The Wilmac Wire

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Mike Collier, CEO of Foundry, a Rochester-based leader in decentralized infrastructure and the world’s largest Bitcoin mining pool. Mike shares his path from GE and the private equity “operator” world to going all-in on Bitcoin after a deep dive in 2017, and why mining was the entry point that made...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell kick off season three in 2026 with a solo conversation to set the tone for the year ahead as the show moves into a new rhythm of weekly episodes and reflects on the podcast gaining traction beyond the studio.  From there, they dig into three themes shaping 2026: the state of Wilmac, the state of Rochester, and t...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Colby Feane , Vice President, Financial Advisor, and Portfolio Manager at Wealth Enhancement Group . A longtime friend of Wilmac and former AAU basketball teammate of Steve, Colby joins the show to close out 2025 with a candid conversation. He reflects on his journey from Upstate New York and two-...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Chad Familant, Wilmac Technologies’ new Vice President of Sales, for his first-ever appearance on the show. Recorded during just his third week at Wilmac, Chad dives into the experiences that shaped his 20+ year career in the contact center industry, from the early days of analog-to-digital telecom...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down for our fourth Behind the Build conversation with Bob Pease, VP of Engineering at Wilmac Technologies. With a new fiscal year underway and momentum at an all time high, Bob takes us inside the fast paced world of product development at Wilmac, where innovation, AI driven engineering, and customer first...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Vinnie Esposito, Senior Vice President for Regional Economic Development at Empire State Development and a key member of Governor Kathy Hochul’s Upstate Affairs team. Vinnie shares insights from more than 20 years in public service, discussing how New York State is driving growth across upstate com...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Neal Dlin, VP of Customer Service Experience at Aviso Wealth and a six-time ICMI Top 25 CX and Contact Center Thought Leader. Neal brings over 30 years of leadership in customer experience and contact centers, offering an honest and refreshing look at what it takes to build people-first, experience...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Bob Duffy, President and CEO of the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce and former New York State Lieutenant Governor. Bob last joined The Wilmac Wire a year ago in July, where his insights were so valuable we split the conversation into Episodes 10 and 11. Go check those out if you haven’t yet....

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Tom Brannen, founder of On Convergence and a leading contact center and CX industry analyst. Tune in to hear more about: The Verint–Calabrio merger backed by Thoma Bravo and what it could mean for consolidation across the CX landscape Why AI is transforming quality assurance, call analysis, and rea...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , hosts Emily Miller and Steve McDonnell sit down with Dr. Ian Mortimer, founding President of the Golisano Institute for Business and Entrepreneurship. Tune in to hear more about: How the Institute is reimagining higher education with practical, skills-based programs Why courses in sales, project management, coding, and data analytics are central to...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , host Emily Miller shares exciting updates on the future of the podcast including the announcement that Wilmac CEO Steve McDonnell is officially joining as co-host. Tune in to hear more about: Why Steve’s leadership perspective will bring added depth to every episode How season two will wrap up with returning guests and deeper conversations A new spo...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller sits down with Wilmac CEO Steve McDonnell and Ian Jacobs, VP and Lead Analyst at Opus Research, to talk about where customer experience is headed and how AI is reshaping contact centers without leaving people behind. Tune in to hear Ian’s perspective on: • What’s really working with conversational AI in the enterprise today  • Why legac...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller sits down with VP of Engineering Bob Pease for a quarterly Behind the Build update on Wilmac’s Continuity Suite, focusing on how Continuity Replay is evolving to help customers manage interaction data smarter and prepare for AI. Hear how the dev team: Rolled out new transcription features and real time translation in Continuity Replay I...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller talks with Kevin Surace, AI and automation pioneer, about how virtual assistants have evolved and what the future holds for AI in customer experience. Hear how AI: Transformed from early virtual assistants like Mary to today’s AI-driven solutions. Is reshaping contact centers by automating Tier 1 customer interactions. Helps businesses...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller sits down with Steve Blood, VP of Market Intelligence and Evangelism at Five9, to discuss the future of Customer Experience and how organizations can better leverage technology and data to drive innovation. With over 23 years at Gartner, Steve has advised countless businesses on customer service, AI, and digital transformation. Now at F...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller sits down with Wilmac Technologies CEO Steve McDonnell and guest analyst Jon Arnold, principal of J Arnold & Associates, for a deep-dive on what AI actually means for contact centers—and why so many businesses are still stuck at square one. From foundational data strategy to the real use cases of AI in CX, they explore the differenc...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, Emily Miller is joined by Wilmac's CEO Steve McDonnell and Dave Michels, lead analyst at TalkingPointz.com, for a wide-ranging conversation on how contact center data is becoming the new gold standard for AI—and why legacy systems are holding organizations back. From breaking down the CRM vs. contact center debate to spotlighting how transcripts and...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller goes solo to tackle some of the most common misconceptions about customer interaction data management—starting with the myth that an S3 bucket is a substitute for a governance solution. From explaining why storage alone isn’t enough to breaking down the emerging category of Digital Communications Governance & Archiving (DCGA), Emily...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller sits down with TD Bank’s Bruno Meneses and Steven Chan—alongside Wilmac’s Garry White—to unpack the real-world challenges of data management and compliance in financial services. In this special event recap from our Toronto roadshow, we explore how TD Bank is tackling retention, system sprawl, and audit-readiness by partnering with Wilm...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller and Bob Pease—Wilmac Technologies’ VP of Engineering—dive into product innovation, roadmapping, and what’s ahead for Continuity Replay. In the second installment of our Behind the Build quarterly update series, we explore how Wilmac’s development team is tackling data management challenges and building user-centric features that make a...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller sits down with Mark Huber and John McDonnell—Wilmac Technologies’ public safety experts—to discuss the evolving challenges in the public safety sector and how technology is helping 911 centers and emergency agencies stay ahead. Hear how Wilmac Technologies: Supports public safety agencies with call recording, compliance, and workforce m...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller talks with Kevin Surace, AI and automation pioneer, about how virtual assistants have evolved and what the future holds for AI in customer experience. Hear how AI: Transformed from early virtual assistants like Mary to today’s AI-driven solutions. Is reshaping contact centers by automating Tier 1 customer interactions. Helps businesses...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire, Emily Miller talks with Charlie Snedden, Sales Engineer, and Gary White, Sales Rep at Wilmac Technologies, about how Continuity Replay helped a global gas and utilities company solve tough PCI compliance challenges and manage sensitive call data securely. Hear how Wilmac: Identified and extracted PCI-sensitive data while keeping it accessible for QA...

Send a text In this episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller sits down with Steve Blood, VP of Market Intelligence and Evangelism at Five9, to discuss the future of Customer Experience and how organizations can better leverage technology and data to drive innovation. With over 23 years at Gartner, Steve has advised countless businesses on customer service, AI, and digital transformation. Now at F...

Send a text In this bonus episode of The Wilmac Wire , Emily Miller hosts a conversation from Wilmac Technologies' recent webinar, Transforming Contact Center Data Management: Compliance Made Simple , held in partnership with the Greater Toronto Area Contact Center Community (GTACC). She’s joined by Wilmac’s Ben Bowen and Charlie Snedden to break down the biggest challenges businesses face when ma...