On this episode of Collaboration Cafe, the Collab Collective’s Craig Durr visits South Florida to sit down with Danny Hayasaka, Managing Director Americas and SVP Global Marketing at Mago. Known across the industry for his hands-on product demos and end-user-focused technology reviews, Danny shares the story behind his journey—from building independent YouTube content during his Call One days to stepping into a global leadership role at Mago.
Filmed across the Call One experience rooms, this conversation highlights Danny’s philosophy on accessibility in collaboration technology, the evolution of hybrid workspaces, and how Mago is helping organizations meet, present, and collaborate more intuitively.
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Craig Durr: Alright, can you hear that? It’s cicadas. If you’re here, you'd feel it—the humidity. If you look in the background, you see it—the sunny weather, mixed variables with some clouds rolling in.
Where do I find myself? I am in South Florida. Actually, I'm on the east coast of South Florida… places like Coco City and Cape Canaveral. Now, when I come to this South Florida area, I think of a couple of things. I think of rocket ships. I think of NASA. I think of Latino Caribbean culture coming together—the flavors and foods—and imagine what the coffee is like.
But I also think about some friends who live here like Danny Hayasaka. He is based in South Florida, but I'm selling him short. He is actually probably more known nationally, even internationally, for the content he's been putting out for the last six or seven years for Call One and now for his new employer, Mago.
What is he doing? Well, he has kind of broken down this idea of taking technology and making it really accessible to everyone. I think it's telling me it's time to go see Danny Hayasaka and let's learn more about what his views are on UC. Come on on this edition of the Collaboration Cafe.
Danny Hayasaka: So I approached it differently because as soon as I announced that I was on my own, I had brands reach out and say, “Hey, we'll sponsor you.”
Craig Durr: That's awesome.
Danny Hayasaka: I was like, “Well, I appreciate it.” I said, “I'll appreciate products and send products, but to maintain a true independent tech review, you can't pay me.”
So my approach is, I'm an advocate for the end user, so there's so many folks that create content from different knowledge levels. So you have these MVPs, and you have all these like it folks, or these engineers that are creating these how-to videos or these demo videos, and that's great.
But if you're an end user… if you're Paul, Joe, Betty, Susie at cubicle 2AB2 that gets handed this device, you don't have the same skill set or knowledge base of those people. You’re a team member—you're an employee, and you got handed this technology and see how easy or how difficult it is.
Craig Durr: Your first exposure technology was probably in the army. Is that what you said before?
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah. Well, as a medical laboratory technologist. We deal with machines, technology, and testing.
Craig Durr: If I remember correctly, that is where you met your wife, Michelle.
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah
Craig Durr: How long ago was that?
Danny Hayasaka: Well, we've been married 30 years now. So it's 30 years… 30 plus years.
Craig Durr: And Michelle's family is the one that started Call One.
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, her aunt and uncle.
Craig Durr: Really? So then you came back, and then you wind up being a business development person?
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, I just started as a shipping and receiving clerk, and we were 411, at that time for sales and customer service. And I don't even know how that started, but we would get calls from the sales people asking about what's in the box. We would ask, “What does it connect to?” And so I don't even know how we became that, but that seemed to be the process or the knowledge, that's just the SOP. I was struggling to sometimes explain to a customer where something was or what buttons to press. And I said, “You know what, I'll film it.”
And then what happened was, way back then you couldn't just email a video file; it's too big. So I said, “How do I get this in a shareable format?” And I was looking around like… YouTube! I can just upload it to YouTube and then, get the link and send them the link.
Craig Durr: You know what the best thing I like about those early videos is this pre-beard, and as you got more and more… the beard just kept going and growing, right?
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah
The benefit of having a YouTube channel is that there's no shortage of ideas for content because I am constantly getting questions from the YouTube viewers, I'm getting comments from YouTube viewers who asked me to test this, test that.
Craig Durr: That's awesome. See, that's where we haven't gone at my company, we haven't yet crossed it. So we're still using YouTube a little bit like an archive, and we're still parking to that there, but to start driving that interaction, that's a really special thing to have with that viewers.
Danny Hayasaka: That is probably the best thing that's happened because I get a perspective not from the talking heads, not from the analyst, not from the IT decision makers, the C level folks… I get it directly from the end users.
It's like, I get directly from end users all over the world.
Craig Durr: Okay, speaking about being all over the world—your new role gives you a chance to actually do some traveling. You're going to be at GITEX this year.
Danny Hayasaka: Yes, I will be. I'm going to be heading to Dubai, and it'll be my first time ever. So I'm excited, scared, nervous, all at the same time.
Craig Durr: Our friend, Neil Fluester, is going to be there. You guys should get together and do some content.
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, and then I'll also finally get to go to ISE.
Craig Durr: That's my favorite one. I love that one. That is a great show.
Danny Hayasaka: So I'm super excited about that.
Craig Durr: Well, coffee's done. Should we go check out the Call One office?
Danny Hayasaka: Let's go check it out.
Craig Durr: So let's see the office. You can walk me through all the other stuff, but I want to spend some time with Mago and understand more about that. Sounds good?
Danny Hayasaka: Sounds fantastic
Craig Durr: All right, perfect. We're gonna see you guys at the Call One office.
Hey, Danny!
Danny Hayasaka: What’s up? Welcome to Call One.
Craig Durr: I love it. This is great. So this is where I've seen you record so much of your content, right? This is like all the showrooms you put together?
Danny Hayasaka: Yes, all the experience rooms, experience spaces.
Craig Durr: And this wasn't necessarily what it was designed for originally. There were really a lot of people on site.
Danny Hayasaka: This was a regular old office space that had people sitting in cubicles all over and then, of course, the pandemic happened. Then we went to a hybrid model, and now we're almost completely remote except for our operations downstairs and a few folks up here.
Craig Durr: Now, you guys just had a partner event. I think you said you linked there, but why don't we do this: why don't you walk around and show me all these different rooms that you set up? I mean, starting with right here.
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, so this is Shokz. So it is a very unique partner because they have bone conduction technology that no other headset brand has. And so we have this right up here because most people have never tried it, and this is something you have to try and experience for the first time.
Craig Durr: I love it. So what you do here is this: customers come in, they want to see certain products, you have the ability to walk people through multiple vendors and multiple experiences, right?
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah. One of the things that we like to do is showcase the technology because you can read tech specs all day long, but until you actually sit down in the space, in a fully functioning space like we have here, you don't really know how that looks and feels, and so it's great to have people physically here. But it's even better when they're on the remote end because that's why you want this technology.
Craig Durr: Actually, you even told me your wife was the one that helped design these spaces, right?
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, she helped design all these spaces. And if you look at all the rooms, they all have a different look and feel.
Craig Durr: I love it. They're great.
Oh, look at this. This is wonderful. So you've got now set up all their stuff. This is the Neat Frame. I can sit here and have the experience of understanding what it's like to have a little…
Danny Hayasaka: Focus room, or to have a personal space, or huddle space…
Craig Durr: Then, there’s the Neat Bar as well.
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, they have the Neat Bar with the Neat Pad, and then we also have the Neat Board here.
Craig Durr: So when you guys have customers come in here, where are they coming from? Are they just from the South Florida area?
Danny Hayasaka: No, they come from all over the United States. The Call One direct footprint extends all across the United States. They can come here from anywhere, so we're able to host them here in person, or oftentimes it's virtual.
Craig Durr: We've been walking around seeing all the other products. I want to see some Mago.
Danny Hayasaka: The way I like to present Mago is through three pillars: meet, present, collaborate.
Customers have the ability to tailor a solution based on their needs, so if they simply want to share content, which is one of the biggest entry points that we have. People walk into meetings, but they don't necessarily need to join a video call. It's a partner, a vendor, someone coming in simply to share a presentation onto the screen. I call it a C Spot run chart. They create a C Spot run chart. So I'm gonna follow instructions. I'm gonna go to my screen share, I'm gonna look for Mago Logitech, and then I'm gonna be able to start sharing.
Craig Durr: So you're just sharing right now over Apple screen sharing, right?
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah
Craig Durr: So you're sharing your iPhone right now.
Danny Hayasaka: Over Apple AirPlay, and then I'm able to show whatever content I have from my iPhone, from an Android device, from a macOS device, or a Windows 11 device. It's so simple, and anybody can do it.
Craig Durr: So that's sharing natively to the Apple device. I saw windows as well, so that would be the same as if I was on my laptop.
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, Windows K, start sharing, and just put it up.
Craig Durr: Now, this is part of the present pillar, right? If I wanted to collaborate, there's the opportunity where we saw down in your other old office, the board that had the interactiveness. And that's where you're showing me that we can do interactive two-way annotation.
Danny Hayasaka: Yeah, so with the Mago whiteboard, it takes it a step above or beyond the normal whiteboard. So normal whiteboards, they have templates, and you can annotate with the Mago whiteboard. You can actually inject YouTube videos, you can put in websites, and you can have them all in there. And you can actually browse through the website right from the whiteboard. People can come in and join. You can invite people to join that whiteboard. They can write up or annotate on there. You have so many different options that are available through Mago that you simply can't get with others.
Craig Durr: That's crazy. And you get to bring this out. Your new title is…
Danny Hayasaka:My new title is Managing Director Americas and SVP Global Marketing.
Craig Durr: That's exciting. I'm looking forward to it. And it's funny because you're making your grand debut also at these other international festivals or conferences we talked about, too, right?
Danny Hayasaka: Oh, yeah. So I'll get to go to all those events and shows that I only saw from afar.
Craig Durr: That sounds good. So let's do this. I won't be at GITEX, but I'll be at ISE. So I think what we should do is we should plan a follow up Collaboration Cafe then, right? Second cup of coffee. We'll compare our Cuban coffee that we had to the Spanish coffee.
Danny Hayasaka: I know, I'm all wound up right now.
Craig Durr: Well, why don't we wrap this up then?
Hey, Danny, thank you so much. I really appreciate it.
Everyone, this has been another great episode of the Collaboration Cafe. A little jazz from that coffee, but I think we're gonna do okay. Stay tuned. Follow us on this social media channel, and we're going to bring some more great stuff to you from Mago and some other people as well. Take care, everyone.