Heads In The Cloud

In this episode, sponsored by VTech, DJ Potter brings in the beat and David gets to the meat of their interview with J.R. Simmons, President and Principal Consultant for COMgroup, Inc. COMgroup is the largest and most influential independent telecommunications consulting firm in the Pacific Northwest. With over 33 years of experience as an independent consultant, J.R. has expertise in a range of areas including telecommunications planning, design, analysis, and implementation, data networking design, and much more. He discusses his experience, love for consulting, and some of the industry's burning questions such as how to identify decision makers and how to keep up with the increased rate of change. You'll also hear about his current projects, involvement with BC Strategies, and his role as an expert witness on the stand.

In this episode, sponsored by VTech, David and Graham talk with Tracy Venters, Chief Strategist for Town Crier Consulting. Tracy's firm specializes in helping high-tech companies grow their brands and their revenue. She and Graham recount how they first met at Enterprise Connect for a meeting, followed by a discussion of Tracy's background in software engineering, marketing, and communications which culminate in her role at Town Crier Consulting. Also in this episode, you'll get exclusive hints about new products and events from Star2Star, hear about the technology trends on Tracy's radar, and the pet situation in her skyrise residence. Hint: this family member isn't fuzzy and also isn't afraid of heights.

In this episode, David and Graham interview C.H. Tong, President of VTech Telecommunications. Star2Star and VTech have been providing high-quality communications solutions and products together since 2016. C.H. discusses his role as President of the Telecom division and how VTech made their breakthrough into the SIP market, eventually leading to the Star2Star/VTech relationship. David, Graham, and C.H. also discuss the future of the desk phone, what the “cool” trends will be, and C.H.’s perspective on industry drivers in telecom. Also in this episode, you’ll hear about C.H.’s school adventures at King's College, London University, the running culture at VTech, the struggles of humidity, and much more.

In this episode, David and Graham invite Hal Logan, Star2Star's very own Director of Professional Services. They discuss Hal's career and experience in the world of professional services and security where he directs the engineering team responsible for custom development projects. Hal describes his career from beginning as a paratrooper in the Army to working in municipal government and then joining Star2Star. Tune in to this episode to hear about how Hal started in security, his take on the current trends in the industry, and how Blockchain works from a security standpoint. Bonus content: This episode comes to you live from outer space (courtesy of the Gen X-1 stylophone) and evolves into an entirely different podcast, touching on topics including the Oxford comma, how to train for jumping out of planes, and Hal's Yorkshire Terrier, Jocko.

In this episode, David is joined by special guest host, Frederick Philip von Weiss, Executive Producer of Heads In The Cloud and Creative Director at Star2Star. David and Frederick interview David Mario Smith, Founder and Principal Analyst at InFlow Analysis. They discuss David's illustrious career as an analyst in the communications space. From starting at Gartner right out of school to founding his own company in response the digital disruption. David has seen the ins and outs of the industry from a perspective trained to look ahead. He provides his take on Net Neutrality and some of the trends piquing his interest right now including chatbots, machine learning, and the conversational enterprise. Tune in to this episode to hear about the adventures of David, David, and Frederick, and learn more about UC from an expert industry insider. Bonus content: Frederick's other podcast, Thunder Nerds, and the story of Biscuit the Dog, David Mario Smith's family pooch.

In this episode, David and Graham talk shop with Chris O'Brien, Head of Sales, and Phil Keenan, President at MicroCorp. As a business with 30 years in the communications space, MicroCorp has seen everything from the days of selling long distance to the value-added recurring revenue services of today that are better known as VoIP and UCaaS. Chris and Phil discuss the world of Master Agents, what SD-WAN means to their business, and what they are looking forward to in 2018 as the field continues to evolve.

In this episode, we travel to a galaxy far, far away to interview Paul Hoffman, President of SouthTech IT, a long-term Star2Star partner. Paul takes us back through SouthTech's founding, originally started within a CPA firm, and tells us how a few SouthTech employees eventually branched out to become an IT company. We also discuss the trends Paul currently sees in the industry, his customers' #1 concern for communications, and how SouthTech is really more of a "people business" than an "IT business". Tune in to hear more from Paul plus a bonus debate about Sarasota's local brewery scene and Star Wars sound effects (*no spoilers*).

Get to know Star2Star's new CEO, Alan Foy, as we host him on our breaking news episode of Heads In The Cloud. We recently merged with Blueface, a pan-European UCaaS company, which Alan also directed as CEO. Hear how this all came about from Alan himself, where the new Star2Star/Blueface Group is headed, and some other details about our new Group CEO in our new segment, Rapid Fire With Graham Potter. We discuss what his favorite drink is, music taste, and more!

Happy New Year, friends of the pod! For our first podcast of 2018, we speak with Joseph

Williams, an analyst and consultant in the UC industry. With specialties in the channel and

UCaaS, Joseph provides us with his take on the top trends from 2017 and what to look

forward to this year.

In this episode, we interview Doug Green, Publisher at *Telecom Reseller*. As a leading news service since 1989 with over 40,000 readers, *Telecom Reseller* continues to connect key players with the latest updates and trends in the industry. The team reports on unified communications (UC), cloud, and collaboration technologies. Doug shares in-the-know insights about the most-read stories, market changes, and how hardware companies are adapting to increasing rates of cloud adoption. Tune in to hear The Pomeranian Analogy for these UC trends. BONUS: We also travel through time in this episode.