The Call Center editorial team is going to be travelling to Orlando next week to participate in this year's Call Center Demo Conference. For my part, I'll be on an exciting panel called 60 Ideas in 60 Minutes with three other industry luminaries (Greg Levin, Jay Minucci and Gerry Barber).

Each of us will present 15 ideas for making the call center more effective - ideas that you can implement right away, sometimes without much cost. I've seen the ideas that the other three gentlemen are bringing: bring extra pens and paper cause there's so much knowledge gonna happen in that room you're gonna want to take good good notes. That panel is taking place next Tuesday (5/16) at 1:15 pm.

Here's one of my ideas that has particular relevance in a trade show context:

Idea #15: When talking to a vendor, ask them this: "What specific experience do you personally have in your past that makes me think I can trust you to understand my call center problems. Did you work in a call center?" You'll probably be surprised by the answers you get.

There's 59 more to come.