Press Release

Balto Named Talkdesk Digital Showdown Winner, Donations Total Over $25,000

Six Talkdesk partners competed again in a virtual digital showdown, co-hosted by SaaS marketplace leader Amanda Nelson, with more than $25,000 in charitable donations


  • Talkdesk Digital Showdown: Innovations in CX named Balto its winner; Playvox runner-up; participants also included Hoopla by Raydiant, injixo, Auvious, and Zingtree 
  • LaunchCode will receive a donation of $10,000 on behalf of Balto; total community giving impact will exceed $25,000 to a variety of charitable organizations

SAN FRANCISCO–May 24, 2022Talkdesk®, Inc., a global contact center leader for customer-obsessed companies, today announced that Balto was named the winner of Talkdesk Digital Showdown: Innovations in CX. The event brought together Talkdesk and six partners across two categories currently trending in the customer experience (CX) space: optimizing workforce performance and elevating customer interactions. Amanda Nelson, senior director of AppExchange communications & community at Salesforce, and Katie Rubak, director of partner marketing at Talkdesk, co-hosted the live event. More than $25,000 will be donated to a variety of charities from the event. 


Talkdesk Digital Showdown combines two of the company’s core values: courageous innovation with environmental and community giving, while showcasing leading CX solutions from across the Talkdesk partner ecosystem. Spotlighting the breadth of technology solutions – available from the Talkdesk AppConnect marketplace – each partner was given three minutes to convince a live audience to crown their CX solution the most innovative application for optimizing workforce performance or elevating customer interactions.


Voted winner by the event’s live audience, Balto offers real-time AI guidance, coaching, and quality assurance to increase conversions, prevent costly compliance mistakes, and improve customer experience. Pat Kerr, director of solutions engineering, showcased how Balto, powered by AI, scales best practices for agents with the push of a button and gives immediate insight into what’s working and what’s not. Founded in 2017 and based in St. Louis, Missouri, Balto has guided over 125 million conversations around the world. 


“Talkdesk and the other contestants put on an exciting show,” said Kerr. “Three minutes is fast, but it proves how quickly our platform demonstrates value to customers. We made an impression with the audience and clinched the win. More importantly, it’s a win for our charity, LaunchCode.”


Balto’s selected charity, LaunchCode, will receive a $10,000 donation from Talkdesk on behalf of Balto, as well as an additional $5,000 that Balto has committed beyond the donation from Talkdesk.


Playvox, a suite of workforce management, quality assurance, performance management, coaching, learning, and agent motivation software, was named the runner-up of the event. Prosper City, their selected charity, will receive a $5,000 donation from Talkdesk on behalf of Playvox. 


Talkdesk will also make $1,000 donations to all remaining participants’ charities. Additional donations will be made by Talkdesk to The Trevor Project on behalf of the Talkdesk team, and to Nelson’s selected charity, No Kid Hungry. More than $25,000 will be donated from a combination of Talkdesk and partner contributions. Other showdown participants and their selected charities include:



As part of the event, Talkdesk also showcased its seamless Talkdesk Agent Workspace experience across voice and omnichannel.  


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About Talkdesk

Talkdesk® is a global cloud contact center leader for customer-obsessed companies. Our automation-first customer experience solutions optimize our customers’ most critical customer service processes. Our speed of innovation, vertical expertise, and global footprint reflect our commitment to ensuring that businesses can deliver better experiences across any industry and through any channel, resulting in higher customer satisfaction and accelerated business outcomes. 


Talkdesk is a registered trademark of Talkdesk, Inc. All product and company names are trademarks™ or registered® trademarks of their respective holders. Use of them does not imply any affiliation with or endorsement by them.  


Media Contact: 


Camille Beasley 

[email protected]

(972) 896-1936