Transforming Meeting Spaces for Meaningful Connections – The Six Five On The Road

Patrick Moorhead: The Six Five is on the road, here in Las Vegas at HP Amplify 2024 event. Dan, two headlines, hybrid work and making it better with AI, delivered with solutions with partners. Did that encapsulate it?

Daniel Newman: Yeah, it’s four.

Patrick Moorhead: Okay.

Daniel Newman: But two, four. Look, the beauty of being an analyst, is as long as you keep it loose, right?

Patrick Moorhead: Sure.

Daniel Newman: So, there’s about two, big trends going on here and then we-

Patrick Moorhead: Approximately.

Daniel Newman: … And then we list four.

Patrick Moorhead: Sure.

Daniel Newman: But I think what you said is really important. That the crux of it is, that of course, hybrid work is evolving. AI has this very left to right. Our summits going to be AI unleashed, and you could get the sense here at HP Amplify, that it’s all about unleashing the power of AI. And then of course you’ve got the partners and you’ve got the experiences. These partners, they want to drive more growth. They want to drive more margin. They want to drive more profit, and the more they can drive that with experiences, the easier it’s going to be for them to grow and succeed.

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah, and hybrid is funny. Technically, hybrid can mean wherever people are most productive. It can be in the office, it can be at their home, and everything in between. But as employees started coming back into work, they recognized that, oh my gosh, our meeting rooms are not that great. So, let’s do the double click on that. Introduce our guest, Helen, great to see you.

Helen Sheirbon: Great to see you, great to be here.

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah. It was great to have dinner with you last night, just to continue this conversation. Welcome to Six Five.

Helen Sheirbon: Thank you very much. It’s awesome to be here.

Daniel Newman: Yeah, it’s really interesting, Pat, that you sort of started to bring that up. I was thinking about that. You can do hybrid work while everybody’s actually in the same space. For instance, I mean, you could be in the same office and you can be on different floors.

Patrick Moorhead: Well, you might have one person outside, right, or on different floors. Yeah.

Daniel Newman: You could be… some people could be wired in. You could have an inclusivity thing, where somebody’s using a different type of visual.

Patrick Moorhead: Right.

Daniel Newman: And so, hybrid can mean a lot of things. I think we’ve sort of all taken it to mean remote, and that’s not what it means.

Patrick Moorhead: That’s right.

Daniel Newman: But, it sounds like you, Helen, in this new role, and welcome to the HP team. You’re thinking a lot about these spaces and hybrid spaces, and the future of hybrid spaces. Curious, how you’re thinking about driving collaboration and inclusivity into these rooms, and how you, and your role are really leading that?

Helen Sheirbon: Yeah, well. So, I would say the biggest challenge we have in collaboration, is that the technology takes over. Like you were saying, you can collaborate from the same space. Maybe you’re the one dialing in or you’re the person in the conference room. There are challenges on both sides. For the person who’s not in the room, they don’t want to be looking at a bowling alley where they can’t read the body language. I mean, I think we’ve all experienced that.

At the same time, when you’re the person in the room, you’re looking up. Everybody wants some equality and to all be seen and heard in the same way. So, that’s what we have with our Poly gear. Is we’re able to identify the people in the room, make sure that we’re catching them with their best face forward, not the side of their head. And so, using technology to make sure that folks are focused on the connection between them and the collaboration that they’re doing, rather than how the camera’s working.

Patrick Moorhead: What are some of the main obstacles in creating a more flexible work environment? It’s funny, you can pull, N equals one, and your own personal, but I’m going to ask you because you run the business here, and run the product line. And then a follow-up question, I’ll just ask it now.

Helen Sheirbon: Okay.

Patrick Moorhead: What are you doing to solve these elements of inclusivity, collaboration, and even security?

Helen Sheirbon: Yeah. Well, I think beyond the points about the video, I think we’ve all experienced when we’re maybe at home and you’ve got dogs barking in the background, then you want to mute yourself, so you’re not going to be as present in the meeting.

Patrick Moorhead: Right.

Helen Sheirbon: We also have all been there, where you’re in the meeting room and somebody’s brought a bag of chips.

Patrick Moorhead: Yes.

Helen Sheirbon: And decide to crinkle the bag or ruffle through papers, or open Coke cans, distracts from the meeting.

Patrick Moorhead: Right.

Helen Sheirbon: Right. Or it causes you to mute, so that then you’re not engaged in the meeting. These are all things that we solve with our AI. We’re taking out those noises that are not people’s voices and creating an acoustic fence, so that the meeting is protected from an audio. And then we also, of course, have the video technologies to make sure that folks are showing up the same way.

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah. I found, personally, one of the biggest challenges is if I’m remote and I get a big room of people, I can’t see who’s talking. And it’s funny, some of the solutions people come up with, is everybody opens their laptop. Right?

Helen Sheirbon: Yeah.

Patrick Moorhead: And I am thinking, well, what’s the value of the big camera in the room? Because the last thing you want to do, is see the bottom of somebody’s nose and be-

Helen Sheirbon: It’s a very bad angle.

Patrick Moorhead: … Yeah, and you have some really cool solutions. Multi-camera, the ability to split the video stream, and actually identify people, is exactly what people want at the end of the day. And I feel like it’s a complete impediment for people going into the office, if that technology’s not available.

Helen Sheirbon: Yeah. And to your point, we can also use the technology to identify and frame the speaker. So, you don’t even need to look for the person, if they’re going to be doing most of the talking. We can also track them. The camera can track them as they move around, because we know people don’t always stay still.

Patrick Moorhead: AI is all throughout that. And I just know that, because of the research we’ve done on it.

Helen Sheirbon: That’s right.

Daniel Newman: It’s really interesting too. First of all, I know noise cancellation’s come a long way, and I look forward to testing some of what Poly’s done through HP, because my wife still… my AirPods, my wife still hears me only crinkling the bag. She’ll tell me she hears all the background noise. I’m like, the noise cancellation’s on. She’s like, I hear the background, I can hear you chewing, I can’t hear your words.

Helen Sheirbon: We need to get you some Poly gear.

Daniel Newman: But I can’t hear your word. So, maybe I need to check that out. But all kind of kidding aside, I mean, having been in the collab space, almost a decade and a half ago doing systems, the rooms don’t look that different yet. I mean, I got to be candid. This is a big opportunity, Helen. You still walk in a room… I mean, we do a lot of these end of quarter earnings calls, these CEO calls, and we get a room and it’s a big video wall. And we’re on a lot of these together.

Patrick Moorhead: Sure.

Daniel Newman: Where the CEO’s there to give us the readout, and you see all their staff sitting around a table, and it’s us and them, and they’re in a room with a camera and a big monitor. That’s all it is. So, what are you talking to these companies about, thinking about now? Because they’re going to start revamping these rooms. They’re going to want to put AI into them. They’re going to want to use new monitor technology, ARV, all these different things. How are you leading them? What direction are you taking them?

Helen Sheirbon: Well, I don’t know if you guys got to go down to the Innovation showcase.

Patrick Moorhead: Not yet.

Helen Sheirbon: Not yet. Okay. Well, you’ll get to see the X360 tomorrow, when you go down there. Which is some fantastic technology that we have. And I think the real differentiator, is it’s not about the technology that’s in today or what we put in tomorrow, but the fact that they can continue to adapt and talk with each other. So, you can add different capabilities, depending on what the needs are of the folks in the room. And then the room will adapt, based on what cameras are there.

Patrick Moorhead: Now that literally sounds like Nirvana to me. We have to check this out.

Helen Sheirbon: Good.

Patrick Moorhead: Yeah, I love that.

Helen Sheirbon: I look forward to it.

Daniel Newman: Well, it sounds to me like you’re going to be telling the customers that, Hey, it’s time to re-think and re-look. Whether it’s how it sounds, how it looks, how it feels, or how it drives inclusivity, that HP under your leadership and with your team, is rethinking collaboration. So, Helen, I want to thank you so much for joining us here on the Six Five.

Helen Sheirbon: Thank you guys. Have a great one.

Daniel Newman: Yeah. Thanks. All right, everybody hit that subscribe button. Join us for all the coverage here at HP Amplify 2024. It’s been a great show. We’re talking hybrid work. We’re talking AI, future of work experiences and so much more. But for this show, this episode, Patrick, from myself, see you later.