Annual North American User Conference

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7 Comments

Comment by Daniel Lecavalier on September 29, 2008 at 4:56pm

I think Tampa has a lot to offer. facilities are excellent and the main reason is that SAXO is there and we can have direct access to just about any SAXO employee during the conference.

Comment by Dan Geiser on July 8, 2008 at 2:20pm

This year's conference was our first, and I have to say I was a little disappointed. The lion's share of the programming was for online. Our online staffers got a lot out of the online sessions, which is great. But to be honest, those of us who are focused more on print didn't learn much new from the few print sessions (sorry, Ronnie!). And the "combined" sessions were so focused on technical aspects of online that we gained very little from them. Where we gained most from the conference was in talking with Saxo staffers and other users outside the sessions.

That said, a couple of thoughts about next year's conference:

Devote more time to print. Don't cut back on the online sessions, but increase the number of print sessions.

Use Saxo users' knowledge at the conference -- or as Paul Harris says, "Tap into audience wisdom." Have users lead sessions. Have user roundtables. Survey users before the conference: "What were your greatest Saxo victories of the past year? What are your biggest Saxo headaches?" Then collate the responses and develop user-led sessions on the most frequently mentioned items.

Comment by Paul Harris on May 23, 2008 at 12:03pm

How to Make Conferences Great (link)

Max Kaleoff today posted a good account of specific elements that are part of producing high value industry conferences. (OnlineSPIN: http://blogs.mediapost.com/spin/?p=1306)

I think we nailed some of these points at this year's Mediaware 08 in Tampa. But there are some others where we clearly need more focus...and participation from our users.

One area that key stakeholders here in the corporate office agree on: "Tap into audience wisdom." Ronnie W scratched the surface of that iceberg with the "best practices" session that he moderated.

Heads up: we'll be looking to this group to step up to the plate next year. Mike S. has signed up to help coordinate the programming. We want to see a good chunk of the agenda driven by users next year.

- Paul

Comment by Paul Harris on May 9, 2008 at 7:57am

Good ideas, Howard. We discussed a need for more space and more breakout rooms for next year.

One of our new employees is going to be dedicated to working on a survey of attendees starting today. While I'm a big believer in using the web for surveys, we're interested in capturing more qualitative feedback from conference attendees, so her methodology will be depth interviews via phone. More to come on this...

Comment by Howard Fielding on May 9, 2008 at 12:22am

It is unfortunate that some of the old standbys didn't show up this year -- perhaps the economy is a factor.

In planning future conferences, might I suggest that we ask the facility for an additional breakout room and use that for less formal roundtable discussions or group-generated presentations. These could be spontaneous, or scheduled during sessions when product presentations are being offered. (Not all editorial users are on Adobe, for example; I could have used that session time some other way.)

Perhaps the schedule could be one day for Saxo solutions, another for industry issues, another for products, etc.

On the question of venues, I don't care whether it's city or beach, as long as it has good conference facilities. Although I notice that the number of laptops with extended batteries is increasing, some of us still need plug-ins; one of the problems with all the venues so far is that available power strips are few and far between.

Comment by Mike Schoepke on May 8, 2008 at 4:53pm

I second Paul's comments. It was a great investment for us at the Daily Herald. Looking forward to the minutes. We need to build the synergy between all users.

Comment by Paul Harris on May 8, 2008 at 3:41pm

It was great to see a strong turnout for this year's user conference in Tampa. We had an internal wrap-up and feedback session this afternoon with all who participated from Saxotech. We'll summarize our minutes and share any pertinent outtakes with the group. We'll be conducting a survey of all attendees to get your feedback. But if you want to share anything now, go for it.

Thanks again to all who participated.
Paul