PODCAST · technology
Watch This Space Podcast
by Jon Arnold
The podcast about future of work, communications technology and business transformation. Two analog guys searching for the soul of technology in a digital world.
Episodes
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Hiatus Time for Watch This Space - Review of the Most Impactful Tech Since 2018, and What We're Watching for Next
While not quite The Last Waltz, all good things must come to an end, at least for now. This marks the final episode in our eight-year run doing Watch This Space, not because we’ve run out of spaces to watch, but because we feel it’s time to do a re-set with the podcast. With future of work being…
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Spotlight on Innovation with AI and Communications Technology
April was a busy month for industry events, and the main focus for this episode was Jeff Pulver’s vCon event, held in Hyannis, MA. Chris spoke at the event, with the main takeaway being that vCon is a “watch this space” initiative, especially for using AI to derive new value from conversations,...
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Return to Office and Agentic AI Realities
March was another busy month, with Chris attending Leesman’s research event in NYC, and Jon doing the same for Enterprise Connect in Orlando, along with Cognigy’s Nexus event in Dusseldorf. On this episode, Chris explains the big disconnect between what management and workers want for coming back...
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Future of Work Expo Review
February was a busy month, but the highlight was the Future of Work Expo, with Jon returning as Chair for the eighth year. Co-located with the big-tent ITExpo, the program covered a wide range of topics related to the future of work, and the highlights were reviewed during the podcast. One was…
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AI Overload - DeepSeek, Deepfakes, Paul McCartney's Cautions, Churchill at War, Roadrunner, Agentic AI - Do Consumers Really Care?
With the out-of-nowhere DeepSeek news turning the world of AI upside down, we went into an extended discussion about what it is and what it means, along with concerns about a related topic, deepfakes. We reviewed many examples that make you wonder if today’s digital natives can tell the real from...
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2025 Outlook - Workspace Evolution, Small Language Models and AI Everywhere; Plus The MANIAC, AlphaGo and Our Analog Sensibilities
Season 8 of Watch This Space began with our look-ahead to 2025, where the main topics were how we see workplaces and workspaces evolving, why small language models will have their moment, and our concerns about how AI is becoming baked into everything. On another tangent, we discussed how...
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Book Review - With Folded Hands - Where is AI Talking Us? Where is Today's Bob Dylan?, Events Roundup, and 2024 Takeaways
We mixed things up for the December episode, with our first-ever book review. A novelette, actually, from the sci-fi genre, that we found to be very timely. Written by Jack Williamson in 1947, With Folded Hands is a prescient story about a world that’s looking very familiar, and with Humanoids...
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Takeaways From Fall Conferences - AI Evolution for EX and CX, Getting Workers Back to the Office, and Future of Work Expo Updates
With travel to industry events in full swing during October, we had a lot of ground to cover. Jon recapped both events from earlier in the month – Verint, British Telecom and UC Expo – along with previewing upcoming October events that were to take place after our podcast was recorded, namely…
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Fall Tech Conference Preview, Amazon's Return to Office Mandate, and Updates for Our Podcast
October marks the start of the busy season for technology events, and we provided a preview of what’s coming, namely Jeff Pulver’s new-and-improved VON event, Verint Engage, British Telecom’s Focus analyst event, the UC Expo in London, and NICE’s analyst event in Zambia. Ahead of that we…
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The Joys of Summer - How Streaming Found Its Voice at the Paris Olympics, and How Conversational AI is a CX Game-Changer for Utilities
Our September episode began by talking about the best things that came from the summer. In terms of technology, the highlight was how good streaming has become, and how great a showcase the Paris Olympics were for this. We extended this to the workplace, by noting how some vendors have been...
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Workplace Strategy - It's a Thing, and Why It's an Opportunity for UCaaS and CCaaS Vendors
Our main focus for this episode was on the recent Leesman Corporate Real Estate Poll, and the emerging need for enterprise leaders to develop a workplace strategy. Senior management has numerous priorities to manage for their organization to function effectively; such as employee experience…
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HPE Discover and NICE Interactions - Reflections on Latest Industry Events
Both of us attended major industry events during June, with Chris at HPE Discover, and myself at NICE Interactions – both in Las Vegas, as it turns out. HPE and NICE are different companies in different spaces, but both were showcasing how they’re pushing the envelope with AI. Given our focus on...
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The AI Revolution - Are We at the Beginning or the End? Reflections on Analyst Events from Zoom and Verint
With AI moving so quickly - yet without much ROI to speak of – it’s fair to ask if we’re at the beginning or the end with this revolution. For this episode, Jon shared insights from recent events with Zoom and Verint – two companies going all-in with AI. Both are aiming high, solving problems…
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The Future is Digital - Exploring Innovation for Workplace Security and Visual Collaboration
For this episode, we explored what technology innovation looks like both in physical and virtual spaces. Just back from the ISC West event, Chris shared how technology is now being applied in the physical security space, and how commercial property managers are thinking about smart buildings....
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Takeaways from Enterprise Connect, and How Did We Get Here with AI from the Days of PBX and Legacy Telephony?
Having returned from Enterprise Connect the night before, the time was right to talk about takeaways from the 2024 edition, of which there were many. Before talking about how AI has now become the main focus of the event, we felt compelled to put things in perspective first. This conference used…
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Takeaways From the Future of Work Expo, and Where's the Fit for AI, Apple and the Metaverse?
For this episode, Chris and Jon reflect on key highlights from the recent Future of Work Expo, where Jon serves as event Chair, and Chris was both a speaker and a moderator. The event provided much food for thought, with insights from an eclectic mix of speakers from both mainstream and...
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What Constitutes Work in a Digital World, and Future of Work Expo Preview
We continue with Season 7 for Watch This Space, where the focus is my upcoming Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale. Our sessions will cover a lot of timely topics that should be familiar to our regular listeners - but some new ones too - including privacy, identity, immersive tech, large…
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2024 Outlook - How IT Leaders Need to Think About Deploying AI - an Analog Perspective
This episode marks the start of Season 7 for Watch This Space, and as always, is our look-ahead into the coming year. With AI becoming ever-more pervasive, Chris and I focused on how IT and business leaders need to be thinking for 2024. Never before has a technology emerged so quickly with such...
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Musings on Big Tech, Looming AI Backlash, and Takeaways From Verint’s Analyst Event
Our discussion for this episode centered on Big Tech, triggered by the recent rollercoaster with OpenAI. Aside from exploring concerns and implications about Big Tech’s market power, we parsed out the different frames of reference between analog and digital generations about using AI, along with...
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State of Play with Hybrid Work, and Jon’s World Tour Revue - London, Peru, Dubai and the US
Before getting to Jon’s travelogue of industry events, we reviewed how businesses are still facing challenges getting hybrid work right, and what vendors are doing to make the in-office experience more compelling, especially for meeting spaces. We noted how this theme will be further explored at...
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New York City Events Roundup - Cloud Communications Alliance, CREtech and WorkTech23
During September, Chris and I both attended industry events in New York City, and we had lots to talk about. First up was the Cloud Communications Alliance Financial Summit, which I attended for the first time and spoke on the analyst panel session. We discussed how the current state of things –...
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Is It Still Customer Service if They Don’t Want You?
The same technologies that contact centers have now embraced to better understand the customer journey can also be used to determine which customers are the most valuable, as well as those they’d rather do without. Ineptitude isn’t the only reason customers are driven away by bad service, and we...
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East Meets West - Takeaways From Mobile World Congress Shanghai and the Bleeding Edge of 5G
We usually cover multiple topics on Watch This Space, but my recent trip to China was so fascinating – and touched on so many tangents – that we didn’t talk about anything else. The main topic was my experience at the Mobile World Congress event in Shanghai, with some sidebars to my broader...
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Act III for Avaya - Why We Think They May Succeed, and Is It Too Late to Push Back on Big Tech?
While we intended to discuss a few current topics, our current episode ended up being mostly about June’s Avaya ENGAGE event. Given how interesting Avaya’s situation has become – what I now call Act III – our discussion also reflected on the broader state of technology, and how the pervasiveness…
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How Five9 is Using AI to Re-Think Customer Service, Generational Changes for Automation, and Robotics of the Mind
Our May episode started with my takeaways from Five9’s analyst event in Porto, Portugal, with a parallel discussion about how they’re using AI to transform customer service, along with how broader generational changes are increasingly AI and tech-centric. Our analog lens pre-dates these changes,...
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Conference Roundup and AI Anxiety - Extreme Networks, Fenway Park Experience and VON Evolution
Our May episode took us to Boston and New York, where Jon recounted takeaways from Extreme Networks’ analyst event, and Chris did the same for Jeff Pulver’s VON reboot. Framing those highlights was a broader discussion about where AI is taking us, and what the new generation of tech entrepreneurs...
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Conference Roundup - 8x8, Enterprise Connect, VON Evolution, HPE Aruba - and the State of Enterprise Communications
Our April episode served as a roundup of recent and upcoming events on our calendar, namely 8x8, Enterprise Connect, VON Evolution and HPE Aruba. Chris and Jon also reviewed the current state of enterprise communications - in particular, what’s missing to make meetings feel more immersive, as…
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Future of Work Expo Review - ChatGPT, Hybrid Working, AR/VR, Contact Center Realities and More
Over the course of 3 days, we had 18 sessions, dozens of speakers, and a very engaged audience – to find out what you missed, this is the podcast for you. Chris Fine and I discuss the highlights, and if you weren’t there, we hope this gets the event on your calendar for next February. For more...
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Future of Work Expo Preview, and Highlights from the Leesman Powering Hybrid Work Study
Jon is returning as Chair for Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, and Chris will be active there too, so with the event fast-approaching, we started this episode with a preview of what to expect, and for those who can join us, you won’t be disappointed. Following that, Chris walked us through...
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Our 2023 Outlook - High Hopes for AI, But Analog Tech is Still Cool, and Future of Work Expo Preview
As we usually do at this time of year, Chris and I provide our take on what to expect in 2023. We haven’t had this much economic uncertainty in many years, making our outlook more about survive than thrive, but also with a sense of promise for AI. For fellow analog lovers, Chris shares a treat…
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Zoom + Tesla, Twilio and Digital Execution, Mavenir and Industry 4.0, and 2022 Takeaways
I attended three more industry conferences during November, and along with Chris, we explored the future of work implications – and there were many. Being the December episode, we closed things out with our 2022 takeaways, and will resume next month with our 2023 outlook.
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October Events Roundup – Surveillance, Audio Watermarking, Intelligent Customer Service, Private 5G and Another SIPtones Gig
Industry conferences were in full swing last month, and the topics in this title provide a sense of what Chris and I talked about. October travel took me to three continents, so our perspectives are broad, and we don’t think you’ll mind this being a longer-than-usual episode.
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Quiet Firing, Return to Office, and Digital HQ from Salesforce
The hybrid work pendulum continues swinging back and forth, and following our discussion of quiet quitting last month, we look at the flip side this episode with quiet firing. We also examine new drivers for evolving workspace design, and what we think Salesforce is on to with their bold launch…
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Crashing Tech Stocks and Quiet Quitting - is There a Connection?
Quiet quitting has become the nom du jour in hybrid work circles, and in this episode, we examine the implications, as well as if there might be a connection to what’s behind the drastic falloff in tech stocks - especially those in the collaboration space. Hybrid work continues to face headwinds,...
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EY Work Reimagined Study - Getting Employees and Employers on the Same Page
Our last podcast focused on highlights from Future of Work Expo, which included a keynote about this new study from Ernst & Young. The findings reveal some worrisome disconnects between employees and employers, which we explore in this episode, along with what enterprises should be doing to…
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Future of Work Expo Review - Making Hybrid Work Work
Having just returned from the Future of Work Expo in Ft. Lauderdale, Jon recaps the key themes, and co-host Chris Fine adds his perspective as to why hybrid work is harder to do than it looks. Having served as Chair for four years now, Jon explains why this year’s Future of Work Expo was the best...
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The Metaverse, Innovation and Invention -Thinking Bigger About Future of Work
What started as an exploration of the continued challenges faced by businesses to get workers back to the office, veered into the unchartered waters of the metaverse. Jon shared some future of work perspectives from his recent metaverse experience during the NICE Interactions event, and how…
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Channel Partners Expo - Money Talks, Muddling Through Hybrid, HP Acquires Poly
With in-person conferences back in full swing now, Jon and Chris had some follow-on takes on Enterprise Connect, along with perspectives from the Channel Partners Expo that Jon recently attended. One main theme is the growing role Big Tech is playing in shaping workplace collaboration experiences...
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Enterprise Connect Recap - The Return to In-Person Industry Events!
The title says it all, and with Spring and baseball around the corner, the timing was great for Enterprise Connect 2022. This is the most important event in the communications technology space, and we haven’t gathered since March 2019, so it was enough just to be there. The vibe was good, and I...
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The Technology of Trust – Digital Identity, Communications and the Future of Work
Jon and Chris examine the relationship between personal identity and communications in today’s digital world, which lacks the security safeguards natively built into analog technologies. We discuss the challenges to keep technology innovation such as Web3 moving forward where trust is…
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VON3 - Finding Intersections with Communications, Web3, NFTs, and Future of Work
There’s a lot to unpack in that podcast title, and that’s what we did, not just as attendees of Jeff Pulver’s VON3, but as speakers as well. Communications is an elastic concept, and VON3 explored emerging possibilities that go beyond the world of telephony and collaboration that Jon and Chris…
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Technology Innovation: From Telecom to Space Exploration to the Metaverse
With Omicron extending the pandemic, Chris and Jon explore the longer-term implications of hybrid work, including how virtual experiences are becoming normalized, and how the metaverse isn’t that far-fetched now. With virtual modes becoming the new reality, we bring our analog lens to look at…
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2021 in Review – Hybrid Work Realities and Consolidation Trends
2021 did not lack for interesting developments, and Chris and I summed things up by focusing on two broad trends that we feel will set the stage for 2022. One would be the emerging hybrid work environment, and second would be industry consolidation, which saw both large and small deals. As AI’s...
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Copper Sunset - Why We‘ll Be Losing More Than a Telephony Network
Recent news regarding British Telecom’s plans to decommission their copper telephony network spurred us to explore the implications of Copper Sunset, as telephony companies look to move on from legacy networks for good. The universal access to phone service we have long enjoyed does not apply to...
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Can Collaboration Technology Save The Great Resignation?
Flipping the switch from summer to fall seems much easier than coaxing workers to shift from home to office, and we explore what’s behind the current trend known as The Great Resignation. There are good reasons why many workers aren’t just not coming back to the office, but leaving their jobs...
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How to Make Virtual Work Work, and Where Emerging Technologies Can Help
Labor Day is a good time to think about the longer-term implications of virtual work, and on this episode, we explore how this checks many boxes for workers, but less so for management. We also discuss how the world of consulting represents a good model for making this work, along with where...
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Zoom/Five9 Deal and Back to the Office - Really?
Our timing was good to talk about the acquisition of Five9 by Zoom. Many implications to consider, especially for the remaining pure play contact center vendors, with more moves, no doubt to come. With summer beckoning and pandemic fears easing, we also explored how crowds are back now for many...
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Who's the Boss? New Priorities for the Post-Pandemic Workplace
On this episode, we review the emerging dynamics of the post-pandemic workplace between employees and employers. Both will need to be flexible in new ways, and while there's lots of great collaboration technology to make all this possible, there's more to a healthy workplace than work, and we…
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Should Network Providers Be in the Content Business?
With AT&T spinning out Time Warner, it’s not hard to understand why Amazon just acquired MGM. Jon and Chris examine parallels here to last month’s podcast about the history of telecom, and it’s another example of how IP – Internet Protocol - has disrupted industries evolving from analog to…
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Lessons Learned from the History of Telephony - Preview of our PulveREDU Course
Telephony has a long and rich history, and provides the template for the rise and fall of all forms of technology innovation that have followed. Chris and Jon connect the dots here, and more to come during our first PulveREDU online course on May 13.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
The podcast about future of work, communications technology and business transformation. Two analog guys searching for the soul of technology in a digital world.
HOSTED BY
Jon Arnold
CATEGORIES
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Watch This Space Podcast have?
Watch This Space Podcast currently has 66 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Watch This Space Podcast about?
The podcast about future of work, communications technology and business transformation. Two analog guys searching for the soul of technology in a digital world.
How often does Watch This Space Podcast release new episodes?
Watch This Space Podcast has 66 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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You can listen to Watch This Space Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Watch This Space Podcast?
Watch This Space Podcast is created and hosted by Jon Arnold.
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