Preview of this Year’s User Conference

This year’s User Conference (UCON) will be our 3rd, and we intend for it to be the best one yet. The past two have set a high bar but we are excited by our plans to do even better this year. We are targeting a larger audience, a more interactive experience for our attendees, and the best content yet.

We’ve taken suggestions from those that attended in the past and combined that with some ideas of our own. Here’s a preview of what’s planned:

Venue & Agenda

First, what’s the same. Since we’ve had great reviews of last year’s location, this year’s conference is also at the JW Marriott in Houston, Texas. We’ve kept the price the same, too. As in the past, it will be over 2 days, starting on Tuesday so that out of town people don’t have to travel on a weekend. The basic format is the same:

Changes to Break-out Sessions

In response to suggestions from last year, we intend to make some enhancements to the way we do the Break-out sessions. First, we’ll have 2 opportunities to see most (if not all) of them. This will mean that you don’t have to choose between conflicting sessions that both sound interesting. Secondly, the duration of sessions will be shortened to 50 minutes. With a 10 minute transition, this will allow us to have a session each hour. In fact many sessions will have 2 topics that will last 25 minutes each. These will be complementary in nature and should be attended as one. Finally, we’ve got some great ideas for interesting presentation formats. Not all sessions will be the usual presenter up front!

Over the next few weeks we’ll share our session ideas as the agenda firms up. We’d obviously like to hear your thoughts so that we can tune the presentations. Please post comments to our blog or just contact us directly.

And there is more…

• Our Synthesis User Council will be convening on the Monday before the conference starts. Marcus & Christy will send out details as we get closer. The council will have been busy helping craft the Synthesis road-map and will report out to the conference attendees later in the week.
• The very popular Customer Appreciation Dinner will be on the Tuesday night.
• Goodies galore
• Plus a Big Announcement – maybe not Apple iPad big – maybe not Tiger Woods press conference big – but big non theless.

Take advantage of the early sign up discounts. Stay tuned for more details and let us know your suggestions.