See You in SeptemberSee You in September

Like many of you, I’ve now received both doses of my COVID vaccine, and so I’ve naturally started to think about how I expect to re-enter some semblance of my old life. My plans for the next month include my first business trip in over a year, as well as a more extensive celebration of my wife’s birthday than we could manage last year. We’ll still wear masks in public while the U.S. pushes toward herd immunity; we’ll take other precautions as recommended; and we’ll generally try to be considerate of others around us.

But I’ve gotta tell you, all in all it feels good.

For me and my team, looking to a brighter future at work means planning for Enterprise Connect 2021 September 27-29 in Orlando, Fla. This week, we took another major step toward making our return to in-person events a reality when we opened registration for this fall event, and I’m delighted to say we’re off to a strong start.

We’re planning this event with an overriding requirement of making it as safe as it can possibly be. We’re fortunate to be a part of the world’s largest exhibition producer, Informa, which has worked diligently over the past year to develop a set of health and safety standards to guide the efforts of our own operations team. And, of course we’ll be following the guidelines of the relevant health authorities as well. I encourage you to check out the Health and Safety page of our website for more detail.

Of course, our Orlando program will have a lot to say on the topic of returning — in some fashion — to a more physically connected world, with the challenges and opportunities this will pose for IT/communications professionals. We’ll look at the issues through the lens of video deployments in the office; the new focus on employee experience; impacts on the contact center; and much more. We’ll also look at the ripple effects of a potential transformation to hybrid work — for example, how changes to office utilization may affect your WAN requirements.

We’ll be posting the first batch of conference sessions on the event website shortly, and I’m excited to start showing you what our independent industry experts have planned.

But again, what I want to emphasize here is that, whether it’s in the conference session rooms, the exhibit hall, or the networking receptions and meetings, Enterprise Connect and its partners at the Gaylord Palms venue, and all of our contractors and team members, are committed to maintaining the highest standards of health and safety. If you’re able to join us in Orlando, I can promise you that we’ll be attentive to any of your concerns around this issue.

And if you’re just not able to make it to Orlando this time, we will be presenting a digital version of our September event. We’ll have more specifics on this virtual component in a few weeks.

In the meantime, I hope you are staying well and are as optimistic and hopeful as I am about the prospects for all of us to enjoy a happier, safer, and more enjoyable 2021 as the year progresses. We all deserve it.