Well, IMTC 2025 Virtual Forum has come to an end. What an event. I’ve done a lot of events in my time, and none quite like this. I’ve even attended “virtual events that consisted of uploading a logo and some documentation while sitting on my computer logged into the integrated event chat, waiting for someone to “visit” from his office. I would see a little notification pop up on my screen stating “Person X has arrived in your booth”.

IMTC 2025 was nothing like that. To say it was an impressive and successful undertaking is an understatement – a lot of it can be attributed to Pravda Media who took care of the event from beginning to end.

A screenshot of SCOPIA Desktop during the event – this is what panelists used and saw in front of them

So, what did I learn?

• A truly “virtual” event consists of platforms that are robust
• Interaction between presenters and audience members can enhance the experience of a virtual event for everyone
• Collaboration (before and during the event), and exchange of views by relevant experts, can be done in a far better way than just chatting

IMTC 2025 certainly brought all of this together.

The Infrastructure

Let’s start with the platforms: RADVISION provided the live collaboration mechanism: SCOPIA Desktop, our desktop conferencing application, sitting on top of the SCOPIA Elite MCU enabled all the presenters, room moderators and technical staff to be in a virtual conference room.

Where were all of these people located? Everywhere! There were people in New Jersey, California, Israel, Italy, etc. They were connected from their offices, homes, or hotels. They connected with their PCs, Macs, standard H.323 endpoints or telephones. And they were all seeing each other, hearing each other, sharing presentations and interacting with each other.

As one gentleman said: “It was like we were all in the same room having a conversation.” Another gentleman said: “This was better than a historical live event. Track sessions there are too formal and stiff. Here, everyone was relaxed, having real back-and-forth conversations.”

In order to have video for this event, everyone needed webcams. Thanks to LifeSize, each presenter was supplied with a Logitech 9000. Personally, it is my webcam of choice. It allows for High Definition video, is easy to install, and it just plainly works.

The audience was made up of over 600 viewers. With Livestream as the streaming application, all 600 were able to watch the live stream throughout the day. The event was made up of not only live sessions, but also prerecorded videos. And Livestream was able to provide the streaming mechanism with ease.

And then there is the audience/presenters interaction. With such basic and innovative of communicating, IMTC 2025 attendees had the ability to ask questions via email, chat, Facebook and Twitter. Seeing that the topics for IMTC 2025 focused on where technology is going, it was fascinating to have communication based on what we have had for decades and brand new leading edge applications as the mechanism.

The Content

If you’ve read this post to this point, you are probably saying: “Great, but what about the event itself?” And you’re right. It’s time to discuss the event. There were two jam-packed days of interesting and fun topics on what the future holds for us. Two of my favorites were:

The Role of Virtual Worlds in Business Situations

I think I’m a pretty technically savvy person, but the idea of a Virtual World has passed me by. I am not a gamer. I don’t have an avatar. Heck, I barely shop online. (I like to touch everything I am buying.) Apparently, there is a whole world out there…a virtual world. Video conferencing I understand. I sit in my office. You sit in yours. We meet. Now you add in the virtual world. My avatar can come to your virtual office and shake your avatar’s hand. And then we can discuss whatever it is we need, over a cup of virtual coffee. Does this mean I can not only wear flannel pants with a cashmere sweater and my hair done nicely (video conferencing can focus from the waist up), but now I can wear flannel pants, a sweatshirt, and my Red Sox hat during meetings? I kind of like that idea.

Online Collaboration and Online Innovation

Again, I get the current collaboration technologies. I get that I can communicate with anyone, from anywhere. I get that people can post what they are doing at every moment of every day to whoever will read it (I’ll be honest, I don’t fully get pleasure out of this. I don’t think people care that I am sitting at my desk right now writing this post. But hey, who am I to judge.) But where is collaboration moving? As one of the speakers, Bob Romano, mentioned – collaboration started with the phone and has now moved to web and video conferencing. Today, everyone has powerful computers, inexpensive, but amazing webcams, and bandwidth coming out of their ears (that last one is me paraphrasing J). – But what will tomorrow bring? I got a little nervous, but it peaked my interest. One day, will people know that I’ve just walked into Book Store X, and am looking at Book Y? They will. We are going from knowing what everyone is doing based on what they choose to publish, to knowing what everyone is doing based on what they are doing.  I’m not sure I like this, but I guess in order to make my work life more convenient… knowing that my boss is in a meeting on the 9^th floor with Person X, Y and Z and can’t be bothered, but when he leaves the meeting I can pick up the phone and call him… I will have to accept that my personal life may be inconvenienced. If I remember correctly, “a tag cloud world” was referenced. If we move this way, please don’t tag me.

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This is a re-post of laurie’s original note, located at “VoIP Survivor” – a blog of Tsahi Levent–Levi, part of Radvision’s blog network.

If you did not get a chance to see the live event, please visit http://2025.imtc.org/live-event/ to watch the recorded stream. I’m sure your eyes will open as much as mine did.

Laurie Berg, Marketing Manager for RADVISION, has been in the Online Conferencing industry for 10 years. Starting as a QA Engineer at CUSeeME and First Virtual Communications, she moved to Marketing after completing her MBA from Northeastern. An avid user of online technologies, Laurie has rarely worked with a team that is not located in all parts of the world.