For the month of October, we had some pretty amazing events. Not only did we feature four (4) Trivia Tower challenges, but we also topped off spooky season with the main event: THE BIG, BAD BOT BASH (or BBBB for brevity).

What was the BBBB? 

It was a two-part challenge where we asked you to submit a story about either:

1. A bot you've created with Genesys software or artificial intelligence. Or... 

2. A paranormal story that happened to you or a close relationship. (P.s. I'm still freaked by the tales we received!)

Unfortunately, there could only be one winner for each category. Let's get to who won and why. (A big shout-out to those who participated in both categories of the BBBB! You're awesome!)

WHO WON "BEST BOT" SUBMISSION: 

We asked our technical, "bot guru" @Jamie Lowke to judge the submissions and tell us why her favorite submission topped the rest. About the winner, she said: "We love how you thought out your process, and connected your bot to data. You are bringing the bot to the customer's vernacular. Meeting the customer where they are!" 

That's some high praise for our winner... @Lucas Woodward who submitted the winning bot below: 

"The project I created pulls together metrics from Flows, Bots, Integrations, all the way down to the services our bots depend and their databases. This unified view gives us:

• An in-depth understanding of how are bots and their dependencies are behaving

• The ability to gracefully degrade functionality

• A wealth of information necessary to debug issues

This is an overview I drew for a LinkedIn post.

I started this project in my own time with the expectation of it coming in handy as we continued to create bots that handled more complex journeys. These journeys heavily rely on backend services we've created to perform actions on behalf of the customer, so being able to see how the entire stack was behaving (from Genesys Cloud Bots/Flows, Integrations, Data Actions, OAuth clients etc all the way down to K8s services using RDS) was vital for diagnosing issues and deriving business value.

It didn't take me too long, especially using Genesys Cloud's EventBridge Integration, which is incredibly useful. I also made it use AWS's Lambda and DynamoDB, allowing it to scale automatically based on demand. I blogged about the architecture here, along with one aspect of the metrics gathering.

My favourite memory of it, and when it showed its true worth, was when we (and similar companies) had an unprecedented amount of customer contact (approx 700% more) over a couple of days. During this period we were able to closely monitor every aspect of our journey. This allowed us to diagnose issues within minutes. Last time I checked it was processing on average 4 million+ events a month at approx $50.

WHO WON "BEST PARANORMAL" STORY: 

We had two judges for this part of the BBBB. The first was Ezekiel Kincaid, known to his fans as the "Paranormal Pastor." The second was full-time ghost enthusiast Chelsea Connor. They read through all of the submissions, ranked their favorites, and handed Matt and I the results. 

Ezekial said this about the winning entry: "Full bodied apparitions like this are extremely rare. For this lady to experience something like this makes the story really stand out to me. This type of haunting would be classified as a residual haunting. I have experienced every type of phenomena on my investigations except a residual. Another reason this one stood out."

Chelsea commented: "What a gripping story! The writer did a great job building suspense and unease with the reveal of the ghost encounter. The story is over, but the lingering sense of mystery and warning remain..." 

Congrats to @Alexandru Ungureanu who scared us silly with his paranormal story below: 

"Once, my aunt shared a captivating tale about a night she spent driving on a deserted highway. It was late, the kind of late where only the moonlight illuminates the road ahead. She was on her way home from a late shift, the glow of her headlights cutting through the darkness. The radio was playing softly, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched.

As she drove, she noticed a figure by the roadside-faintly lit by her headlights, a man dressed in a tattered coat and jeans, waving for help. My aunt's instincts kicked in, and she decided to stop. The man approached her window, his face obscured by shadows. He claimed his car had broken down and asked for a ride to the nearest town. Though my aunt felt a chill run down her spine, she remembered her courage and opened the door.

As they started to talk, she realized something was off. His story didn't add up-details were inconsistent, and his eyes held a strange depth, as if they had seen far too much in his lifetime. The air felt heavy, thick with tension. Suddenly, she spotted something in the rearview mirror-a second vehicle, tailing them closely. Panic set in, and she floored the gas pedal, her heart racing, the man gazing calmly in the passenger seat as cars whizzed by.

In a moment of desperation, she chose to take a detour onto an old back road, hoping to lose whatever was behind her. The man remained eerily quiet. Minutes stretched into eternity as she maneuvered through the winding path. Just as she thought she had lost her pursuer, she dared to glance over at her passenger, only to find he had vanished without a trace. The seat beside her was empty.

Terrified, she rushed home, her heart pounding in her ears. Even after arriving, she felt an unease settle in-a lingering presence that just wouldn't leave her, as if the man's spirit had found a way to follow her. The next day, she learned from a neighbor that a sighting of that same man had been reported for years on that particular highway, always asking for help but never being truly there.

My aunt never drove that road again, forever haunted by the night she picked up a ghost. And from then on, she warned everyone about the dangers of helping strangers on lonely highways late at night."

To Lucas and Alexandru: I'll be sending a Google Form for you to fill out with your Prize Wall pick. You get one (1) item of your choice! 

And Hey! NONE of our participants in the October events walked away empty handed. You earned this awesome badge for your profile if you submitted a bot, a paranormal story, or even tackled the Trivia Tower events:

Yey!!! <3 Thank you so much! 

I just wanted to ask, if there is a detailed list with the contents for each section of the Prize Wall, the chocolate thing and fire pit is pretty straightforward, but the other ones I don't know what they contain and would be nice to know before actually making a decision. 

Thank you once again and looking forward to your reply

For the month of October, we had some pretty amazing events. Not only did we feature four (4) Trivia Tower challenges, but we also topped off spooky season with the main event: THE BIG, BAD BOT BASH (or BBBB for brevity).

What was the BBBB? 

It was a two-part challenge where we asked you to submit a story about either:

1. A bot you've created with Genesys software or artificial intelligence. Or... 

2. A paranormal story that happened to you or a close relationship. (P.s. I'm still freaked by the tales we received!)

Unfortunately, there could only be one winner for each category. Let's get to who won and why. (A big shout-out to those who participated in both categories of the BBBB! You're awesome!)

WHO WON "BEST BOT" SUBMISSION: 

We asked our technical, "bot guru" @Jamie Lowke to judge the submissions and tell us why her favorite submission topped the rest. About the winner, she said: "We love how you thought out your process, and connected your bot to data. You are bringing the bot to the customer's vernacular. Meeting the customer where they are!" 

That's some high praise for our winner... @Lucas Woodward who submitted the winning bot below: 

"The project I created pulls together metrics from Flows, Bots, Integrations, all the way down to the services our bots depend and their databases. This unified view gives us:

• An in-depth understanding of how are bots and their dependencies are behaving

• The ability to gracefully degrade functionality

• A wealth of information necessary to debug issues

This is an overview I drew for a LinkedIn post.

I started this project in my own time with the expectation of it coming in handy as we continued to create bots that handled more complex journeys. These journeys heavily rely on backend services we've created to perform actions on behalf of the customer, so being able to see how the entire stack was behaving (from Genesys Cloud Bots/Flows, Integrations, Data Actions, OAuth clients etc all the way down to K8s services using RDS) was vital for diagnosing issues and deriving business value.

It didn't take me too long, especially using Genesys Cloud's EventBridge Integration, which is incredibly useful. I also made it use AWS's Lambda and DynamoDB, allowing it to scale automatically based on demand. I blogged about the architecture here, along with one aspect of the metrics gathering.

My favourite memory of it, and when it showed its true worth, was when we (and similar companies) had an unprecedented amount of customer contact (approx 700% more) over a couple of days. During this period we were able to closely monitor every aspect of our journey. This allowed us to diagnose issues within minutes. Last time I checked it was processing on average 4 million+ events a month at approx $50.

WHO WON "BEST PARANORMAL" STORY: 

We had two judges for this part of the BBBB. The first was Ezekiel Kincaid, known to his fans as the "Paranormal Pastor." The second was full-time ghost enthusiast Chelsea Connor. They read through all of the submissions, ranked their favorites, and handed Matt and I the results. 

Ezekial said this about the winning entry: "Full bodied apparitions like this are extremely rare. For this lady to experience something like this makes the story really stand out to me. This type of haunting would be classified as a residual haunting. I have experienced every type of phenomena on my investigations except a residual. Another reason this one stood out."

Chelsea commented: "What a gripping story! The writer did a great job building suspense and unease with the reveal of the ghost encounter. The story is over, but the lingering sense of mystery and warning remain..." 

Congrats to @Alexandru Ungureanu who scared us silly with his paranormal story below: 

"Once, my aunt shared a captivating tale about a night she spent driving on a deserted highway. It was late, the kind of late where only the moonlight illuminates the road ahead. She was on her way home from a late shift, the glow of her headlights cutting through the darkness. The radio was playing softly, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched.

As she drove, she noticed a figure by the roadside-faintly lit by her headlights, a man dressed in a tattered coat and jeans, waving for help. My aunt's instincts kicked in, and she decided to stop. The man approached her window, his face obscured by shadows. He claimed his car had broken down and asked for a ride to the nearest town. Though my aunt felt a chill run down her spine, she remembered her courage and opened the door.

As they started to talk, she realized something was off. His story didn't add up-details were inconsistent, and his eyes held a strange depth, as if they had seen far too much in his lifetime. The air felt heavy, thick with tension. Suddenly, she spotted something in the rearview mirror-a second vehicle, tailing them closely. Panic set in, and she floored the gas pedal, her heart racing, the man gazing calmly in the passenger seat as cars whizzed by.

In a moment of desperation, she chose to take a detour onto an old back road, hoping to lose whatever was behind her. The man remained eerily quiet. Minutes stretched into eternity as she maneuvered through the winding path. Just as she thought she had lost her pursuer, she dared to glance over at her passenger, only to find he had vanished without a trace. The seat beside her was empty.

Terrified, she rushed home, her heart pounding in her ears. Even after arriving, she felt an unease settle in-a lingering presence that just wouldn't leave her, as if the man's spirit had found a way to follow her. The next day, she learned from a neighbor that a sighting of that same man had been reported for years on that particular highway, always asking for help but never being truly there.

My aunt never drove that road again, forever haunted by the night she picked up a ghost. And from then on, she warned everyone about the dangers of helping strangers on lonely highways late at night."

To Lucas and Alexandru: I'll be sending a Google Form for you to fill out with your Prize Wall pick. You get one (1) item of your choice! 

And Hey! NONE of our participants in the October events walked away empty handed. You earned this awesome badge for your profile if you submitted a bot, a paranormal story, or even tackled the Trivia Tower events:

So happy for you! Those are meant to be more like "surprise boxes" but you can write in the comments of the Google form if there's something you'd really like to be included. 

Yey!!! <3 Thank you so much! 

I just wanted to ask, if there is a detailed list with the contents for each section of the Prize Wall, the chocolate thing and fire pit is pretty straightforward, but the other ones I don't know what they contain and would be nice to know before actually making a decision. 

Thank you once again and looking forward to your reply

For the month of October, we had some pretty amazing events. Not only did we feature four (4) Trivia Tower challenges, but we also topped off spooky season with the main event: THE BIG, BAD BOT BASH (or BBBB for brevity).

What was the BBBB? 

It was a two-part challenge where we asked you to submit a story about either:

1. A bot you've created with Genesys software or artificial intelligence. Or... 

2. A paranormal story that happened to you or a close relationship. (P.s. I'm still freaked by the tales we received!)

Unfortunately, there could only be one winner for each category. Let's get to who won and why. (A big shout-out to those who participated in both categories of the BBBB! You're awesome!)

WHO WON "BEST BOT" SUBMISSION: 

We asked our technical, "bot guru" @Jamie Lowke to judge the submissions and tell us why her favorite submission topped the rest. About the winner, she said: "We love how you thought out your process, and connected your bot to data. You are bringing the bot to the customer's vernacular. Meeting the customer where they are!" 

That's some high praise for our winner... @Lucas Woodward who submitted the winning bot below: 

"The project I created pulls together metrics from Flows, Bots, Integrations, all the way down to the services our bots depend and their databases. This unified view gives us:

• An in-depth understanding of how are bots and their dependencies are behaving

• The ability to gracefully degrade functionality

• A wealth of information necessary to debug issues

This is an overview I drew for a LinkedIn post.

I started this project in my own time with the expectation of it coming in handy as we continued to create bots that handled more complex journeys. These journeys heavily rely on backend services we've created to perform actions on behalf of the customer, so being able to see how the entire stack was behaving (from Genesys Cloud Bots/Flows, Integrations, Data Actions, OAuth clients etc all the way down to K8s services using RDS) was vital for diagnosing issues and deriving business value.

It didn't take me too long, especially using Genesys Cloud's EventBridge Integration, which is incredibly useful. I also made it use AWS's Lambda and DynamoDB, allowing it to scale automatically based on demand. I blogged about the architecture here, along with one aspect of the metrics gathering.

My favourite memory of it, and when it showed its true worth, was when we (and similar companies) had an unprecedented amount of customer contact (approx 700% more) over a couple of days. During this period we were able to closely monitor every aspect of our journey. This allowed us to diagnose issues within minutes. Last time I checked it was processing on average 4 million+ events a month at approx $50.

WHO WON "BEST PARANORMAL" STORY: 

We had two judges for this part of the BBBB. The first was Ezekiel Kincaid, known to his fans as the "Paranormal Pastor." The second was full-time ghost enthusiast Chelsea Connor. They read through all of the submissions, ranked their favorites, and handed Matt and I the results. 

Ezekial said this about the winning entry: "Full bodied apparitions like this are extremely rare. For this lady to experience something like this makes the story really stand out to me. This type of haunting would be classified as a residual haunting. I have experienced every type of phenomena on my investigations except a residual. Another reason this one stood out."

Chelsea commented: "What a gripping story! The writer did a great job building suspense and unease with the reveal of the ghost encounter. The story is over, but the lingering sense of mystery and warning remain..." 

Congrats to @Alexandru Ungureanu who scared us silly with his paranormal story below: 

"Once, my aunt shared a captivating tale about a night she spent driving on a deserted highway. It was late, the kind of late where only the moonlight illuminates the road ahead. She was on her way home from a late shift, the glow of her headlights cutting through the darkness. The radio was playing softly, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched.

As she drove, she noticed a figure by the roadside-faintly lit by her headlights, a man dressed in a tattered coat and jeans, waving for help. My aunt's instincts kicked in, and she decided to stop. The man approached her window, his face obscured by shadows. He claimed his car had broken down and asked for a ride to the nearest town. Though my aunt felt a chill run down her spine, she remembered her courage and opened the door.

As they started to talk, she realized something was off. His story didn't add up-details were inconsistent, and his eyes held a strange depth, as if they had seen far too much in his lifetime. The air felt heavy, thick with tension. Suddenly, she spotted something in the rearview mirror-a second vehicle, tailing them closely. Panic set in, and she floored the gas pedal, her heart racing, the man gazing calmly in the passenger seat as cars whizzed by.

In a moment of desperation, she chose to take a detour onto an old back road, hoping to lose whatever was behind her. The man remained eerily quiet. Minutes stretched into eternity as she maneuvered through the winding path. Just as she thought she had lost her pursuer, she dared to glance over at her passenger, only to find he had vanished without a trace. The seat beside her was empty.

Terrified, she rushed home, her heart pounding in her ears. Even after arriving, she felt an unease settle in-a lingering presence that just wouldn't leave her, as if the man's spirit had found a way to follow her. The next day, she learned from a neighbor that a sighting of that same man had been reported for years on that particular highway, always asking for help but never being truly there.

My aunt never drove that road again, forever haunted by the night she picked up a ghost. And from then on, she warned everyone about the dangers of helping strangers on lonely highways late at night."

To Lucas and Alexandru: I'll be sending a Google Form for you to fill out with your Prize Wall pick. You get one (1) item of your choice! 

And Hey! NONE of our participants in the October events walked away empty handed. You earned this awesome badge for your profile if you submitted a bot, a paranormal story, or even tackled the Trivia Tower events:

Hi Nicole,

I still haven't received the Google Form... If you haven't sent it already, I'm sorry :D but I just want to double check.

Thank you! 

So happy for you! Those are meant to be more like "surprise boxes" but you can write in the comments of the Google form if there's something you'd really like to be included. 

Yey!!! <3 Thank you so much! 

I just wanted to ask, if there is a detailed list with the contents for each section of the Prize Wall, the chocolate thing and fire pit is pretty straightforward, but the other ones I don't know what they contain and would be nice to know before actually making a decision. 

Thank you once again and looking forward to your reply

For the month of October, we had some pretty amazing events. Not only did we feature four (4) Trivia Tower challenges, but we also topped off spooky season with the main event: THE BIG, BAD BOT BASH (or BBBB for brevity).

What was the BBBB? 

It was a two-part challenge where we asked you to submit a story about either:

1. A bot you've created with Genesys software or artificial intelligence. Or... 

2. A paranormal story that happened to you or a close relationship. (P.s. I'm still freaked by the tales we received!)

Unfortunately, there could only be one winner for each category. Let's get to who won and why. (A big shout-out to those who participated in both categories of the BBBB! You're awesome!)

WHO WON "BEST BOT" SUBMISSION: 

We asked our technical, "bot guru" @Jamie Lowke to judge the submissions and tell us why her favorite submission topped the rest. About the winner, she said: "We love how you thought out your process, and connected your bot to data. You are bringing the bot to the customer's vernacular. Meeting the customer where they are!" 

That's some high praise for our winner... @Lucas Woodward who submitted the winning bot below: 

"The project I created pulls together metrics from Flows, Bots, Integrations, all the way down to the services our bots depend and their databases. This unified view gives us:

• An in-depth understanding of how are bots and their dependencies are behaving

• The ability to gracefully degrade functionality

• A wealth of information necessary to debug issues

This is an overview I drew for a LinkedIn post.

I started this project in my own time with the expectation of it coming in handy as we continued to create bots that handled more complex journeys. These journeys heavily rely on backend services we've created to perform actions on behalf of the customer, so being able to see how the entire stack was behaving (from Genesys Cloud Bots/Flows, Integrations, Data Actions, OAuth clients etc all the way down to K8s services using RDS) was vital for diagnosing issues and deriving business value.

It didn't take me too long, especially using Genesys Cloud's EventBridge Integration, which is incredibly useful. I also made it use AWS's Lambda and DynamoDB, allowing it to scale automatically based on demand. I blogged about the architecture here, along with one aspect of the metrics gathering.

My favourite memory of it, and when it showed its true worth, was when we (and similar companies) had an unprecedented amount of customer contact (approx 700% more) over a couple of days. During this period we were able to closely monitor every aspect of our journey. This allowed us to diagnose issues within minutes. Last time I checked it was processing on average 4 million+ events a month at approx $50.

WHO WON "BEST PARANORMAL" STORY: 

We had two judges for this part of the BBBB. The first was Ezekiel Kincaid, known to his fans as the "Paranormal Pastor." The second was full-time ghost enthusiast Chelsea Connor. They read through all of the submissions, ranked their favorites, and handed Matt and I the results. 

Ezekial said this about the winning entry: "Full bodied apparitions like this are extremely rare. For this lady to experience something like this makes the story really stand out to me. This type of haunting would be classified as a residual haunting. I have experienced every type of phenomena on my investigations except a residual. Another reason this one stood out."

Chelsea commented: "What a gripping story! The writer did a great job building suspense and unease with the reveal of the ghost encounter. The story is over, but the lingering sense of mystery and warning remain..." 

Congrats to @Alexandru Ungureanu who scared us silly with his paranormal story below: 

"Once, my aunt shared a captivating tale about a night she spent driving on a deserted highway. It was late, the kind of late where only the moonlight illuminates the road ahead. She was on her way home from a late shift, the glow of her headlights cutting through the darkness. The radio was playing softly, but she couldn't shake off the feeling of being watched.

As she drove, she noticed a figure by the roadside-faintly lit by her headlights, a man dressed in a tattered coat and jeans, waving for help. My aunt's instincts kicked in, and she decided to stop. The man approached her window, his face obscured by shadows. He claimed his car had broken down and asked for a ride to the nearest town. Though my aunt felt a chill run down her spine, she remembered her courage and opened the door.

As they started to talk, she realized something was off. His story didn't add up-details were inconsistent, and his eyes held a strange depth, as if they had seen far too much in his lifetime. The air felt heavy, thick with tension. Suddenly, she spotted something in the rearview mirror-a second vehicle, tailing them closely. Panic set in, and she floored the gas pedal, her heart racing, the man gazing calmly in the passenger seat as cars whizzed by.

In a moment of desperation, she chose to take a detour onto an old back road, hoping to lose whatever was behind her. The man remained eerily quiet. Minutes stretched into eternity as she maneuvered through the winding path. Just as she thought she had lost her pursuer, she dared to glance over at her passenger, only to find he had vanished without a trace. The seat beside her was empty.

Terrified, she rushed home, her heart pounding in her ears. Even after arriving, she felt an unease settle in-a lingering presence that just wouldn't leave her, as if the man's spirit had found a way to follow her. The next day, she learned from a neighbor that a sighting of that same man had been reported for years on that particular highway, always asking for help but never being truly there.

My aunt never drove that road again, forever haunted by the night she picked up a ghost. And from then on, she warned everyone about the dangers of helping strangers on lonely highways late at night."

To Lucas and Alexandru: I'll be sending a Google Form for you to fill out with your Prize Wall pick. You get one (1) item of your choice! 

And Hey! NONE of our participants in the October events walked away empty handed. You earned this awesome badge for your profile if you submitted a bot, a paranormal story, or even tackled the Trivia Tower events:

For the month of October, we had some pretty amazing events. Not only did we feature four (4) Trivia Tower challenges, but we also topped off spooky season with the main event: THE BIG, BAD BOT BASH (or BBBB for brevity).

What was the BBBB? 

It was a two-part challenge where we asked you to submit a story about either:

1. A bot you've created with Genesys software or artificial intelligence. Or... 

2. A paranormal story that happened to you or a close relationship. (P.s. I'm still freaked by the tales we received!)

Unfortunately, there could only be one winner for each category. Let's get to who won and why. (A big shout-out to those who participated in both categories of the BBBB! You're awesome!)

WHO WON "BEST BOT" SUBMISSION: 

We asked our technical, "bot guru" @Jamie Lowke to judge the submissions and tell us why her favorite submission topped the rest. About the winner, she said: "We love how you thought out your process, and connected your bot to data. You are bringing the bot to the customer's vernacular. Meeting the customer where they are!" 

That's some high praise for our winner... @Lucas Woodward who submitted the winning bot below: 

"The project I created pulls together metrics from Flows, Bots, Integrations, all the way down to the services our bots depend and their databases. This unified view gives us:

• An in-depth understanding of how are bots and their dependencies are behaving

• The ability to gracefully degrade functionality

• A wealth of information necessary to debug issues

This is an overview I drew for a LinkedIn post.

I started this project in my own time with the expectation of it coming in handy as we continued to create bots that handled more complex journeys. These journeys heavily rely on backend services we've created to perform actions on behalf of the customer, so being able to see how the entire stack was behaving (from Genesys Cloud Bots/Flows, Integrations, Data Actions, OAuth clients etc all the way down to K8s services using RDS) was vital for diagnosing issues and deriving business value.

It didn't take me too long, especially using Genesys Cloud's EventBridge Integration, which is incredibly useful. I also made it use AWS's Lambda and DynamoDB, allowing it to scale automatically based on demand. I blogged about the architecture here, along with one aspect of the metrics gathering.

My favourite memory of it, and when it showed its true worth, was when we (and similar companies) had an unprecedented amount of customer contact (approx 700% more) over a couple of days. During this period we were able to closely monitor every aspect of our journey. This allowed us to diagnose issues within minutes. Last time I checked it was processing on average 4 million+ events a month at approx $50.

WHO WON "BEST PARANORMAL" STORY: 

We had two judges for this part of the BBBB. The first was Ezekiel Kincaid, known to his fans as the "Paranormal Pastor." The second was full-time ghost enthusiast Chelsea Connor. They read through all of the submissions, ranked their favorites, and handed Matt and I the results. 

Ezekial said this about the winning entry: "Full bodied apparitions like this are extremely rare. For this lady to experience something like this makes the story really stand out to me. This type of haunting would be classified as a residual haunting. I have experienced every type of phenomena on my investigations except a residual. Another reason this one stood out."

Chelsea commented: "What a gripping story! The writer did a great job building suspense and unease with the reveal of the ghost encounter. The story is over, but the lingering sense of mystery and warning remain..." 

Congrats to @Alexandru Ungureanu who scared us silly with his paranormal story below: 

"Once, my aunt shared a captivating tale about a night she spent driving on a deserted highway. It was late, the kind of late where only the moonlight illuminates the r