ICMI's newly re-branded Contact Center Expo and Conference came to my hometown of San Diego last week. More than 1,500 contact center professionals were in attendance to network, learn, and share ideas.

This conference was particularly important to me since I was a newly minted member of ICMI’s Advisory Board. This group is responsible for advising ICMI on the conference content. The Contact Center Expo and Conference was the first event I had been a part of.

Here’s a re-cap of some of the conference highlights along with links to additional resources.

Conference Overview

You may want to start by familiarizing yourself with the conference if you didn’t attend.

• Twitter Backchannel (Tip: you don't need a Twitter account to view the conversation)
• Conference Overview
• Session Descriptions 

ICMI’s Erica Strother also put together an excellent daily re-cap of the conference:

• #CCExpo14 Insider: Day 1
• #CCExpo14 Insider: Day 2
• #CCExpo14 Insider: Day 3

A special thank you is also due to Voiance Language Services for giving away copies of my book, Service Failure, in the Expo Hall. 

Conference Highlights

There were a few aspects of the conference that really stood out.

Matt Dixon’s Keynote

The third day of the conference kicked off with an outstanding keynote presentation from Matt Dixon from CEB. 

In his keynote, Dixon shared compelling research from his new book, The Effortless Experience. Dixon suggested that preventing service failures was better a customer service strategy than delighting customers. That's because negative service had nearly 4 times the impact on loyalty than outstanding service.

Thought Leader Panels

These were short, 20 minute panel discussions in the Expo hall. This popular feature was a hit at last year’s conference and I’m glad ICMI brought them back. It was a great way to get insight on a particular topic from a cross-section of experts and then network with them immediately afterwards. 

Look for ICMI to post videos of each panel discussion on their YouTube channel in the coming weeks.

Contact Center Awards

ICMI hosted the second annual Contact Center Awards banquet at the conference. The awards recognized excellence in a broad array of categories, ranging from best contact center agent to contact center of the year. 

I had the honor of being one of the judges for the Best Contact Center Supervisor award. It was great to be on hand when Brock Faucette from the AICPA heard his name called.

Will you be there next year?

The conference will be in Orlando, FL next year May 4 - 7. My calendar is already marked!