Largest Gathering of Conferencing and Collaboration Professionals Meet for Polycom User Group Meeting; Independent Association Converges at Crucial Industry Tipping Point as Video Communications Proliferates to the Desktop & Telephony Systems

Business Wire, Sept 28, 2005

PHOENIX -- Polycom(R), Inc. (NASDAQ:PLCM), the world's leading provider of unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced the fourth annual Polycom User Group (PUG) conference Oct. 15-19, 2005 at the Pointe South Mountain Resort in Phoenix, Arizona. With over 2,500 members, PUG is the largest independent association of conferencing and collaboration professionals in the world representing organizations across many sectors including business, government, financial services, health and education. The theme for this year's gathering will be "Blazing The Trail," particularly apropos as attendees attain the first look at a new generation of products and solutions from Polycom and its ecosystem of technology partners including Alcatel, Avaya and Microsoft.

PUG members will share best practices for integrating rich media solutions seamlessly into the IP network, delivering voice and video over the Internet (V2oIP), implementing video telephony solutions using the familiar phone interface for launching video and web conferencing calls, addressing video communications between organizations, as well as how to converge instant messaging and presence aware applications with Polycom voice and video systems from the desktop, to the conference room, to the network core.

"Conferencing and collaboration technology is rapidly moving from being considered a nice-to-have in some conference rooms to a must-have application everywhere integrated into an organization's core communications backbone," said Toni Alonso, PUG President. "Voice, video, web and data communications are critical to business and workgroup efficiency and productivity."

"This year's conference theme 'Blazing The Trail' represents the pioneering role our members are playing in pushing this technology into the mainstream," said Alonso. "Our fourth annual conference is full of valuable conference sessions, training seminars and keynote presentations from industry experts, technology leaders, service providers and fellow members, who are in the trenches making this next phase of business communications a reality. This conference will help members hone their communications strategy and remain ahead of the curve on behalf of their organizations."

The Conference

Conference tracks during the three-day conference will include: training and educational courses; special interest groups for healthcare, distance learning and government; demonstrations of the latest conferencing solutions; and informational presentations on topics such as room design and integration, when to use web conferencing versus video conferencing, whether to outsource, and designing, building and managing IP networks.

Conference presenters include Bob Hagerty, CEO of Polycom, Zig Serafin, general manager of Microsoft Real-Time Collaboration Group, industry analysts from Wainhouse Research and Telespan, and Alan Parisse, an expert on performance improvement and one of the "Top 21 Speakers for the 21st Century" according to Successful Meetings magazine. Topics will include the future vision of collaboration and integrated communications using familiar interfaces and applications, the benefits of converged networks, and how to position yourself to take advantage of the convergence as former rich media communications silos become mission critical network applications.

In addition to Polycom, companies sponsoring and exhibiting at the event include: ADTRAN, Affinity VideoNet, AT&T, Avaya, BT (not exhibiting), Christie Digital Systems, Global Crossing, InterCall, IVCi, Providea, RoData (not exhibiting), SPL Integrated Solutions, STARBAK Communications, VBrick Systems, WireOne Communications, and York Telecom.

Additional companies scheduled to exhibit at the conference include: ACT Teleconferencing, Alcatel, Applied Global Technologies, Center for Interactive Learning & Collaboration (CILC), Crestron Electronics, Expedite Video Conferencing Services, GBH Communications, Insight Systems/ZyrOSS, MASERGY, Prominence Networks, ReView Video, RoNexus Services, SBC Communications, SKC Communication Products, SMART Technologies, Solutionz Conferencing, Vaddio, and VSGi.

"Polycom is proud to be associated with this growing group of professionals, who truly are at the leading edge of a major change in the way businesses are communicating and collaborating," said Robert Hagerty, CEO of Polycom. "2005 is a significant year with initiatives underway from major players including Alcatel, Avaya, Lucent Technologies, Microsoft, Nortel and others to make conferencing and collaboration technology a seamless part of an organization's communications environment. No one knows more about networking voice, video, data and the web into collaborative solutions or integrates those solutions into leading IP telephone and presence environments better than Polycom. And no group of users better represents the transition to converged, integrated communications over IP, than the Polycom User Group."

Registration for the 2005 Polycom User Group "Blazing The Trail" Conference