Intentional Technologies is excited to be participating at the IAUG Converge conference in Kansas City, September 22-25.
Beyond a Single Vendor: Why Converge 2025 Is About the Bigger Picture
When IT and CX leaders gather at the IAUG Converge conference this fall, the conversations won’t just be about one platform or one vendor. That’s because in today’s world, no one has the luxury of operating inside a single-vendor bubble. Customers demand seamless experiences that span contact centers, collaboration tools, unified communications, and AI-driven innovation. Delivering on that expectation requires weaving together a portfolio of best-in-class technologies into a single, intentional strategy.
That broader portfolio conversation is exactly why Converge exists, and it’s why I’m honored to be contributing to it again this year. My role with IAUG has always been about looking across the entire ecosystem, helping customers and partners make sense of where vendors overlap, where they diverge, and where real opportunities for transformation live.
Transforming Every Experience and Every Persona
I’ll be hosting a panel that builds on a theme you may have seen me write and speak about over the last year: AI for Every Experience. But this session goes further than just AI. It’s about looking at the personas across the CX and UC landscape. Whether its the customer, the agent, the supervisor, the IT leader, or the business executive, we’ll be asking: how do we innovate for each of them in ways that let them contribute meaningfully to the customer experience?
We’ll explore what transformation really looks like when it’s not just about tools but about roles: how each persona can be empowered differently, and how their combined contributions ultimately elevate the end-to-end journey.
Getting Technical: Security, Certificates, and Ecosystem Complexity
Alongside Nick Kwiatkowski from Michigan State University, I’ll also get deeply technical with a session on security certificates and how they operate within the Avaya ecosystem. Certificates often seem like a background detail, but they’re at the heart of securing communication flows in today’s hybrid multi-cloud world. Understanding their role is no longer optional, it’s critical. This session is for those who want to peel back the layers and see exactly how foundational security practices play out in enterprise deployments.
Staying Relevant in a Changing Industry
The pace of change in unified communications, collaboration, and contact centers has never been faster. That’s why I’m teaming up with Jeff Dhaenens from Volkswagen Group of America for a session on the skills you need to stay relevant in this shifting landscape. Together with Shaun Olsen from Zoom and Paul Leatherman, CTO at Communication Resources Inc., we’ll dive into both sides of the equation: the hard technical skills you need to keep pace with evolving platforms, and the softer, but equally important, skills around interviewing, presenting yourself, and demonstrating adaptability in your career.
It’s not just about learning the next technology, it’s about learning how to thrive in a world where the next technology is always around the corner.
Why This Matters
Across all of these sessions, one thread ties everything together: integration, not isolation. Whether we’re talking about empowering personas with AI, securing ecosystems with certificates, or future-proofing careers with adaptive skills, the reality is the same. Success doesn’t come from focusing narrowly on one vendor or one product. It comes from an intentional approach to the whole ecosystem.
At Intentional Technologies, it’s about delivering transformation with purpose, ensuring every change is meaningful, integrated, and aligned with the bigger mission of enhancing customer experience.
IAUG Converge is the perfect backdrop for these conversations because it reflects what the industry truly needs: a forum where practitioners can learn not just how to use today’s tools, but how to connect them, secure them, and evolve with them. I’m looking forward to the discussions, the debates, and the chance to keep pushing our community toward purposeful, ecosystem-wide transformation.