The future of work is hybrid – and so was the return of our annual GX Summit!
It had been a long time coming but we finally got to greet customers face-to-face at The British Library this month when we welcomed the return of the GX Summit. Technology implementation and adoption has proved a lifeline during lockdown, and birthed new ways of working for thousands of businesses, but what comes next?
GX Summit 2021’s Frontiers theme explored the new frontiers of digital change, as organisations look to displace legacy technology to support new ways of working. With speakers focusing on the future trends and technology that is set to impact our customers, there was no danger of ‘spacing out’.
Out of this world sessions
The auditorium was packed for our insightful sessions which touched upon how the right collaboration and customer contact tools are essential as businesses continue to transform their digital strategies to accommodate hybrid working. Guests got to hear exciting talks from experts across the industry and had their mind’s blown by the nation’s favourite physicist, professor Brian Cox, who gave us all an exclusive peek into his most recent research, the fascinating world of black holes.
Nothing was set to eclipse the professor, who is frequently labelled a ‘rock star scientist’ and has made science engaging and accessible to millions of people. On the day, keen eyes will have spotted more than one star in our midst. The Guardians of the Galaxy, rather – our sales heads and colleagues, adorned the film’s leading outfits to really bring the space theme to life.
Engage with the experts
Stepping away from solar systems, guest speakers including Laurence Malthouse, Gamma’s Enterprise Sales Director, engaged with guests over why the modern workplace needs modern network foundations to underpin it. Malthouse explained that it’s not just about the right cloud support services, it’s about the service and stack and how they can deliver complete service assurance.
Richard McPhee, CTO at Exactive – a Gamma company, presented on what a transformative year it has been for Microsoft Teams. McPhee was virtually joined by Brigid Mansfield, Product Marketing Manager, and Peter Woodhams, Teams Technical Specialist at Microsoft. The session explored the recent seismic shift in the UCaaS market and the exciting launch of Operator Connect – a game-changing programme from Microsoft that includes Gamma as one of its select few operators.
We were thrilled to have Carlo Melis, Chief Network Officer at Three UK, speak about our recently launched business-only Mobile service and Three’s network investments. Melis touched upon Three’s evolution to business-grade voice and unpacked 5G’s practical applications in a data-driven future.
Gamma’s Chief Marketing and Product Officer, Chris Wade, detailed the intense stress-testing that SMEs and their communication and connection setups have faced in the recent turbulent months. But voice is not lost. In fact, its core capabilities are being extended to suit changing customer needs and the modern working world. The requirement for a robust and resilient voice solution is growing, Chris explained.
Hybrid customer experience
The GX Summit is all about customer experience and we knew this year was set to be an exciting show for all. With that in mind, we didn’t want anybody to miss out. For those unable to attend in person but not wanting to miss out on the action, we streamed the key sessions live to into their home offices, kitchens or chosen workspaces.
The live streams allowed us to reach more customers than ever before, including those in varied sectors such as central government, education, finance and retail.
Sales Director for Direct, Alex Ayers explained why working at Gamma makes you feel like more than just a provider: “The clue is in the name, GX. We like to make it an experience. We like to have some fun.
“There’s so much choice for customers at the moment. It’s important that we go that extra yard to help guide those customers through the universe to help them make confident purchases and distil what’s the right tech, the right communication and collaboration services and the right partners to work with,”
Alex continued by saying that, at times, you feel like a real-life Guardian of the Galaxy: “What we’ve seen in the last 18 months is a massive acceleration of what we’ve already been doing. What we also see is that a lot of customers still have a lot of on-premise equipment that is holding them back.
“It’s been seven years of transformation within months. We now know that we can’t go back and it’s our duty as a service provider to get our customers connected to that journey. There’s only one question left unanswered; where will our Guardians go next?”
But don’t just take our word for it…
Following the event, we asked our attendees to let us know their thoughts on how things went. Here’s what they had to say:
- 100% rated Brian Cox’s keynote as excellent
- 100% rated the location as excellent
- 86% rated the quality of the sessions as excellent
“A really great day from start to finish.”
“Good insightful event at a great venue with great people. Very good!”
“We appreciate the time that you all spent with us. Thanks again for continuously supporting our technology vision/requirements.”
Missed the event? Fear not. You can catch up on all the sessions here.
