Cloud Comms Summit 2020: a Smashing Success

CCA and Cavell Group recently teamed up for the third consecutive year at the 2020 Cloud Comms Summit. The virtual event was held September 16-17 and featured industry leaders and analysts discussing how to plan for future uncertainties and highlighting the latest trends and best practices for thriving in the COVID-19 pandemic.

The event went off without a hitch and brought together many experts that were happy to share their opinions on some of the most pressing issues of today with CCA members, guests, and other attendees.

Clark Peterson, Chairman of the CCA said, “It was great for the CCA to partner again with Cavell to put on what is viewed as the top cloud communications event of the year. I believe it provided unparalleled presentations from the leading experts with foresight on where the industry is headed.”

Jared Hamm, Vice President of Business Development at J-Curve Technologies added, “I was surprised how quickly and easily you could connect with others attending the event to virtually network.”

The Switch to Virtual Took Moxie

A lot of planning went into transitioning this popular annual event to a virtual version. Cavell’s Francisca Dinga provided some insight on their behind the scenes work needed to pull off a successful execution. They focused on the event attributes that would work on a video platform and dropped any that wouldn’t mesh. 

The key considerations they kept in mind were:

• Time
• Format
• Engagement
• Platform
• Content
• Preparation
• Technology
• Budget

If a particular part of the past in-person events was a good fit for these considerations in a virtual world, they kept it in the program. They decided to cut 15 minutes off each session to aid in content retention, align with attention spans of attendees, and lessen user fatigue.

All programs were hosted live. This mix seemed to be a better fit with a virtual event that most likely wouldn’t have worked as well with the live in-person events of the past.

But Degna stressed that the most important element of the virtual event was to just have fun with it. Nobody wants to sit for two days straight and listen to a boring agenda for hours on end. 

Most attendees shared they were pleased with the detailed content, level of interaction, and networking sessions. They also said the engagements were productive, and many expressed an interest in attending future events – whether in-person or virtual.