Peer-to-Peer Blog: Super Bowl and Sinful Sunday

Although it didnt feel like it, I cooked a lot this weekend. I was really up for it given that I spent the entire week traveling. Anyway, Friday consisted of pulled pork sliders done three ways: Carolina style with vinegar and hot sauce, Memphis with BBQ sauce and, my favorite, seasoned with my white seasoning mixture of salt, pepper, onion and garlic powder. Saturday was chicken with a Caesar salad and Sunday was the Super Bowl. We began the day with waffles that had slivers of cooked bacon added to the batter, very tasty and surprisingly light. The hint of bacon (one crumbled slice per four small waffles) was better than having it on the side. There was just a nice smoky flavor with each bite that complemented the maple syrup. It was a good start to the day.

It was probably twenty years ago when I came up with the idea for Sinful Sunday. Being a true son of the south, I enjoy fried food from time to time and Sinful Sunday is a day when we indulge ourselves and friends with it. So we watched the Super Bowl eating Panko crusted butterflied shrimp, Belgian fries, Buffalo wings and Teriyaki Steak. Obviously, this cannot be done more than once or twice a year and, even then, the amount consumed needs to be moderated. The Teriyaki steak was marinated whole porterhouse steak cooked under the broiler. It was served medium rare, sliced off the bone. All of the food was good but I selected the Panko Crusted Butterflied Shrimp as the recipe of the week. The waffles were a very close second. Enjoy!

Super Bowl/Super Week

It was a super week visiting LegalTech 2011 and IT Expo East 2011. Now that I am responsible for selling SIP Trunking and an advance Unified Communications (UC) solution, C4 IP, I need a better understanding of UC markets. As a major segment of our current UC customers are law firms, I spent the beginning of the week at LegalTech in New York City. Although most of the technology seemed to consist of various database and document tools, there was a lot of buzz around cloud computing. Since the C4 IP product is a cloud solution, it was not surprising to hear a spokesperson from Loeb and Loeb discussing their implementation of C4 IP. What was surprising was the cost savings analysis. Judi Flournoy, chief information officer, noted that they estimated the equipment cost of a solution equivalent to C4 IP solution at $2.4 million dollars. However, by purchasing from Cypress their monthly expense was just $92,000. Thats incredible when you also consider there was no need for new IT personnel, maintenance fees or operating cost (HVAC).  I left LegalTech with a better appreciation for the value C4 IP delivers.

At IT Expo in Miami, Broadvox exhibited, spoke and gave interviews. IT Expo continues to be a venue where we meet and strategize with our current partners and establish new relationships. This was also the first conference where Broadvox and Cypress Communications exhibited together. Therefore, it was very appropriate for Frank Grillo, EVP Product Marketing and Implementation Services, and me to give an interview discussing the merger of the two companies with TMCnet. Frank and I give our opinions on the why, how and future of the Broadvox during this video interview.

David Byrd is vice president of marketing and sales for

Broadvox

, and is responsible for marketing and channel sales programs to SMBs, enterprises and carriers as well as defining the product offering. Prior to joining Broadvox, David was the vice president of Channels and Alliances for Eftia and Telcordia. As director of eBusiness Development with i2 Technologies, he developed major partnerships with many of the leaders in Internet eCommerce and supply chain management. As CEO of Planet Hollywood Online he was a pioneer in using early Internet technologies to build a branded entertainment and eCommerce website company partnered with Planet Hollywood. Having over 20 years of telecom sales and marketing experience, he has held executive positions with Hewlett-Packard, Sprint and Ericsson.