It is difficult to say what was the single most interesting take-away of the event. From the plethora of great new technology on the show floor, including our best in show winners, to StartupCamp9, the M2M Battle of the Platforms, updates on where we are with SDN and NFV (we are making progress on both) and the sessions of ITEXPO and all of the collocated events, let's just say there was a lot to see and hear.

As ITEXPO came to a close in Las Vegas this week, it seemed like a good idea to pick up on what I saw at the start of the show as a powerful theme that is sweeping virtually (literally and figuratively) almost every aspect of ICT as we move to an increasingly more software-centric and driven world. That theme is loosely stated as, "the power and wisdom of the crowd" and the driving force behind how we can move ahead.

Phone numbers are far from dead, but there's a lot that could be done to add value to the traditional telephone numbering system.

In short, two great opportunities that are aimed at totally different but growing markets, and two companies to keep an eye. Congratulations to the winners.

TMCnet had the chance to speak with Aruba Networks CTO Husnain Bajwa to hear more about the thought leader's take on ITEXPO which took place this week in Las Vegas, and what the future in the space may hold.

What is content marketing? How does it work? How can a business implement an effective content marketing strategy? These were just a few of the questions the panel at the "Be All in With Content Marketing" keynote tackled Thursday morning at ITEXPO.

It's time to think beyond the basics and to travel further than technology. This was the message relayed by AT&T's VP of advanced mobility solutions Mike Troiano during a special keynote presentation on day four-the final day-of ITEXPO 2014, taking place at the Rio in Las Vegas.

ITEXPO attendees got a real treat this week in sunny Las Vegas when a fully autonomous robot started making his way down the hallways and exhibit floor space, mingling effortlessly with show goers. Startling some-but intriguing most-this robot, created by iRobot, was certainly worthy of buzz during this week's show.

Ashar Baig, a research director at the well-respected analysis firm Gigaom, today at ITEXPO offered his perspective on the future (and the recent past) of cloud services.

IT staffs at organizations tend to think of themselves as support teams. Instead, they need to look at things through a different lens and consider what they can be doing to drive the business at large forward.

Call recording gained ground in the call center arena as a way for organizations to capture calls so they could assess where agents might benefit from additional training. But the opportunities for call recording continue to expand both within the contact center and beyond, as more businesses aim to collect, store, and analyze what goes on during their real-time interactions with customers.

We are into the second day of ITEXPO in Las Vegas and no matter which of the incredibly diverse set of industry sessions one is fortunate enough to listen to and participate in-ranging from the Internet of Things (IoT) to SDN and NFV to Unified Communications (UC) and much more-a theme is beginning to emerge. It interestingly cuts across them all. It is simply that communities of interest can literally move mountains and markets. In short, crowd power can be a game changer.

The wrap-up keynote session of Day 2 of ITEXPO in Las Vegas was in a word, "scintillating," where TMCnet Group Editorial Director Erik Linask led a discussion on topics of intense interest.

As Richardson explained during an ITEXPO panel Wednesday titled "Leading Change: Taking Your Business and Technology in the Next Generation," IBM spends a lot of time interacting with different business executives, exploring the concept of adoption and change management, especially as it relates to technology.

When you hear that a company is in the business of providing cloud-based services, you don't typically expect to pull up its website and be greeted with a picture of a heavily tattooed young lady sporting sunglasses and a carefree smile smack in the middle of the homepage.

Even though spending on cloud services could total more than $180 billion by 2015-and more than 60 percent of businesses utilize cloud for performing IT-related operations-there are still a number of mistakes that companies make when migrating to the cloud. In fact, such was the topic of today's ITEXPO West 2014 panel appropriately titled, "Top Five Mistakes Businesses Make When Going Cloud."

If you've been hearing a lot about WebRTC recently, you are certainly not alone. The technology, a free, open project that enables Web browsers with Real-Time Communications (RTC) capabilities through JavaScript APIs-is being talked about breathlessly in technology circles.

Today's businesses face increasing challenges for customer engagement and service, as consumers expect excellence across all channels. But before businesses tackle these new obstacles, it's important to understand exactly what service-level expectations exist in today's market.