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Connected Nation
This is Connected Nation – an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband. From closing the Digital Divide to simply improving your internet speeds, we talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our communities.
The podcast was honored in 2024 with an Award of Excellence for Podcast Series - Technology. This is the highest honor given by the Communicator Awards. More recently, the podcast received an Award of Distinction in 2025. It received the same honor in 2023 and 2022.
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Connected Nation
New game. New rules. The show broadband providers don't want to miss
On this episode on Connected Nation, we continue our coverage from rom Calix ConneXions 2025, which took place in Las Vegas in mid-October.
We sat down with the Corporate VP of Marketing for Calix to discuss innovating customer success, implementing a smarter AI, and using a little showmanship to drive the messages home.
Recommended links:
Scott Neuman Calix Corporate Vice President of Marketing LinkedIn
Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (00:00):
This is Connected Nation, an award-winning podcast focused on all things broadband from closing the digital divide to improving your internet speeds. We talk technology topics that impact all of us, our families, and our neighborhoods. New Game, new Rules is the tagline for CX Connections 2025. On this episode of Connected Nation, I sit down with the corporate vice president and marketing for CX to discuss innovating customer success, implementing a smarter AI, and using a little showmanship to drive the messages home. I'm Jessica Denson, and this is Connected Nation. I am at CX Connections 2025 event taking place in Las Vegas, Nevada in mid-October, and I am sitting down with the man himself, Scott Newman, who is the v corporate VP of marketing for cx. Uh, welcome Scott.
Scott Neuman, Calix (01:04):
Thanks, Jessica. Thanks for having me.
Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (01:06):
And I call you the man because I saw some of the marketing presentation that was done at the opening general session, and it was incredible. It was really, really well done. Good job.
Scott Neuman, Calix (01:16):
No, well, thank you. Yeah. I think it was actually some of our best work. Yeah. It was actually some of the, the most fun work as well in terms of what we were trying to bring to life.
Jessica Denson, Connected Nation (01:24):
Uhhuh, <affirmative>,
Scott Neuman, Calix (01:24):
Uh, and I absolutely have to do a shout out to our, uh, our agency, our creative agency, decision council,
Jessica Denson (01:30):
Uhhuh <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (01:30):
They are part and parcel to our creative process. And everything you saw visually was part of that team helping to bring that to life.
Jessica Denson (01:38):
Yeah. Just to set the stage for the audience, so to speak, and the stage that I was eye witnessed.
Scott Neuman (01:43):
Yeah.
Jessica Denson (01:43):
Um, I was just walking along, I was doing the podcast out here, and I was like, no one's out here. Where is everybody? So I went to the, to the session and it was packed What thousands of people were in there.
Scott Neuman (01:53):
3000.
Jessica Denson (01:53):
Yeah. It was packed. 3000. Oh, yeah. Packed.
Scott Neuman (01:56):
It's pretty much the whole conference right there. Yes. In a room. It gets very quiet during the general session because there's nobody
Jessica Denson (02:01):
Left. Yeah. Yes, exactly. And, um, you had a huge screen. It wasn't like, just like, imagine folks, not just a one movie screen, but like three or four movie screens put together kind of in a curvature.
Scott Neuman (02:13):
Yeah. It's kinda like an IMAX theater. Yeah. I mean, think of it. We took a chunk out of the sphere Yeah. <laugh> and threw it in front of you. It's 30 feet high, a hundred feet wide, and it gives you an amazing palette, uh, and landscape to actually play with some really cool visuals that you'd never be able to do that in a traditional 16 by nine PowerPoint.
Jessica Denson (02:32):
No, you would not. It's definitely far from a 16 by PowerPoint. I was in awe and completely flab. I mean, I was, it was, it was spectacular.
Scott Neuman (02:42):
Well, I think from
Jessica Denson (02:42):
A marketing comm side,
Scott Neuman (02:43):
And I think you're picking up on really what is the core of what we try to produce.
Jessica Denson (02:47):
Uhhuh <affirmative>,
Scott Neuman (02:47):
What you witnessed was a show.
Jessica Denson (02:49):
Yes.
Scott Neuman (02:49):
It was not a business presentation. No, it wasn't a sales pitch.
Jessica Denson (02:53):
Uhhuh.
Scott Neuman (02:53):
And I spent a lot of time, you know, with my colleagues working through the customers that we invite to be on stage mm-hmm <affirmative>. And whenever we'd have our very first briefing, and this is back in July, we start these briefings and working with the customers, the very first thing I say is, thank you for being a cast member in our show. And almo, if they've never been on stage before with us, they'll pause for a second. They'll say, wait, what did you say, <laugh>? I said, no, I meant that you're now a cast member in a show.
Jessica Denson (03:19):
Oh, yeah.
Scott Neuman (03:19):
I'm not asking you to give a business presentation. This is edutainment and we're gonna make you look great, but we need to bring to life your story in a really compelling, sometimes tear jerking or a knee slapping way. And that's what's gonna make them remember you.
Jessica Denson (03:34):
Yes. I, and I think you accomplished that. And it's a great way to do it, because I do get invited to a lot of conferences to bring the podcast and until, and I usually wander around and see the different, uh, speakers and stuff, and, you know, you get your traditional stuff. But this is, this is very non-traditional.
Scott Neuman (03:50):
Yeah.
Jessica Denson (03:50):
And I do think it sticks with you. I do. I've talked to a lot of people, even just today, that were, they always wanna come to CX connections because it's always interesting. And I was here, I was lucky to be here two years ago, and I found it the same thing. And you just up the, up the ante <laugh>,
Scott Neuman (04:05):
It's hard every year. I mean, Michael said on stage that we have this, you know, kind of motto of better, better, never best
Jessica Denson (04:10):
Uhhuh
Scott Neuman (04:10):
<affirmative>. And every year, you know, we seem to have raise the bar a little bit more. And, and it's, it's elating, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. It's, it's this amazing feeling. And then you get to Tuesday after the event and you're like, oh, geez, we gotta do a better job next year. That's not gonna be Right.
Jessica Denson (04:24):
How are we gonna about that? Yeah.
Scott Neuman (04:24):
But to your point about, you know, kind of what we're trying to accomplish mm-hmm <affirmative>. And what we aim at the, the phrase we use a lot is we like to think we punch way above our weight, but it comes back to the DNA of the leadership in the, in the company, right? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I mean, Michael, uh, you know, comes from Microsoft and Salesforce. So does John. I came from 18 years at IBM
Scott Neuman (04:42):
Oh.
Scott Neuman (04:42):
Uh, Amra Chowdry, who's our new CMO. He spent years at Oracle. So we've seen what big and awesome looks like mm-hmm <affirmative>. And there's no reason why we should compromise, even though our conference might be a little bit
Jessica Denson (04:53):
Smaller. I think it's fantastic. It was, I was very, I was fascinated by the whole thing. And I do like the way that, like you said, you called them, um, a cast A cast member.
Scott Neuman (05:02):
Cast member. Yeah.
Jessica Denson (05:03):
Uh, because after, when the moment I walked in, just so you like, you know, you were doing the marketing thing. They were, they were walking through the customer journey.
Scott Neuman (05:11):
Yep.
Jessica Denson (05:11):
Um, which a lot of marketers and comms people will have heard before the idea of the customer journey, but it was how they were using AI to really maximize on that. Yeah. And then had the impact story from the actual customer that's using it. And then he walks out, and it was, the reason I say he walks out is because it almost felt like, oh, look, there's a star that just come out the stage <laugh>, because the way you set it up was so perfect that it felt, it had that feeling throughout. And, um, I think, I think it's where you had, you guys have happy customers, right? Yeah. Because you guys are, you're, you're thinking outside the box.
Scott Neuman (05:44):
Well, that was a new, it was a new twist this year,
Jessica Denson (05:46):
Uhhuh,
Scott Neuman (05:47):
In the past, we would bring a customer out and the beginning of their story was always a, well, here's who I am and here's where I'm located and here's how many subscribers I have uhhuh. And this is, you know, how my fast I'm growing. And when we start talking to them afterwards, they said, you know, I'm a little shy that I'm getting out and I feel like I'm doing an advertisement for my company. And I don't, I don't feel comfortable doing that
Jessica Denson (06:08):
Uhhuh.
Scott Neuman (06:09):
And I feel like we spend more time doing that than getting into the really interesting stuff. So we said, well, what if we interview you in advance and can that in about a minute and 30 seconds and get it outta the way so everybody knows who you are. So the second you step on stage, you can actually start telling your story. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And they said, I love that. So this is a new model we tried this year. And, you know, as Michael said, this is always about listening to our customers. Now, the majority, what Michael's referring to is product innovation and new services we can provide to help them succeed. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. But marketing's no different. I need to listen to my customers. Right. And if they think there's a better way, or we could together come with a better way to tell their story, of course, I'm gonna embrace that.
Jessica Denson (06:48):
Yeah. Well, I, I could nerd out all day <laugh> about that. We, how you build that. How'd you do that? What, how I love that. I used to be an executive producer news. Ah. So I love the creative process of all of that stuff. But the audience might be like, okay, you two nerds, let's talk about someone else. <laugh>. So talk about calx and why this, uh, convention is so important every year.
Scott Neuman (07:09):
Well, um, first and foremost, you know, we don't consider this a user conference or anything like that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. This is a, an innovation and success conference. Well, the only way you have the success story is if you get people together to share their stories. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So at the core, we wanna make sure there is enough time for people to actually network. So every year we have a survey and we're always looking for what more could we do? Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And more often than not, they're saying, look, I love all of the sessions that you're doing, but sometimes that's just too much. And can you schedule more free time so we can meet? And so for someone who came from, you know, global, uh, tech at, at IBM, I've never been at a conference like, like what we do at Connections, where you have so many customers so willing that are in the same business, but they don't really compete with each other because, you know, an electric co-op in North Carolina is not gonna compete with a municipal in Oregon.
Jessica Denson (07:59):
Oh yeah. Uhhuh
Scott Neuman (08:00):
<affirmative>. So their their chance to say, oh, well how did you do it? Do you have any better ideas? Is there something I should avoid? They're like, oh yeah. Let me open my playbook. I'll tell you exactly how I did it. You don't find that at other conferences. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. They tend to keep their strategy kind of close to the vest. So that's one is to gather them. And then two is to create that opportunity where not only they can, they can learn and ask questions, but walk out with a game plan. So we have this new, again, listening to your customers new thing. Tomorrow after the closing general sessions, we have a thing called Takeaway Tuesdays uhhuh. And we are creating a series of venues where customers facilitated by our success team can get together with their team and say, Hey, before you hop on a plane and you fall asleep 'cause you're exhausted <laugh>. Yeah. And then you get home on Wednesday and you can't remember what is it that I learned? Mm-hmm
Scott Neuman (08:43):
<affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (08:43):
You actually document what is my next 30, 60, 90 day, uh, game plan, and how do I document that and make sure I've captured all the thoughts and the next steps I'm gonna take. Because we wanna make this an actionable conference. Not just, oh, I learned a couple things. I get back with a tote bag and then I, you know, put it under my desk and never thought about it again.
Jessica Denson (09:00):
I love that because, um, you're speaking my language with the actions.
Scott Neuman (09:04):
Yeah.
Jessica Denson (09:05):
Uh, my CEOI, he's my direct boss and I'm always like, well, what are our next steps? Right. Our next actions, we talked and talked, but what are we doing now? So that is fantastic, especially from a conference. Yeah. It's hard to capture when a staff member from your company goes somewhere. And how do you capture that knowledge and how do you give them something to move the ne the, the needle,
Scott Neuman (09:23):
Right.
Jessica Denson (09:24):
So to speak. So that's
Scott Neuman (09:24):
Fantastic. Right. Because we do tracks for, you know, general managers, for marketers, for sales, for CFOs, for network operators, for customer support leaders, for, for, uh, network engineers.
Scott Neuman (09:34):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (09:35):
So if you think of like your core team, you basically split them up over two, two and a half days. So the goal is by Tuesday, let's get your team back together, all sitting at the same table and say, Hey, what did you learn? What did you get to attend? What did you walk away with? And if we don't create that environment, then that might get lost.
Jessica Denson (09:51):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And I will just echo what you were saying about how that somebody from North Carolina could have shared something from Alabama. 'cause I, today, I've talked to some of the providers, and that's some of what they've talked about, is it's really great because not only do I learn stuff, but then somebody might have had a similar problem and have some solutions that I didn't think about that I can talk about. So that's that's fantastic.
Scott Neuman (10:13):
Yeah. And in our post-survey we get from customers mm-hmm <affirmative>. Especially ones that have never been here before, though, one of the things they'll comment and they'll go, I spent two and a half days, I tripled the size of my social network in terms of people I can contact. That's good. Like, I was not expecting that as a side
Jessica Denson (10:28):
Benefit. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. That's great. Yeah. And you just facilitate that
Scott Neuman (10:31):
Throughout. Yeah. That's wonderful. Exactly. Well, our mobile app mm-hmm <affirmative>. One of the big things, the challenges is, hey, find other people. You're all logged in, you've connected your LinkedIn profile into the mobile app. Mm-hmm. It's really easy to find it. And by the way, we never turn the mobile app off. It's not like it turns off on Wednesday, it's up all year long. So you can always go back and go, oh yes, this is the crew from connections at that breakout session. This is the person I want to go talk to. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So the idea is that's another opportunity and a tool that you get to take away with you mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Jessica Denson (10:57):
So, uh, I know we are day second, full day.
Scott Neuman (11:01):
Yes.
Jessica Denson (11:02):
Yes. Day three,
Scott Neuman (11:02):
Three. But this is like generally the big kickoff day. Right? So Sunday is more of a soft launch, a lot of launch education and kind of a soft launch, right? Yeah. Big day is, is is Monday and then Tuesday is the closing day.
Jessica Denson (11:12):
Uh, are you hearing anything from customers that's surprising or some things that are exciting even?
Scott Neuman (11:18):
I, I would say the encouraging part is, uh, the feedback on how we're explaining what we're doing with ai, uh, I think is landing. I think they're getting it. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, and so, 'cause it's, there are a thousand ways you could tell this story.
Jessica Denson (11:30):
Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm
Scott Neuman (11:31):
<affirmative>. Um, you know, the way we were telling it was this idea of, you know, we're, we're building this kind of layer cake of capabilities that are very specifically structured to get it right. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Everything from, you know, the platform to the data layer, to the knowledge layer to the MCP server layer. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Uh, all the way up into the orchestration and action layer. Now it gets pretty technical, but if you can explain it in a way that says, look, if you're gonna take agents and you're gonna bring them into your teams mm-hmm <affirmative>. As you know, in a sense a copilot as working with, with your organization, you're gonna need to trust them. You're gonna need to, uh, have a belief that they are entitled to do the right things and not the wrong things. And they are at your beck and call to direct them. Mm-hmm
Scott Neuman (12:17):
<affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (12:17):
But there's only one way to make sure that you have that level of confidence is that if you built it from the ground up in the first place, and that's what we've been spending the last, you know, two, three years doing, is that, and this is in a sense, our coming out party to let the rest of our customer base know this is what we've built and this is what's coming.
Scott Neuman (12:35):
Mm-hmm
Scott Neuman (12:35):
<affirmative>. And, you know, all of that, uh, the building that we've done so far has been done with many of our customers giving us feedback. Yes, this works. Yes. This doesn't work. Try this, change that.
Jessica Denson (12:46):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Um, I talked with your, uh, innovation partner.
Scott Neuman (12:50):
Yeah.
Jessica Denson (12:50):
The one that won the award for in best innovation.
Scott Neuman (12:52):
Yep.
Jessica Denson (12:53):
And she was talking about using AI years before ai. Yeah. You know, we are all talking about it now. It's very, it's out there in the public. Everybody's like, how does it affect us? But was Catholics thinking about AI years before? Oh, it became cool. <laugh>. Well,
Scott Neuman (13:06):
We've been playing with machine learning for seven, eight years mm-hmm <affirmative>. So, you know, in a sense that's just a precursor to getting into to ai. And then, you know, neural networks started to come into play and then you started to make the jump from machine learning to ai
Scott Neuman (13:19):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (13:19):
But the concept of how do we simplify, how do we help speed innovation? And then how do we help our customers grow that mission of ours? You know, we've been leveraging, you know, call it a precursor of AI for years
Scott Neuman (13:33):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (13:33):
So this was just the logical next thing we were going to do. It just, it, it turns it on almost to a hyperscale. Um, we've been talking for years how our cloud helps democratize access to data.
Scott Neuman (13:45):
Uhhuh,
Scott Neuman (13:45):
<affirmative>, usually the, you know, the big tier ones, they've got data scientists, they've got huge teams that work on this. And if you're a small, you know, let's say a a, a tribal network like Mohawk network, you know, in upstate New York,
Jessica Denson (13:57):
Uhhuh, <affirmative>,
Scott Neuman (13:57):
They have 150 people in the entire company. They don't have an army of data scientists, <laugh>. So for years we've been giving them access to incredible data insights with machine learning.
Scott Neuman (14:08):
Mm-hmm
Scott Neuman (14:08):
<affirmative>. Now with AI and you start giving agents, um, you know, permission to work and scale their teams, they're getting access to the democratization of scale
Scott Neuman (14:18):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>. And
Scott Neuman (14:19):
One of the biggest challenges that we hear from our customers all the time is access to talent. So this is, this is about not, you know, say, oh, well I've got agents and they're gonna replace jobs. No, this is about agents that's going to help scale your team. So it's this, um, there are a thousand things I want to get to, but I'm only gonna get to a few of them because my team's so small. Well now I'm going to get to, you know, maybe 20%, maybe 30, maybe 50% of those key tasks. Why? Because I've got an agent workforce that's helping me do that. So that's the most exciting of what I'm hearing, the takeaways
Jessica Denson (14:53):
Mm-hmm Scott Neuman (14:53):
<affirmative>. Of, they can't wait for what we're gonna be doing in 2026 and it's gonna come fast.
Jessica Denson (14:57):
So when you say agent workforce, are those your AI agents? Yes. Is that how you're identifying 'em?
Scott Neuman (15:02):
Yeah. And they're gonna be in, initially in kind of four key groups. They'll be, uh, services agents that are focused on customer support. They'll be marketing agents. There'll be operation agents, um, that are helping with the network optimization and, and, uh, resiliency and self-healing. And then the last one, we'll have subscriber agents that'll actually be through the app. Uh, and other ways to engage subscribers directly to scale. And the point is, you, every customer obviously wants to have a very fast mm-hmm <affirmative>. But very customized and intelligent interaction with their broadband service provider. Agents can help do that. But every step along the way in the scenarios that we painted out humans in the loop, that's the purpose. This is about scaling your team, not replacing your team.
Jessica Denson (15:45):
Right. I like the humans in the loop thing. Yeah. 'cause I'm one of those people that's like representative, representative <laugh>. Yeah. <laugh>. I'm so glad about that. Right. Um, so the exhibit hall, I just wanna talk about that for a second because it's always such an interesting place to go at the, or at least I've found in my time coming to the conference.
Scott Neuman (16:02):
Yeah.
Jessica Denson (16:03):
It's because it's not just booths put together.
Scott Neuman (16:06):
Right.
Jessica Denson (16:06):
There's actual like interaction and the way it's built. I did a little video from it earlier today to show people what was there, the candy wall and all that stuff. Yeah. Got my bag of candy. There you go. Here I'll shaking that, that sound. Um, what's behind that? What is your approach to that? Is it just to be, to mirror what you're doing in the presentations? Or what
Scott Neuman (16:26):
Is that? Yeah, think of it as a, as a, an extension of the message on the main stage
Jessica Denson (16:29):
Uhhuh.
Scott Neuman (16:29):
But there's something very unique, I think that is in our innovation showcase. You don't see the Calx logo?
Jessica Denson (16:36):
Oh,
Scott Neuman (16:37):
Yeah. You know, when you go back in there, look for it. I'm gonna look, you're not gonna find
Jessica Denson (16:39):
It.
Scott Neuman (16:40):
What you'll see is you'll see a, a logo, we call it any B-X-P-B-X-P is a broadband experience provider.
Scott Neuman (16:46):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (16:47):
We want our customers to see themselves when they walk into that innovation showcase. So it's really not about us. It's about so that the very center of the whole showcase is in a sense their headquarters. They're not. It's got their marketing department, their support department, their operations teams, and then we've wrapped our capabilities around it. That's where you can find out how we can help you. And then there's four satellite walkouts mm-hmm <affirmative>. And you say, well, I I want to breach residential homes. Great. Go over to the smart home booth. You know, I want start and connect small businesses. Great. We've got Smart Biz. I want to figure out how to do multi-dwelling units. Great. You have your smart MDU place. I wanna connect the whole town. Great head over to Smart Town. But in every case we're branding it like it's their brand because we are a subservient brand mm-hmm <affirmative>. And we white label everything. Our whole purpose and all the support that we do is to help them be successful and put their brand in front of their customer to win. The only way a subscriber would even know that Calx was anywhere near their vicinity is if they took one of our systems and turned it over. And they might actually see the QR code on the bottom and go manufactured by Cly.
Jessica Denson (17:51):
Oh <laugh>.
Scott Neuman (17:51):
But otherwise, there's no other way that they would even know that they're a customer of ours through our customer. And that's on purpose.
Jessica Denson (17:59):
That's why I've never heard of Cly until I started working.
Scott Neuman (18:01):
You go <laugh> there.
Jessica Denson (18:02):
Uh, got it.
Scott Neuman (18:02):
It's the coolest little best kept secret,
Jessica Denson (18:04):
Right? Yeah, it is. It is. And it is a great conference. It's a lot of fun. So, uh, Scott, tell, tell our audience, my audience a little bit about you. You said you, you, you came from IBMI did. But what, what led you to IBM and before that even?
Scott Neuman (18:16):
Well, it was one of those I was always in marketing. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. I started out in advertising, uh, out in San Francisco at j Walter Thompson, YME, Rubic Young and Rubic Cam
Jessica Denson (18:23):
Uhhuh <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (18:24):
Um, and I decided I want to get from the agency side to the client side. And so I figured I needed an MBA to do that. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. Went back to business school. And then IBM was the first tech company that I interviewed with. And this was, gosh, back in 99
Scott Neuman (18:38):
Mm-hmm
Scott Neuman (18:38):
<affirmative>. Um, that wasn't looking for an engineer that kind of was interested in marketing. They were looking for a true marketer that they could teach the engineering side
Jessica Denson (18:47):
<laugh>. Yeah.
Scott Neuman (18:47):
And because everybody else I talked to, they just expected that I was a computer scientist that was kind of dabbling in marketing.
Jessica Denson (18:53):
That's interesting.
Scott Neuman (18:54):
And so they were really looking for marketing, pure marketing talent. And that led to 18 years, uh, at the company a a little stint, uh, in 2013, I raised my hand. They sent me abroad and I was a chief marketing officer for Central Eastern Europe region. So that was based in Prague, uh, and it was Russia to Turkey and, uh, 30 countries east of, uh, of Germany. And that was fascinating. And so I was there for four and a half years and gave me a completely different perspective of what it's like to be doing a global role versus a geography role.
Scott Neuman (19:26):
I
Scott Neuman (19:26):
Bet that's
Scott Neuman (19:26):
Fun. <laugh>
Scott Neuman (19:27):
And learned a ton. My last role there was applying Watson to, or the, our artificial intelligence at the time to the internet of things. Mm-hmm <affirmative>. So we were spending a lot of, Germany at the time was the industrial center of IO iot. So that was fascinating. Um, I returned to the States in 2017. Uhhuh at the time, uh, Matt Collins, who was our chief marketing officer and I, we had worked together at IBM, he had just joined cx. Oh. And so he reached out and asked me like, Hey, are you back in the States? And I said, yeah, why? And he goes, well, I've just joined the coolest little company you'd never heard of. Let's talk. So I don't think I would've found CX if it wasn't for Matt for that connection. And I have to credit him. And sadly, if you've seen on the, on our memorial wall, Matt passed away this spring. Oh, I'm so sorry. So he is no longer with us, but I can credit where I am today. And many, many of the talented cx uh, employees are former recruits of Matts
Jessica Denson (20:20):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (20:20):
Uh, and he really built out the marketing organization under his leadership.
Jessica Denson (20:24):
Oh, well I'm very sorry about that, but it sounds like he was a really great guy.
Scott Neuman (20:27):
He's a great guy.
Jessica Denson (20:28):
Yeah. Um, IBM WorldCom isn't, isn't that part of IBM WorldCom? Do I
Scott Neuman (20:33):
WorldCom think was their, the big IBM think was their big huge conference, and they do that around the
Jessica Denson (20:38):
World. My CEO is gonna kill me 'cause I can't remember this off the cuff, but I know John,
Scott Neuman (20:41):
They all blend
Jessica Denson (20:42):
Together. John Davies. Yeah. John Davies is one of our board members.
Scott Neuman (20:44):
Okay.
Jessica Denson (20:45):
And I wanna say he worked, did something with IBM Global or something.
Scott Neuman (20:48):
Okay. That's possible. <laugh>, I'm to look it up. I mean, you're talking, you know, at any given time, IBM had like 400,000
Jessica Denson (20:53):
Employees. Yeah. So I know. I was gonna say, do you know him? Yeah, exactly. You're like, I live in San Francisco. I don't know everybody there
Scott Neuman (20:57):
Either. <laugh>. Yeah. It's, it's like saying you're from Vermont. Oh, I know somebody from Vermont.
Jessica Denson (21:00):
<laugh>. Yeah. So are, are you still based in San Francisco or are you elsewhere?
Scott Neuman (21:05):
I'm not. No. I, I live, I, I, there was a reason why I threw Vermont at you just now. I live in Vermont.
Jessica Denson (21:10):
Oh, okay. <laugh>. I vermont's sort of the, I've I've been to most, um, states, not Vermont and not Alaska, but those are like, they're they're on there somewhere.
Scott Neuman (21:19):
No, I, I lucked out early on. This is 2004. IBM was embracing a work from anywhere culture.
Jessica Denson (21:24):
Oh, that's cool.
Scott Neuman (21:24):
So 21 years ago I moved to Vermont. Just 'cause I thought that would be a really fun place to raise the kids.
Jessica Denson (21:29):
Yeah.
Scott Neuman (21:29):
Uh, so we've been there ever since.
Jessica Denson (21:31):
Is it a beautiful place?
Scott Neuman (21:31):
It's a beautiful place.
Jessica Denson (21:32):
I would think though. It gets really cold. Yes. <laugh>
Scott Neuman (21:36):
<laugh>. It does. Yeah.
Jessica Denson (21:37):
But
Scott Neuman (21:38):
If you like snow, like I do Uhhuh
Jessica Denson (21:39):
<affirmative>, then it's totally cold, but it's great. Yeah. Yeah. I have a Texan. I was born in Texas. Okay.
Scott Neuman (21:44):
You would not like Vermont. Let's just put
Jessica Denson (21:45):
It out there. I probably like it in the summer. <laugh>.
Scott Neuman (21:46):
Yeah, you would. It's a beautiful summer. The, the one thing that you would have a hard time being a Texan is there's no air conditioning in Vermont.
Jessica Denson (21:53):
What?
Scott Neuman (21:53):
Well, if you think about it, there's maybe two weeks a year we, it might get into the nineties. Oh wow. And kind of a human nineties. Uhhuh <affirmative>. And what we do is, is we just turn on the fans, open the windows and just gut it out. But for the rest of the year, there's really no need for air conditioning. So why would you put it in?
Jessica Denson (22:07):
I have never lived in a place without air conditioning. <laugh> <laugh>.
Scott Neuman (22:10):
That was my guess.
Jessica Denson (22:12):
Yeah. But I, but I've lived in places without heaters.
Scott Neuman (22:14):
Okay.
Jessica Denson (22:15):
So see the other side
Scott Neuman (22:16):
Of the coin. Yeah, no, I, in Vermont, you definitely need
Jessica Denson (22:18):
Heaters. Vermont, it's, uh, it's known, what is it? Vermont Mode known for maple syrup.
Scott Neuman (22:23):
Maple syrup.
Jessica Denson (22:24):
Yeah. That's what I thought. For sure. Yeah. Yeah. I'll make it up there someday. One time I went to, uh, I've been to Maine. Okay. As far as, uh, you're getting close Portland, Maine. Yeah. Right. And I loved it so much. I was like, I'm going to move here. And my boyfriend's at the time, like, maybe you wanna look at the wet, the, the winters there before you decide that. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. But, uh, I love the Northeast. It's great. But anyway, we're, we're off topic. Uh, back to Cex <laugh>. Um, I like the new game. New
Scott Neuman (22:47):
Rules. Yeah.
Jessica Denson (22:48):
What's behind that little, uh, tagline?
Scott Neuman (22:49):
Well, that was, you know, we knew we were gonna spend a lot of time on AI going to this conference. And as opposed to just saying, you know, connections, it's all about ai. I mean, it's just felt kind of lazy. And, and again, you're always trying to think B two, B2C
Jessica Denson (23:03):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (23:03):
In everything that we do. So yes, we're trying to figure out how do we solve our customer's challenges, but we really wanna help them solve their customer's challenges.
Jessica Denson (23:10):
Right.
Scott Neuman (23:11):
So we try to think, well, what does AI mean, you know, for them? And it is such a transformative wave that not only is, and it's not just coming, it's here. Right. It's past the tipping point. Yeah. You know, to, you know, to borrow from Freakonomics and, and then, and the Tipping
Jessica Denson (23:27):
Point,
Scott Neuman (23:28):
Uhhuh <affirmative>. Um, so with that in mind, we thought, you know what, this is actually changing the game for everybody
Scott Neuman (23:34):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (23:34):
And it's not just changing the game in general in terms of like potential competitors and what you need to kind keep an eye out for. But even the rules of the game are changing. So the way we're spinning new game new is this is an opportunity. It's not a threat. It could be a threat if you just sit on your hands.
Jessica Denson (23:49):
Right.
Scott Neuman (23:50):
But the opportunity is, it's a new game, so you don't have to play by the old rules and how you think those old rules set up. And by the way, if you really jive in dive in, you can create your own rules. And when you get to create your own rules to the game and you're playing on your terms
Scott Neuman (24:04):
Mm-hmm <affirmative>.
Scott Neuman (24:04):
Your odds of success go through the roof. So that's what we're encouraging and that's the, that's the big takeaway message.
Jessica Denson (24:10):
Alright. Well, Scott Newman, it's been a pleasure talking with you. I really appreciate you coming by too. I know you're busy and you're in the middle of this awesome conference. Um, I can't wait to find out what you're, what you're gonna do next year.
Scott Neuman (24:21):
Uh, well I haven't even, well on Wednesday when, when I get home I'll start thinking about that.
Jessica Denson (24:26):
They'll start thinking about
Scott Neuman (24:26):
It. Yeah. <laugh>. Exactly.
Jessica Denson (24:28):
All right. Thank you again,
Scott Neuman (24:29):
Jessica. Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
Jessica Denson (24:30):
And your official title, corporate VP of Marketing with cex? That's correct. Yeah.
Scott Neuman (24:34):
Thank you.
Jessica Denson (24:41):
Still ahead. This year we'll continue our coverage from CX Connections 2025 and talk with leadership from CX as well as other high profile speakers and those with broadband companies from across the country. Until then, I'm Jessica Desen and this is Connected Nation.
