conferences, taking place every year in Dubai. It typically attracts around 150,000 attendees, making it a “must-attend” for UC marketing teams. Interestingly, 2020’s GITEX Technology Week is among the few events happening live, in-person this year, on December 6-10. This year’s notable speakers include Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari), Sameer Sharma (Global GM, New IoT Markets, Intel), and Jeff Maggioncalda (CEO, Coursera), among others.
Next year, GITEX Technology week is likely to take place between October 17 and 21, as per early rumours. Watch this space as we bring you more details.
Zoom’s annual conference, Zoomtopia, always witnesses healthy interest from the global UC community. And next year, given the meteoric rise of Zoom during the pandemic, we predict that our readers will be eager to sign up. Zoomtopia 2020 was a fully virtual event, where it launched several new offerings, upgrades, and services. It was seen by a massive 50,000+ attendees, signalling a flurry of activity for the 2021 edition.
The dates for Zoomtopia 2021 are yet to be confirmed, but early chatter suggests that it will be held sometime in September of next year. For now, you can access all the sessions from 2020 on-demand right here.
Microsoft Ignite 2021 promises something slightly different. This year, Microsoft decided to split Ignite into two separate events. The first one was digital, held between September 22-24. The second (technically Microsoft Ignite 2021) will be held in March of next year. Here is what we know:
If Ignite 2020 was anything to go by, we expect a series of mint-fresh new releases, expert tutorials, and emerging insights wrapped into a genuinely exhilarating event calendar.
As is the norm for 2020, Cisco Live was restricted to a digital format, with 750+ technical sessions and demos from its technology experts. The company has now added 200+ new sessions, creating a massive on-demand content library for you to peruse at your leisure.
2020’s sessions delved into five distinct tracks: collaboration, enterprise networks, security, thought leadership, and Cisco’s developer program DevNet. Next year, the company hopes to be able to conduct an in-person event in the month of June.
Cisco Live 2021 is tentatively scheduled for June 6-10, to be held in Las Vegas, Nevada. Sign up here to get notified when registration begins.
UC Summit Conference & Expo is a mega-event that brings together experts from RingCentral, Poly, Avaya, Cisco, and several other UC leaders, sharing their insights on a new era of communication technology. It will be held entirely online via the UC Summit platform, as a 26-day event starting January 25, 2021.
Here’s what you could expect:
Visit UC Today’s Events page to find the latest updates on all the events in 2020 and 2021.
We look forward to seeing you at these events, virtually or in-person. Until then, stay safe!
