[Kathy Kim]

Amplify 2.0 is over and this morning I sit at my computer exhausted, but excited to share my impression of the conference and ideas for Amplify 3.0.  This is probably more of a “blog” than a “post”, but I think more of the community will see it here (especially since I’ve never blogged in my life, so who would be looking for a blog from me?)  But I digress.

Amplify 2.0
Amplify 2.0 had the same intimate feel that the inaugural Amplify had and allowed for one-on-one time with ISVs. GPUG All-Stars, and MVPs.  With the change in format to have the sales and marketing conference in conjunction with this conference, it seemed a little heavier on ISVs and partners than users this year.  While this wasn’t an issue for me as a user, I’m sure that it concerned some of the sponsors.  From my perspective, I could connect with more people and have deeper conversations.

One of the things that I noticed and that I think will be food for thought for next year’s conference (I hope there is a next year) was the number of first time conference attendees and their enthusiasm for the conference.  One of those users was someone from another organ procurement organization who decided to attend based on things she had learned from me over the last few years.  When I explained that everything I knew came from the GPUG community and the GPUG conferences, she decided it was time to attend.  Her impression of the conference was overwhelmingly positive. She felt she made good contacts in her role as decision-maker, butwas just as excited about the tips, tricks, and user-based education thatwas available.I also had the opportunity to get to know a couple of first-time attendees from South Carolina.  They couldn’t wait to get back to their office to put in place what they learned.

So while Amplify was, in many ways, marketed as the conference for the decision makers in the organization, I found that the first-time conference attendees were among the most enthusiastic.  I think that those of us with several (or MANY) conferences under our belt sometimes forget what it was like the first time they attended one of these conferences and found out how much we DIDN’T know and how happy we were to meet such amazing, smart, generous people as those in the GPUG community.

I don’t believe that Amplify should become another Summit, but it’s important to continue to serve this population with the amazing content provided at Amplify.  As a 15-year user of GP, I learned something new at every single session I attended.  There are users who have conflicts in October and can’t attend Summit and there are others who are somewhat intimidated by the sheer size of Summit now that it has grown.  Those users are well-served here and will become enthusiastic supporters of the community.

The GPUG All-Stars and MVPs are very generous with their time and knowledge and are great at informally adopting and helping the newbies.  I was lucky enough to be introduced to many of these at my first Convergence by a long-time partner and a GPUG All-Star with the same partner.  I think it would be great to have a “Meet the All-Stars and MVPs” where the new people could put faces and names together.  Maybe part of happy hour where they gather in one place for informal conversation (yes, they are all there already, but a first time attendee may have no idea who Mark Polino or Leslie Vail is without gathering everyone together in one place).  I hope GPUG can find a way to help the user All-Stars attend by making it budget-friendly if that’s an issue and by convincing them of how much the community misses them when they aren’t there.  (On that note – who can believe “Sparkly” Steve has only been in the GPUG community for a couple years?  I missed his “sparkly” self.  🙂  and Beat – wouldn’t the weather in Anaheim have been better than Montreal in March?)

Finally – thank you GPUG and Microsoft for a great conference.  I learned, I engaged, and I tried to share my enthusiasm for the wonderful world of GPUG.  (I may have also engaged in a few “advanced networking opportunities”). I sincerely hope that Amplify can find a permanent place in the GP conference lineup.

Kathy

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Kathy Kim
Director of Finance
Donor Network of Arizona
Phoenix AZ
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[Steve Erbach]

Kathy,

Yeah, it’s a budget thing that prevents me from attending more than one conference a year. I’m the principal GP support provider for our company and my boss realizes the value of Summit; so he’s happy to have me go… but not two conferences.

Thank you for thinking of me! And I’m glad that you had such a fine time and learned so much.

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“Sparkly” Steve Erbach – Business Analyst & MS Dynamics Platform Administrator
WOW Logistics Company – Appleton, WI
VP for Communication, GPUG WI (Milwaukee) Chapter
Co-Chair, GPUG WI (Green Bay) Chapter
GP 2016 (16.00.0439) / MR 2012 CU15
Blog: https://www.gpug.com/blogs/steve-erbach
Twitter: @serbach
Welcome to Dynamics!
You do not have permission.
Call Steve. (hat tip: Lou Spevack)
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[Katrina Butler]

It was so good to meet you! 

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Katrina Butler
Accounting Specialist
Human Technologies
Greenville SC
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[Kathy Kim]

Katrina – I enjoyed meeting you as well.  Hope to see you at another event in the future!  I’ll send that PowerPoint that we discussed.

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Kathy Kim
Director of Finance
Donor Network of Arizona
Phoenix AZ
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[Kris Elliott]

Since Anaheim is a short train ride away, I really should have attended.  And I was thinking about it until our lovely annual financial audit started this week.  Thank you for your great “blog” post about this year’s Amplify! Looking forward to this year’s Summit.

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Kris Elliott
Controller
Ovation Fertility
Encino CA
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[Kathy Kim]

Those pesky audits can be an issue.  Fortunately, mine ended the Friday before the conference.  Good luck with yours. 🙂

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Kathy Kim
Director of Finance
Donor Network of Arizona
Phoenix AZ
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[Beat Bucher]

Hi Kathy,
Congratulation to your very 1st blog post !! because that what it is right here you did.. 🙂
You could have posted that in the GPUG blog section, and would probably get the same responsive audience..
Thanks for the great recap and feedback of Amplify 2.0, and I really would have loved to attend.. but like “Sparkly” Steve, our company budget allows me only one major event per year, Summit be it..

The weather didn’t treated me too bad, as I had to leave Montreal and it’s cold winter storms behind me for a family-business related trip to Switzerland.. The spring was already full steam in there too and we had a pretty warm week with only a few clouds and temperature drops..
I definitly wasn’t enjoying to get back to the below zero degrees in Canada :-), but all good things have an end.
Looking forward to attend more events this fall and hopefuly Amplfiy 3.0 next year.

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Beat Bucher
Business Analyst, Dynamics GP MVP
Ultra-Electronics Forensic Technology Inc.
Montreal QC/Canada
+1-514-489-4267
@GP_Beat http://dyngpbeat.wordpress.com/
Montreal QC GPUG Chapter Leader
GP2013R2 / MR2012 CU14
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[Kathy Kim]

I suspect that I could have been convinced to trade Anaheim for Switzerland.  🙂

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Kathy Kim
Director of Finance
Donor Network of Arizona
Phoenix AZ
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[Greg Hauenstein]

Great to see you as always Kathy.  

I was doing a lot of thinking about why the mix did seem different this year than the previous Amplify in regards to mix of end users, sponsors, and partners.  It wasn’t until I mentioned this to Kim Peterson of Interdyn BMI that she enlightened me to the relationship between when major releases are coming out and the attendance of end users to these conferences.  Microsoft’s move to return to one release a year should have a major effect on Amplify next year as it will be the first time to “show off” everything new released in “GP 2018”.

Hope to see you in Nashville.

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Greg Hauenstein
Senior Account Executive
DocuPhase
Clearwater FL
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[Kathy Kim]

Greg – good info!  Momma Kim should definitely know these things.  

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Kathy Kim
Director of Finance
Donor Network of Arizona
Phoenix AZ
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