Mr. Margerum joined Plantronics in 1994 as Vice President of Marketing and was promoted in 1996 to President and General Manager of the Computer and Mobile Systems Group. In 1997, he left Plantronics to become President and CEO of Euphonix, Inc., a public company in the high-end audio equipment space. In 2000, he re-joined Plantronics and in 2004 became Vice President of Strategy and Business Development and in 2008, he was named Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining Plantronics, from 1989 to 1994, Mr. Margerum was CEO of Mitem Corporation, a middleware software company. From 1980 to 1989, he was Vice President of Marketing for GRiD Systems Corporation, a laptop computer manufacturer, where he held a variety of marketing and sales positions. Mr. Margerum also worked for Apple, Inc. and IBM Corporation.

Mr. Margerum holds a Bachelor of Science in Engineering from Princeton University and a Master of Business Administration from Stanford University. 

Visit Barry Margerum's Company, Plantronics

Bill Durr serves as principal global solutions consultant for Verint® Witness Actionable Solutions®, a leading provider of analytics-driven workforce optimization (WFO) software and services for contact center, branch and remote office, and back-office operations environments. 

As an industry veteran, Bill has held a variety of sales, marketing and management roles for major contact center vendors and worked as a consultant for centers challenged with meeting their performance objectives. With more than 25 years in the market, he has practical experience with ACD systems, interactive voice response solutions, network routing software, and the technology segments that comprise workforce optimization, including workforce management.

An author of numerous articles and whitepapers on contact center technology and management, he also has published three books: Building a World-Class Inbound Call Center, focused on a management process for call centers that drives productivity and quality; Navigating the Customer Contact Center in the 21st Century, focused on clarified technologies used in multimedia centers and updated management processes that include email and web support metrics; and Customer Centricity Through Workforce Optimization, focused on how to transform the workforce, maximize a contact center’s most value resources – its people – and propel center performance to the next level.

Visit Bill Durr's Company, Verint Witness Actionable Solutions

As Vice President of Voice and Applications Solutions at Siemens Enterprise Communications, Diane leads the technical pre-sales organization responsible for supporting direct and indirect field sales and driving innovative customer solutions.  Siemens is a premier provider of end-to-end enterprise communications, including voice, network infrastructure and security solutions that use open, standards-based architectures to unify communications and business applications for a seamless collaboration experience. Diane has led field sales and operational teams as VP/GM of Sales, Director of Pre-Sales, Director of Inside and Services Sales, Vertical Sales Manager, Sales Manager, Region Operations Manager, and SE Manager for over 25 years. Diane has represented Siemens as a speaker in various customer forums. Diane and her team are dedicated to developing the best solutions to advance customers’ business through the implementation of voice and application solutions. Diane resides in Pittsburgh and holds an honors degree in Business Communications from Penn State University. 

Visit Diane Salvatora's Company, Siemens Enterprise Communications

Hardy Myers is the President & CEO of Applied Voice & Speech Technologies, Inc. (AVST). Since September 2003, when he assumed this leadership position, AVST's software solution, CallXpress®, has become the premier enterprise communications platform designed to facilitate the migration from legacy TDM call processing and voice mail solutions to new IP-enabled unified communications solutions, delivering the interoperability, scalability, feature flexibility and administrative capabilities enterprise IT and Telecom teams are demanding. Over the past 20 years, in addition to leading AVST, Mr. Myers has held senior management positions with emerging private and public companies in the telecommunications, automotive, aerospace and defense market sectors with a primary focus on building organizations and raising the capital necessary to capitalize on the growth opportunities in a given market. Mr. Myers holds a B.S. in Business Administration from Georgetown University. 

Visit Hardy Myers's Company, AVST

Joseph A. Staples serves as chief marketing officer for Interactive Intelligence. He oversees the global marketing efforts of the company's award winning contact center and IP communication product lines. He brings 25+ years of experience in technology and marketing to Interactive Intelligence, including specific assignments in the areas of computer telephony, unified messaging, mobile wireless, computer networking, and computer-based education.

Joe is an accomplished presenter and has had a number of articles published in trade magazines on various communication subjects. He was named Novell employee of the year in 1990, was named a Star of the Industry by Computer Telephony Magazine in 1993, and was presented a Lifetime Achievement Award by Customer Interaction Solutions Magazine in 2006.

Visit Joe Staples's Company, Interactive Intelligence

Seamus Hourihan, who first coined the term “session border control,” has driven industry recognition of the critical importance of the new product category created by Acme Packet. He is a prolific speaker on the conference and tradeshow circuit and is the author of several networking guidebooks and numerous articles. Recently, Seamus was recognized by Internet Telephony magazine as one of the “Top 100 Voices of IP Communications.”

Seamus brings over 25 years of experience to Acme Packet in executive management, marketing, product management and business development roles at voice over IP, IP networking, web infrastructure and computer companies. Seamus was vice president of marketing for internetworking leader Wellfleet and, after its merger with Synoptics, Bay Networks (now Nortel) for nearly seven years. During his tenure, annual revenue grew from $10 million to $2 billion and Inc. recognized Wellfleet as “America’s Fastest Growing Company” for two consecutive years. More recently, Seamus was vice president of marketing for Pingtel, widely recognized as a leader in SIP products and technology.  Seamus holds an AB degree from Dartmouth College and an MBA from Babson College.

Visit Seamus Hourihan's Company, Acme Packet

Talbot Harty brings more than 20 years of broad industry experience and is responsible for both the company’s overall product strategy and its information technology strategy.  As an experienced CIO with a history of multi-role executive responsibilities, Mr. Harty provides a unique combination of experience that aligns NET’s product development initiatives closely with his business insights and IT customer requirements.  Mr. Harty joined NET in November, 2003 and has previously held a number of executive positions for the company, including CIO, VP of Marketing, General Manager of Voice and Mobility Solutions. 

Last year, Talbot assumed the dual role of CDO and CIO. Prior to NET, he served as Vice President of Product Development at Perfect Commerce, a provider of on-demand supplier relationship management solutions. From 2000 to 2001, he served as Vice President of Product Marketing at Mobileum (now Roamware), a mobile application platform company and held senior management and executive level positions in information technology, operations, and research and development at a number of high-tech companies in the Silicon Valley, including iPrint Technologies, General Magic, NEC Electronics, Newbridge Networks and UB Networks. Talbot is a graduate of Phoenix Institute of Technology and is considered an industry expert in workflow and collaboration applications design.  Mr. Harty is also an active advisor for a number of start-up companies.

Visit Talbot Harty's Company, NET

Tracy Venters is the Director of Marketing for Aastra USA. In this role, Tracy is responsible for all aspects of marketing, analyst relations and consultant relations for Aastra in the United States. Tracy brings with her a wealth of experience in IP Communications. She has held several senior level roles at companies ranging from Fortune 500 corporations to early stage startups. These companies included Nortel, Telecom Technologies, Sonus Networks, Tekvizion, Intel and Town Crier Marketing Group. She has also worked as a consultant to a number of companies, specializing in start-up and new business initiatives. Tracy has been a frequent speaker, a resource to the media including on-camera, radio and print media interviews, and has published a number of papers and articles. Tracy earned a master's degree in computer science, and a summa cum laude bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Texas, Dallas. 

Visit Tracy Venters's Company, Aastra USA