Have you ever spent so much time on a massive project that once it was finished, you weren’t sure what to do? That’s how I felt yesterday once I realized I was finished with Phase 1 of the new Practical Software Solutions website. Oh, don’t get me wrong: There was plenty of stuff for me to do. It just felt like I was forgetting to do something all day.
But that was yesterday. Today, the stuff hits the fan all over again — but in a good way. Today is the first time in recent memory that Sage Summit and Cultivate’16 registration are beginning on the same day at the exact same time. Today officially marks the beginning of the two biggest events on our calendar — both of which happen in July — and our busiest time of year.
Sage Summit 2016 starts with a bang
Sir Richard Branson will be headlining the featured speakers at Sage Summit 2016.
Sage did not beat about the bush with announcing the beginning of Sage Summit registration: Sir Richard Branson, the founder of Virgin Media, will be the marquee featured keynote speaker for Sage Summit 2016. When you have the world’s most popular conference for small- and medium-sized business, what better speaker to have than the world’s most famous entrepreneur?
But that’s not the only news coming out of Sage Summit. Last Monday, I was lucky enough to have a conversation with Danielle Cote, the vice president of event marketing for Sage. I say “lucky” because she’s a very busy person this time of year. So it was very gracious of her to spend a few minutes with me.
Outside of the news of Richard Branson attending, the next biggest news about Sage Summit 2016 is that they’ve overhauled the educational sessions. The loudest customer feedback Sage received after last year’s conference was there weren’t enough chances to actually learn about the software — what’s new, tips and tricks, etc.
As far as changes to Sage Summit, this year’s version will have more hands-on labs, including ones for Sage X3. And for the first time, Sage Summit will feature customer certification prep classes for certain products. Certification is great for people who want to learn their Sage products from top to bottom. Whether an individual is looking to add to their proven credentials or a company wants to have an employee on hand as a resource to help assist other employees, these prep classes are a great place to start.
During Sage Summit registration, customers can filter searches to find classes marked Cert Prep for their designated Sage product in the session catalog. These are sessions that will be helpful in preparing for the certification test. All customers who registered for Sage Summit will receive a special code via e-mail to take their certification test online at Sage University, which can be done before, during, or up to 30 days after Sage Summit.
By the way — speaking of hands-on sessions at Sage Summit — the lab sessions will take place in actual classrooms this year instead of out in the open. (I’ll pause a moment for the cheering to die down.) This is one of those examples where Sage tried to do the right thing by making more sessions centrally located, but due to technical difficulties, the sessions didn’t go off as planned. Good on Sage for listening to this important feedback and moving the labs back into classrooms.
Speaking of registering for sessions, we’ve been asked to pass on the message for customers and partners alike to register for sessions as early as possible. I’ll go into this more in my next post.
This is only the beginning for Sage Summit 2016, which will take place at McCormick Place in Chicago from July 25-29. From now until the last week in July, we’ll be hearing more news about Sage Summit — and we’ll keep on bringing that information to you!
Cultivate’16: The New Now
Cultivate’16 will focus on The New Now.
For years, we’ve been seeing the New Normal evolving in the horticulture industry. Whether it’s changes to immigration and health care or improvements in the latest technology, horticulture is vastly different than it was even a decade ago.
This year, Cultivate’16 will focus on The New Now. We’re going to be showing off our New Now with our all-new, all-mobile version of Grower Vertical. Mobility is a huge factor in the business world, and growers are no exception.
It’s one thing to have a couple of useful apps available for a mobile device. But with this new version of Grower Vertical, the entire business system can be accessed anytime, anywhere, from any connected device with a browser. We’re really looking forward to showing this off at Cultivate’16, which takes place at the Great Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, from July 9-12.
So what are you waiting for? Go register for these two great events!