My alarm goes off early on this Easter Sunday. Although I
got back to the Netherlands just a few days ago, it is time to grab my bags and
hit the road. An eight hour flight takes me to Chicago, where I'll be attending
both an internal meeting with our department as well as speaking at our annual
customer conference Macola Evolve. Afterwards I'll be flying of to New
Orleans; not necessarily around the
corner from Chicago, but after crossing the Atlantic ocean distance becomes
relative.
On Thursday evening the conference draws to a close with a
dance party where a band entertains us with a mixture of Jazz, 70’s/80’s and
Pop music.
The flight to Chicago is uneventful and I order an Uber to
go to the Hyatt Regency downtown, where the conference will be held. The driver
tells me about his life: about how he moved from India to the United States to
provide better education for his children; about how he started a store in
men's shoes, expanded that business to four stores and how that all came to a
sudden end, when he had to undergo an open-heart-surgery after multiple heart
attacks. "I had to sell my house and file bankruptcy because of the
medical bill" he said. "But you are still here!", I reply.
"Yes! Now I have no money and no worries. This is much better!" When
I ask him about some of the most important lessons he has learned he replies
with "don't work too much, rather enjoy time with your family more."
And with a big smile he adds: "Oh, and make sure you have insurance!"
I get settled in the hotel room, drink a large cup of coffee
to stay awake, iron my shirts and meet some of my co-workers for dinner. We
have reservations at Shaw’s Crab House, a 1940's style seafood restaurant with
a white-tablecloth-dining room. Since it is Easter Sunday they have prepared a
buffet with all the kinds of fish you can imagine. Oysters, sushi, salmon, Alaskan
King crab legs, lobster bisque, seafood gumbo and the list goes on. Oh and did
I mention all-you-can-eat crab legs? If you are not big on fish (then why would
you go to a crab house?) there were also delicious pieces of steak and lamb to
enjoy.
The food and service are both excellent and that shows in the
bill. Never would I choose a place with a $79 (excluding drinks) charge for a buffet. I like
to see food as fuel, not as entertainment. I marked April as
"No-Complaint-Month", so I really can't (and don't want to) complain.
Besides, if I would always just do things my way, it would be a pretty monotone
life.
The week starts with our internal meeting starts in the hotel. Our
group of 32 co-workers travelled from Kuala Lumpur, Canada, from all over the United
States and obviously I came from the Netherlands. It is great to catch-up. I've
known most of my co-workers for about six years and I am working pretty close
with them on a daily basis. Unfortunately, I only get see the majority of
them face-to-face about once a year. Therefore
I always enjoy our once-a-year gatherings where we can share hugs, catch-up and
cheers with a drink. And yes, we also talk business.
We discuss strategies for being successful in delivering
consistent and high quality services to our customers, several people conduct
training sessions and our General Manager spends some time with us as well.
On Tuesday the actual conference starts. There are general sessions
with a mixture of internal speakers from our management team on the one hand, and
external speakers like Jim Carroll - who is described as a global futurist,
trends and innovation expert - on the other hand. It is pretty cool to hear
from someone who gets to advice organizations like NASA. There are also about sixty-five 60-90 minutes break-out sessions during the three days of the conference.
This is the fifth year in a row that I get to attend our conference and it feels like a breeze compared to other years. Previously, only a small number of consultants got to go to the conference, which meant that I was presenting in many sessions and involved in manning our booth in between these sessions: exhausting. Since our whole group is here this year, we can spread the workload. I’m only presenting four sessions and for the first time I can actually sit in at other sessions and learn something new.
This year my sessions are about different areas of our software: about creating transactions from workflow, managing opportunities and about how to extend our software using ASP.NET. I receive a lot of great feedback from customers who came to see me at the end of the sessions or during lunch breaks: "I just wanted to say: It was so great seeing you present out there and having so much fun. You really know your stuff!” and "my co-workers just told me that your session was by far the best session they've seen so far! You're quick, smart and funny!" I enjoy presenting our software’s capabilities (without taking myself too seriously) through demo’s and it is awesome to get such great feedback.
One of the ASP.NET sessions is scheduled right after the lunch break and I’m explaining lines of code. The people who are into programming are focused and curious to see how things work in the background. I also see a couple of eyelids getting heavier and heavier as the session progresses. Let’s face it: if you are not that interested in programming, then looking at code can be boring; especially after a lunch break!
At one point I notice that one guy (I’ve known him for several years from working together and seeing each other at previous conferences.) falls asleep. I swallow my pride. Until I hear a snoring noise. Not in my class! I leave my stand and start to walk dramatically on the tip of my toes. The crowd is wondering where the heck I’m going, as I make my way over to his seat. I place my hand on his shoulder and whisper in his ear (while the microphone is still turned on so everyone can hear): “It’s OK. We’ve all been there.” He wakes up confused and luckily we are all laughing about it. The session continues. Later he comes to see me and laughs: “You were lucky I didn’t’ wake up throwing punches!”
It is great to connect with customers again and advise them on how to solve business challenges using our software; especially while being ‘off the clock’. Many of them return to our conference every year to keep up with the ‘latest and greatest.’ We go out to dinner together, have drinks at the bar in the evening and also connect on a personal level.
It’s been a long week with long days but I’ve really enjoyed it;
especially because our whole team was here. I'm looking forward to the next conference!
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