 Welcome, welcome, everyone, to Know Before You Go. I'm your host, Jamie Scott-Okataya of JSA. Know Before You Go is the show that covers everything attendees need to know, have on their radar from inside talking points to conference logistics before attending that next big industry event. And today we are spotlighting none other than IT Expo, taking place February 13th through the 15th and fought Florida. And guys, over my shoulder there, you see a QR code hanging out. That's a direct link to the registration. And if you put in JSA 25 in the discount code, you're gonna get 25% off the registration. So go ahead and scan away. Well, guys, this is it. I am joined by none other than IT Expo conference chairman and longtime friend, Rich Tarani. Rich is here to share some tips on how attendees can make the most of this year's IT Expo. Hey, Rich. Hey, Jamie, how are you? Good, it's so great to see you and have you here on Know Before You Go. I'm thrilled to be here. Thanks for having me. Very, very excited about today's session. And there's so much to talk to about. Oh my gosh, let's just get started. You have exciting elements in this year's conference, new and exciting. Can you share some highlights? What are you most excited about? Sure, well, if I was to go through all of the exciting things, I just takes too much time. So I'm gonna try to narrow it down. The IT Expo is now called a tech super show. And the reason why we call it a tech super show is because there are a number of co-located events. And one of those is generative AI Expo. This is now the second year of Gen AI Expo. We're really excited about it. There are so many amazing sessions that you can go to if you are an enterprise or a reseller or a communication service provider that will make you more productive, more efficient and potentially save you money as well. There's an MSP Expo for managed service providers. IT Expo has always been very strong for the reseller community. We used to call them VARs way back over 20 years ago. And that term has evolved. There's now Channel, which is one type of reseller as well as managed service providers, which are thought of as more, I don't know if you wanna say sophisticated but maybe more advanced in terms of the participation and configuration of end solutions. The point is that all resellers are gonna benefit from coming to MSP Expo. There's also a new event called the Future of CX for customer experience. And it's all about how you can optimally serve customers with the latest technology, maximize customer service, maximize customer satisfaction, et cetera. That's really exciting. And then for the first time in many years we have something called a Cybersecurity Theater on the show floor, which is really exciting. We've got some great companies presenting and unfortunately Cybersecurity is something that we all need to focus on constantly because it becomes a bigger and bigger task to stay secure. And we probably, for those of you that have been watching the news, even Microsoft and HP have had issues with hacking lately. So it's really, really tough to stay secure even for the largest companies, which is why everyone needs to stay up to date and going to the Cybersecurity Theater is a fantastic way to do so. Incredibly timely, as you were saying, these topics, Cybersecurity, Generative AI, we all need to know about the future, what to look for, and it seems like you guys are hitting on all those hot topics. You have an incredibly packed agenda, so many amazing sessions. Can you give us a preview of some of the topics and tips and how attendees can just best plan their day? Sure, sure. So some of the topics are all about business technology and that's one. So it's really everything you need to know about business tech. Again, Generative AI, automation, teams, Microsoft Teams collaboration, Unified Communications, which also includes cloud, Unified Communications or UCAS. Again, Cybersecurity and again, customer experience is a really important themes throughout the event. And again, important areas that we all need to focus on to keep our businesses secure. And then when it comes to customer experience to maximize this ongoing transition that we're seeing to keeping our customers happy with the latest in automation, whether that's AI and chat bots, which we've been experimenting with chat bots for decades, or at least a decade many companies have, and that's only getting better, but there are still challenges in terms of providing timely answers. For customers, how do you optimize that? What are the best practices, et cetera? You'll learn all about those ideas and concepts at the show. Yeah, and I can just see how Generative AI and chat bots are really taking it to new layers, talking again about the business of technology and the future of business tech. So let's talk networking. You guys are incredible. Always have long rich history of becoming, of getting your attendees really networking, leading into the show. And of course at the show, what are the must-do networking events this year? Thank you for that question. And also, it's important to mention that a lot of people who come to live events tell me, and it's not just ITX, but all the live events that I go to, they tell me that the networking is absolutely crucial for a couple of reasons. Pre-pandemic, we were in offices more and we did a lot more collaboration and networking within our organizations, but now with the work from home and the hybrid working, there's a lot less interaction, human interaction. So number one, people appreciate the fact that they can come to an event with like-minded people. A lot of times they'll come to an event like ITX, won't see people within their own organization that they don't normally get to see because everyone is working from home or working remotely or located somewhere that's not near them. But also the ability to network and learn from people that have similar problems to you is just a fantastic byproduct of going to a live event. And so what are the opportunities? I'll give you just an overview. For example, the first night when the exhibit hall opens, we have an amazing grand opening reception. So you have to be there for that event. And then the second night, which is Thursday, that is at 5pm, it's something called the Idea Showcase. It's a pitch event. So you'll see a whole bunch of startups, there'll be judges and the startups will make a pitch and then they'll get graded and really exciting. And this year it's sponsored by Ignite Tech and GFI software. Thursday, there's a networking live party at the wharf. It's outdoors. I'm here in Connecticut, it's cold. I can't wait for an outdoor reception. I can number one be outside and just enjoy that fresh air and not have a coat. And number two, just be like-minded people. I really am looking forward to that. So that's Thursday night, sponsored by C3 Complete, Kato Networks, IT Complete, Particle, Radix IoT, Telesystem and Virtu. Oh, and some great names you just dropped there. So how exciting. Of course, once again, ITX about always known for incredible networking events. And like you mentioned, time is critical to get those face-to-face interactions in this crazy new hybrid role that we're in and to talk to like-minded people, so critical as we grow and all ships rise in this new business environment, right? So getting to it, can you share with us your top three tips for getting the most out of ITXpo to share? Absolutely, because there's so much going on in ITXpo and it's not a typical event, we really try to punch above our weight. We'll get somewhere around 78,000 attendees and we have as much content as some of the biggest shows in the world. And we constantly are adding and trying to make it better. And some of the content's paid, some of the content's free. It depends on what your goals are. You can figure out what's best for your organization and for you. So please study the agenda beforehand. I'd recommend that regarding any show you go to. Spend time, spend a good amount of time and do it early enough so you can plan your time at the show to take advantage of the things you need to take advantage of. I have people tell me at the show all the time I wish I would have known how rich the experience is ahead of time, because then I would have brought additional people from my organization because I have someone here who manages cybersecurity or I have someone here who manages the other part of our business, AI, et cetera. So that's important. Number two, we've heard really positive things about people who share on social media that they're coming to the show because the networking that takes place even within their community and their focus group or their group of colleagues can be immense. I've seen it on LinkedIn, I've seen it on Twitter and what that allows you to do is know ahead of time the people within your social network, within your, I guess, friend group, business group, colleague group that you're going to the event. You can set up meetings, you can catch up with people that you haven't spoken to in a while and so that's really important to do as well. And then the other thing which is important is the conference sessions are gonna be the best ever. We've been doing this show now. It's a 2050 year, 41st event and this is the best conference program we've ever had and we are really, really excited about that. It's rich, it's diverse in terms of topical information and it's in depth. And so you're able to bring a team of people, we call it a buying team to the show to try to figure out what you need to do to stay on top of things because we talked about this off camera, Jamie, the AI revolution is going to change and disrupt virtually every single business out there. If you're a software company and you're charging a lot for your monthly subscriptions, your customers can now theoretically use AI based tools to replicate the functionality that you're providing them. How do you deal with that change? How do you deal with this rapid evolution where your customers are becoming more empowered? And if you're a customer, how do you maximize your productivity by using the latest tools to minimize your spending while maximizing your output? And the reality is that if you're not doing these things, some companies are and more companies will continue to do these kinds of things using AI to expand their business, using AI to minimize costs, maximize profitability and you've got to compete with these guys, right? You've got to compete on pricing, you've got to compete on service levels, quality levels. And if you're not on top of your game, you are going to miss out. Now, I'm going to get a little esoteric here. We had really strong fourth quarter GDP numbers in the US, meaning the output and productivity of the US was much higher than expected. It was 3.3%. And when it's a recession, you expect that to go negative. It's actually, it was positive. And the secretary of the treasury said the reason for that was because of productivity increases and Jamie, what do you think the reason is behind those productivity increases? But take a guess, what do you think? AI. There you go, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, right? So AI has already, and it's probably some other things as well, but AI is obviously part of it. And if you know a lot of people in business and you talk to a lot of people in business, I'm blown away all the time by the people that tell me that they're able to produce so much in their organization with AI that a year ago, it would take them five times longer, 10 times longer, and now they're able to just pump out things, whatever it is that they're pumping out, whether it's artwork or creative copy or legal contracts, looking for pitfalls and legal contracts, it is insane what's possible and it's only going to get better. And so having said that, we are going to become more productive as a society, which is great, but whenever transformation happens, the winners and losers at the beginning of the transformation are typically not the ones at the end. And so that means you need to be on top of your game and you need to stay ahead of the trends and try to be ahead of your company. Everyone's gunning for everyone else and it's never been easier to compete with other companies because the minimal expense that it takes to use AI to compete with other companies, so you've got to really watch your back while simultaneously looking forward to ensure that you're looking at your opportunities and taking advantage of them. So it's exciting for us as a trade show organizer, but for our customers, we're even more excited for them because they'll come, they'll see all these opportunities, they'll get to deploy. The show takes place in Q1, which generally is when a lot of buying decisions are made, it's one of the first shows of the year. And so it gives you that opportunity when you're in that budget cycle to figure out what you need to purchase and then spend the rest of the year deploying, maximizing your productivity and becoming a better organization. This is why I love speaking with you. You are incredibly inspirational. Everything that falls out of your mouth, I'm like, I need to write this down, this is another blog, this is phenomenal. And I really hope that those folks getting prepared, ready for ITX Boat, are really able to absorb some of those amazing tips. You mentioned going to LinkedIn ahead of time as ways to sort of ramp up your meeting capabilities, your networking. So when you arrive at ITX Boat, coming fast and fiercely in February here, that you have a good experience. I would also recommend hashtag ITX Boat 24, search for others, even outside of your network, who would be there and available to network with. Any other last minute best ways for attendees to really get up to date and be ready before their arrival at ITX Boat? Sure, there's a mobile app, which everyone should download. There's an Android and the iOS version. You just go to the app stores and just search ITX Boat, it should come up. We recommend you download that as soon as you can, play around with it, learn where everything is. There will be updates, real time updates, sometimes things happen at a show at the last second and you have to just update everyone and the only way to do it is really via the app. So it's really important that everyone have access to that. For example, I mean, hopefully this never happens again if there's a fire drill or a fire or someone once was vaping in the bathroom and set off a smoke alarm at the show, right? So you have to alert everyone, hey, we're going back in, whatever it is you have to do. That kind of thing, unless you have the app, you just won't have real time access to what's happening. And again, it's a dynamic thing, it's a trade show, it's a live event. So to stay on top of what's happening, not only for planning ahead of time, but also at the event, you really wanna have that app and it'll help maximize your experience. If you forgot something, we'll remind you, oh, the keynotes are happening or whatever else. And by the way, the keynotes are another really great area to focus on, can I take 10 seconds and just do that really quick? Yeah, tell me about your keynotes. Okay, well, there's too many for me to go through every single one of them, but just a couple of the really awesome companies and I encourage everyone to look to themselves, but we've got keynotes from Top Execs at Genesis, Webex by Cisco, Avaya, Avant, Communications, Complyology, IBM, Teleris, and YellowAI, EpicIO, Thrive, SanS, and GFI software. So it's just gonna be amazing. The amount of education we will get at this show is unmatched, unrivaled. And I think one final note, if I can leave with the audience, you can go online and there's a lot of information you can get online, but the challenge with online is very difficult for you to get the information from like-minded people who have had similar challenges to you. And so at a show, and this is the kind of thing that really excites me, you'll talk to an exhibitor who will recommend a solution to a problem you have, and then in their booth will be other people who've purchased that product before and you can talk with them, but you can also talk to the partner who's a couple of booths over and another partner and their customers. And this kind of information is not easily accessible online. There are reviews, but especially now with AI, it's so easy to forge reviews. You don't know if the reviews are legitimate. Are they real people? Are they paid? Are they whatever? At a show, you're talking to somebody. You can gauge, is this a legitimate person? They're in the booth. They have a badge. You know a company they're from. You know it's a person that has a similar challenge to you, and you can learn from them what the pitfalls are, what the benefits are, et cetera. Just something you can't do easily online. And I've heard people say that they've cut their time from a month of research to just a couple of days at a live event. And again, this is coming from someone. I'm super online savvy. I love the web. I do a lot of research online, but when I go to an event, I learn so much that's just not easy to do in a web setting. So I think that's my final pitch for live shows. Well, there's a trust factor. You know, it's just the difference between face-to-face interaction and something like a Zoom, right? When you're sitting down breaking bread with someone face-to-face, there is a, you know, you're truly connecting with them, maybe even sharing core values, learning about them that happens. It's just, it's only, you know, it's almost like what's so rich about being human. You know, it's this human engagement level that hopefully even in this crazy AI world, we keep, right? But getting back to your point, this business transformation, digital transformation, now AI transformation, this is how we're going to stay competitive. This is our competitive edge. Either we're jumping on and we're educating ourselves now or we're losing the race early on. So IT Expo is where you will learn about being competitive. Thank you so much, Rich, for joining us. Such a pleasure catching up with you, my friend. Thank you as well, Jamie. This was awesome. Really appreciate it. All right, guys, to get all the details to prepare for your attendance at IT Expo, go ahead and visit itexpo.com slash east. And during the conference week, you gotta use it, hashtag IT Expo 24. Use it now, leading into it, to network, like we mentioned, but also make sure you're sharing your experiences live off the show floor with that hashtag. And of course, I love that I'm already seeing folks scanning, scan above, scan below. Be sure to use that discount code, JSA 25, to save 25% on your registration. And thank you IT Expo for letting us do that. Okay, guys, and in the meantime, I am Jamie Skidokataya of JSA. Please go ahead and follow JSA on LinkedIn or find out more on JSA.net. Thank you for tuning in to Know Before You Go. And as always, family, friends, happy networking and see you in Fort Lauderdale.