The internet, mobile devices, and social media are having such a profound effect on the way people acquire and share information that it’s changing the course of history. From the latest U.S. presidential and congressional shifts to political unrest in the Middle East, an inescapable truth has emerged: People want to be heard and they want the governments and organizations that serve them to respond to their needs. Failing to do so, as recent events have shown, can inspire a severe backlash that threatens a change in leadership and government stability. Drawing on his extensive political experience and acumen, David Gergen will explain why this is happening and how businesses can avoid the mistakes of government leaders.

New mobile devices are dramatically changing how customers interact with businesses. This panel of industry experts describes what new applications will be supported on mobile devices, discusses how speech technologies will be used by these applications, and describes how voice user interfaces will be integrated with graphical user interfaces. Will users embrace voice as they have embraced keypads on mobile devices? Are speech recognition and natural language processing able to process user speech into mobile devices? Will speech-enabled mobile applications replace IVR applications? Learn the answers to these questions and more during this keynote panel.

With the IVR market becoming saturated, industry consolidation, and the remaining customer distaste for automated IVR systems, what’s needed to move the speech industry forward? Speech technology holds the promise of enabling customers and businesses to connect in a timely, effective, and engaging manner, but how can businesses achieve this goal? The hard reality is that the industry must embrace change or become obsolete. The days of separate voice-only and visual-only interactions are gone. An organization must enable customers to get the same information via any channel (IVR, web, mobile applications, social networks, or face-to-face interaction) and enable them to switch channels seamlessly without losing information. This closing keynote presentation reviews the best ideas presented at the conference and adds suggestions for how to improve the interaction between customers and businesses in this smartphone age.