Meetings are now free to attend.

The Contact Center AI Association is a non-profit org with a single metric for success:

The number of contact center and CX leaders that regularly gather in person to exchange ideas on how to improve customer experience with AI. 

Therefore, the Association strives to do three things very well:

1. Host meetings where in-house leaders exchange ideas;

2. Ensure each meeting is full of valuable information; and

3. Remove all barriers to attendance.

In our effort to remove barriers to attend, we have decided to make the meetings free. It’s free for both in-house leaders and vendors.

Most organizations generate revenue by charging vendors large sums to attend events. We avoid that approach because it puts pressure on vendors to sell their products and services at the event.

The Contact Center AI Association takes a different approach to involving vendors. We recognize that vendors can bring remarkable value to topics of discussion within their area of expertise.

Therefore, we give the contact center and CX leaders at our chapter meetings the power to hand-pick which vendors they want to attend. They make selections based on who they believe will bring the most value to the topic of discussion.

For context, we average around three dozen vendors requesting to attend our meetings. The in-house leaders typically invite one or two vendors to attend. The vendors that are invited attend for free. And they are made aware that the meeting is a place for education, not sales.

Receive up to $500 reimbursement for travel costs.

We have also begun reimbursing travel expenses as another initiative to remove barriers to attendance. Leaders can obtain a $250 reimbursement for flights and another $250 reimbursement for hotel stays.

In exchange for each $250 reimbursement, the leader agrees to meet on a 30-minute zoom call with a sponsoring vendor. The leader gets to choose the category of products or services they are most interested in learning more about. Matching in this manner increases value for both the leader and the vendor.

If you are with an AI vendor that’s interested in sponsoring flights, hotels stays, or dinners for contact center leaders, you can find more information here: https://ccaia.org/sponsor-1

The Q2 NYC Meeting is on June 28.

On June 28, a group of contact center and CX leaders are gathering for a boardroom style meeting in NYC to discuss which AI tools they are building internally, which ones they are buying off the shelf, and the reasons behind their decisions.
 
It’s a closed-door meeting. No recording or broadcast will be made. It’s an environment where leaders can be transparent and exchange ideas.

Chafik Abdellaoui is going to help lead the discussion by sharing insights from his experience building AI tools internally for their sales operation at Autodesk.

Etienne Bernard is going to share insights from his deep technical expertise. Etienne has a Ph.D. & postdoc in statistical physics and wrote the textbook "Introduction to Machine Learning."

Michael Mattson (from Travelers) and Marisa Claire Smith (from Angi) are also going to help facilitate the discussion.

We are meeting in the corporate office of a participating company in the Meatpacking District of Manhattan. The location is disclosed in the invitation.

The meeting is from 3:30-5:30pm. Afterwards, the group is walking a few blocks to a nice Italian restaurant. The meal will be paid for by a sponsoring vendor.

If you are interested in attending, simply reply to this email and we’ll point you in the right direction.

Did someone forward this email to you?
Click the “Subscribe” button, below.