Back in New York! Totally forgot that flights from Orlando are always 70%-occupied by small children and screaming babies. The whole flight was like a big tribal gathering, complete with shouting and the sounds of kids playing with their newest toys. Yeah. I’m glad to be back in New York. So, let’s get rolling on what was arguably the biggest presentation at VoiceCon. Cisco wrangled in Al Gore to participate in a live meeting with other panelists via Cisco’s TelePresence product. What is TelePresence? It’s a fancy word for videoconferencing! Gore was in Nashville, Cisco president & CEO John Chamber was in California, and there was also a British reporter in London involved. Each of these panelists was projected on to a TV set in the VoiceCon keynote room. Three big talking heads in one room! It was hard to contain my joy.

All criticism aside, Cisco gets major props for doing something the other keynotes didn’t — they not only showed how their technology worked, but tied it in to their presentation’s title, “Climate Change and Technology Innovation.” Rather than fly all three panelists in to Orlando, they saved major bad-carbon by using TelePresence to conduct the panel. The picture was extremely clear, never broke up, and it was easy to hear everyone. A little piece of my cold, black heart melted. The company’s main point: using videoconferencing not only saves travel expenses, but allows a company to use technology as part of a green initiative. Nevermind the fact that one session I attended said videoconferencing creates the “appearance” that your company has a green program (the “appearance” — surely you can do better than that).

So, major ups to Cisco’s Sue Bostrom for being one of the most well-spoken presenters at VoiceCon - she was also the ONLY female keynote speaker - and gave a clear speech without sounding like a well-trained robot. You go, girl. An illustrated wrap-up follows after the jump!

What else can I say — VoiceCon’s Flickr album basically sums it all up. And, now, friends — here’s what I saw, in photo format. The first day, I heard Avaya’s Lou D’Ambrosio get super-psyched about presence! Check out the color coordination with Avaya’s logo! Bonus: Lou even matched his tie!

Then, Gurdeep Singh-Pall talked a lot about Microsoft’s partnerships, OCS, and kind of took shots at Avaya, which, as you know, made me sad. Bonus: Gurdeep looks super-sharp.

OMG — IBM’s Michael Rhodin! Babel Bridge! I think I have a total virtual-world crush on this company. PS, according to this blog, Babel Bridge is the project’s CODENAME. This is so cool! Bonus: Michael totally gesticulated during the whole speech.

Sue Bostrom gets all environmental with Al Gore, and two panelists who are not Al Gore. Bonus: Sue’s awesome shoes.

OK — random shot, but I met the guy in the middle of this photo during lunch. His name is Krishna Kurapti, and is the head honcho at a security/voice biometrics company called Sipera Systems. Check out their site for more info Bonus: Super-nice guys!