Hold an Annual User’s Conference

Every year in the Fall we hold an annual user’s conference. In fact, our conference for this year is right around the corner. The user’s conference is one of the highlights of my year as it is the best time to meet with many clients over a two day period. Our business model is primarily selling direct with an inside sales team, so we rarely meet prospects and clients face to face. Over time we build rapport with our users as our services, support, and engineering departments regularly interact with clients, but there’s something lacking without face time. An annual user’s conference fills that gap.

Here are a few benefits of holding an annual user’s conference:

• Cheerleading – Provides a great experience for team members to understand how much customers really value what we do
• Feedback – Allows us to capture feedback and input on how we’re doing and the direction of the product
• Excitement – Gets customers energized about our software as well as helps with any challenges they might have encountered

Now, a user’s conference is a big production and takes considerable planning. I’d recommend ensuring at least 30 people can attend (we average a little over 100 people at our conference each year). My advice is to seriously consider having an annual user’s conference as my experience with them has been exceptional.

What else? Have you hosted or attended a user’s conference and found it valuable?