SO WHO IS PUTTING THIS SHINDIG TOGETHER, ANYWAY?
Comms vNext is a conference that is being organized by passionate community members with a desire to bring other community members together at a Microsoft UC-focused conference. Think Lync Conference, but by the Community (More on that Here). Meet the team:
JOSH BLALOCK (@EXPERTOFTHINGS)
MVP: OFFICE APPS & SERVICES
Chief Video Evangelist, Jabra
Josh’s ~20 year career started with various roles as a server technologies generalist, but over the last several years these roles have focused in on the unified communications path. Josh now specializes in the conferencing space, including meetings and voice applications, as well as the various certified devices that support this space.
This specialization has become a passion for Josh, leading to immersive content creation and management of learning groups on social media, as well as conference organizing and speaking. His current role as Jabra’s Chief Video Evangelist is deeply rooted in this community work, and the technical specialization at the root of it all.
JONATHAN MCKINNEY (@UCOMSGEEK)
MVP: OFFICE APPS & SERVICES
SENIOR UNIFIED COMMUNICATIONS ARCHITECT, TIME2MARKET
Senior Unified Communications Architect at Time2Market, a Blogger at “ucomsGeek Blog“, and a leader of the Colorado Unified Communications User Group (COUCUG).
Prior to joining Time2Market, I spent 11 years working in the services organization at Nortel/Avaya. However, going back even further, I started working on Microsoft products back on Windows 3.1, Windows for Workgroups, and actually hold an MCSE on Windows NT 4.0 (earned the hard way). I pride myself in being a true Converged Engineer… being able to communicate with the network engineer, voice engineer, server administrator, and business leaders in their native terminology and being able bring them all together on the same page when deploying Microsoft Unified Communication solutions.
ADAM BALL (@ADAMCBALL)
MVP: OFFICE APPS & SERVICES
CO-FOUNDER/PRINCIPAL SOLUTIONS ARCHITECT, CLOUD REVOLUTION
Adam Ball is a Solution Architect Team Lead for the Microsoft practice at ConvergeOne. Adam holds top level certifications from Microsoft and VMware. Since 2014, Adam has been a part of the Microsoft MVP Program.
Adam has been working in Information Technology for 20 years. During that time, he has spent over half of it doing consulting for clients around the world. His background includes a vast array of technologies from Unix/Linux systems to Virtualization to Unified Communications. He has had to support large networks and can tap into those skills in order to speak across technical lines to help keep projects moving. Adam currently works with Microsoft Unified Communications products such as Skype for Business, Office365 and Exchange.
In addition to his full time role as a consultant, Adam leads the Denver-based Colorado Unified Communications User Group. The goal of the user group is to build community among UC professionals and to share information around UC solutions. Adam helped found the group in May of 2011.
When not working with clients solving business problems or interacting with the user group, Adam likes to spend time outdoors in the mountains of Colorado with his family.
PAT RICHARD (@PATRICHARD)
MVP: OFFICE APPS & SERVICES
MICROSOFT UC ARCHITECT
Pat Richard is a technology professional with ~30 years of IT experience. Currently working for Innervation LLC, Pat specializes in Unified Communications solutions around the Microsoft UC stack. He is a published author, speaker, and UC community advocate. He has been awarded the Microsoft Most Valuable Professional (MVP) award 15 times for work with Exchange, Lync, Skype for Business, and Teams. Visit Pat’s blog at https://ucunleashed.com, and follow him on Twitter @PatRichard.