The subject of the Executive Conference is hard to avoid this time of the year. Not only are we in the final stretch towards our conference; the weather (particularly for those in northern latitudes) keeps teasing us about warmer months ahead. It is hard to ignore the fact that the weather is already nice and warm in Florida.
The lead indicators for our conference look good: Our Expo is sold out, income from sponsorships are at an all-time high, and registration numbers keep hinting at a possible attendance record. If you are planning to join us, don’t delay your registration. We have developed a program that emphasizes two things:
- Best Practices, with an emphasis on smaller, up-and-coming companies.
- Transformative business models, and the emerging opportunities they provide to SIs.
The Executive Conference is the culmination of months of work by staff and an extensive number of SI and Partner member volunteers. In an effort to keep our conference relevant we regularly receive and generate new ideas that we run by members. Some of these ideas make it to the conference, such as the CSIA 5K Fun Run/Walk and the Un-Conference format we introduced last year. We also know that we have members that have attended our conferences for years and expect to find those things that we have always offered. In other words, every conference represents a balancing act between tradition and innovation. This may be a similar challenge that your companies face as well.
As part of our Road to the 2017 Conference process, we have been delivering webinars prepared primarily by conference speakers. The attendance has been solid and I have received a few e-mails saying, “This was the best webinar ever!” I’ve been equally pleased to hear from members that they have made it part of their company’s tradition to include a recorded webinar in their regular monthly meetings. From my perspective, this is a Best Practice worth sharing.
We look forward to seeing you in Ft. Lauderdale.