Start Building Your Learning Culture at Enterprise Connect

October 17, 2024

Written by Eric Krapf, General Manager and Program Co-Chair, Enterprise Connect Publisher

Times are uncertain for IT leaders and practitioners whose focus is collaboration or CX technology. Whether the topic is AI, cloud strategy, security, or CX, enterprises are dealing with new and complex issues, from governance to evolving technology trends. That’s why I found this recent article from CIO Dive compelling: It describes the upskilling requirements that IT organizations are facing, and suggests a key way of addressing these challenges is to build a “learning culture.”

I’d argue that a learning culture has never been more important for IT. There’s obviously a massive job of upskilling and re-skilling as AI comes into the enterprise. But all of the critical technology issues are morphing and becoming more challenging, while IT is being asked (as always) to do more with less.

That’s why I think the timing couldn’t be better for this week’s opening of registration for Enterprise Connect 2025, taking place March 17 – 20 at the Gaylord Palms hotel in Orlando, FL. EC has always been about learning, but we’ve specifically built this year’s event to give IT professionals unprecedented opportunities for enrichment and strategizing—even as we continue to provide abundant ways for you to explore technology trends and dive deep on the details.

Here's just a few of the new initiatives we’re bringing to Enterprise Connect 2025 to help you build and support your organization’s learning culture:

• A fresh set of content for Monday’s program—three “Strategic Impact Summits.” These represent a curated selection of content sessions, grouped by 3 different topics: Customer Engagement, AV/Video, and Strategic Leadership Case Studies. A summit leader will help tie the material together throughout Monday morning, and the session rooms will be set up to encourage networking in-between sessions. I’ll be sharing more detail on this in future newsletters
• A new track devoted to Strategy & Management
• Enhanced Monday keynote sessions, including a type of keynote that’s new for Enterprise Connect. We’re delighted to announce that NASA astronaut Mike Massimino will deliver one of our Monday keynotes, in which he’ll share stories of his adventures in space, but will also describe the leadership, teamwork, and persistence that’s marked his personal journey. We think he’ll inspire you to help your organization reach new heights, so to speak.

Inspiration is critical. To create a learning culture, you don’t just need to know what material to teach. You need to inspire your teams and end users — and to do that, you need to be inspired yourself. One of our most important goals with Enterprise Connect 2025 is to make sure that you leave Orlando with renewed enthusiasm to get the best from yourself, your teams, your vendors, and your partners. Besides these programming elements, we’re also adding other inspirational moments—for example, in the Expo Hall you’ll have an opportunity to take a few minutes out and volunteer your efforts in assembling hygiene kits for the homeless or writing letters of advice and encouragement to young people at local Boys Clubs and Girls Clubs. Giving back is a critical part of many enterprises’ cultures, and we want to make sure that carries over to your Enterprise Connect experience.

Of course we’ll pair this inspiration with the deepest, most objective and on-point information and insights from the leading vendor-neutral experts in the industry. I’ll have a lot more to say about our content in future emails, but you can get a taste of it by checking out the conference Agenda, which has a few additions still to come, but is largely complete.

Please check out the just-launched event website to see what we’ve got planned. I’m super-excited for EC 2025 and hope you can join us in Orlando!