VoIP Guys 2014 Roadshow Review

VoIP Made in Germany 2014 Roadshow - The Review

2,000 kilometres on the road, 4 Nights, 4 different hotels and 3 cities, all followed up by the release of the pascom phone system version 7.08 - That can only mean that The VoIP guys were on tour during their first ever VoIP made in Germany Roadshow and what a week it was.

Together with our partners from the VoIP industry, snom Technology AG, beroNet GmbH, StentonfonBaudisch and HFO Telecom, pascom took the pascom phone system on the road in the form of Roadshow Workshop events in Berlin, Cologne and Frankfurt. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our guests for taking the time to come and visit us during our 2014 Roadshow. We know some of you travelled from far and wide, had to put up with train strikes and horrible traffic jams - so a massive thank you and we look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Check out our Roadshow presentations on SlideShare and find more event photos on our Pinterest Page.

So we kicked of the event in style in Berlin at the headquarters of snom Technology who as usual were excellent hosts. For our first attempt at a Roadshow, we could not have expected a better start, despite it being a Monday, which we all know is a rubbish day for most people. Our guests were treated to a near perfect display during the Dangerous Demo as well as having their chance at an open QA session. During the event, we also got some great feedback from one of our partners concerning new Asterisk Video Tutorial Series a along with our VoIP Guys blog articles. It’s always nice to get positive feedback - so thanks!

One of the main highlights of the day was the Dangerous Demo, which as you will notice when you read on, is to become a recurring theme. During the demo, Mathias put his co-presenters under enormous pressure by deliberately disturbing and distracting them during the show.

Today, Mathias somehow managed to distract Christian Richter beroNet GmbH enough that he forgot to save his configurations. Mathias then tried to make things worse by challenging Christian to reconfigure the the pascom phone system beroNet appliance within 30 seconds, much to the amusement of our guests. To our amazement, Christian actually did it, stating “it’s simple when you know how” - so well played Christian.

After Berlin, we moved onto Cologne where after a 6 hour journey, some of us were lucky enough to get some sight-seeing done. If you’ve never seen the Cologne Cathedral - you really should go, it’s impressive to say the least. On Wednesday morning, we all woke to the news that there was a train strike, which did not bode well for the day. But we needn’t have worried. Despite the strike and excellent weather outside, we were full to the rafters. In today’s dangerous demo, Christian got his own back on Mathias, by highlight the fact that it was Mathias’ fault that things weren’t going quite to plan. Mathias then decided to exact revenge on his next “victim”, Xenios Maroudas from StentofonBaudisch. Xenios looked a bit shell-shocked at times as Mathias deliberately saboutaged his demo. Just happy Xenios has a sense of humour and took on the chin in the name of good fun.

So on to Frankfurt. After an early morning start, we all arrived safe and sound in Maintal to setup for the final day. By now our team of merry VoIPers were seasoned pros with the setup process, so it took next to now time at all. That meant we were able to enjoy a well earnt coffee break before our guests arrived. During his presentation, Xenios decided to mix things up a littl bit, much to everyones amusement. Carrying his Intercom System through the crowd so he had something to lean on, lots of visual props etc where just what the doctor ordered after listening to the same presentations all week.

As I mentioned before, the dangerous demo would become a recurring theme. Well today, after practicing all week, our presenters able to keep up with Mathias and prevent him from ruining their presentations too much. That does not mean that Mathias didn’t have any fun with his tricks, only that Christian and Xenios where well prepared to deal with his antics. My only regret from the Roadshow, is that I didn’t bring a Tripod with me, so I could have filmed these demos. But then I guess you had to be there!

But what made the demos dangerous you may ask? Well firstly, we had never integrated all the different VoIP technology in one go “Live” before - and we all know how these things can turn out. Secondly, for certain aspects, we really didn’t know if they would actually work as we were using networks that we had no control over and had absolutely no idea how they were actually setup with firewalls etc. Thirdly, HFO Telecom are a new partner and the integration of their VoIP Trunks is in the beta stages and hadn’t been tested Live before. The fourth and perhaps most dangerous factor - Mathias. Being CEO means he doesn’t get to come out to play very much. So when he does, you’d better watch out.

All in all, we had an excellent week away and thoroughly enjoyed meeting and getting to know you all. So thanks once again for coming and making the event worthwhile. It is much appreciated not only by us, but also all our VoIP guys partners. Speaking of partners - I would like to especially thank Heike and Christian (Rapp) from Snom for all their support and hardwork during the organisation phases. I would also like to thank Christian (Richter - beroNet) for doing such a wonderful job in organising Cologne. Last but by no means least, a massive thanks to Xenios (StentofonBaudisch) for providing such wonderful entertainment and being a good sport putting up with all our jokes.

Was great to have you all there - until next time, happy VoIPing.