Before heading to a conference, it is important that you ask yourself why you’re attending the event. At the recent User Group Summits in Nashville (#GPUGSummit, #NAVUGSummit, #D365UGSummit, #CRMUGSummit, #AXUGSummit), all attendees were there for many different reasons.

MVPs, or Most Valuable Professionals, attended to share their industry knowledge and expertise to thousands of customers and partners. Many customers attend Summit to learn more about the Microsoft solutions they utilize within their organization.

Customers have the opportunity to walk through hundreds of booths to identify new ways of making their solutions work better for them.

Each year Summit sponsors attend the conference to pitch their solutions to new customers that may want to buy it and to partners that may want to sell it.

So where does Bond Consulting Services fit in? Why did we attend Summit?

We represent all the solutions presented at the user group summits. AX, GP, NAV, CRM and Dynamics365…we sell, implement and market them all. With only two people from BCS at the conference, attending all of the hundreds of sessions was nearly impossible.

However, we were able to attend many important sessions including the GP, AX and NAV General Sessions, the Partner Exchange, the Marketing Alliance kick off, The Partner Connection Portal presentation and the Outlook for CRM tips session.  This and many other sessions we attended aligned with our main purpose for being there.

• The General Sessions allowed us to learn and be reminded of the deep roadmaps that are being laid out for each of the products.
• The Partner Exchange was for us to better understand the current state of Dynamics Communities, Inc, the company that puts on the User Group Summits. We also had a chance to network with others that do what we do and learn from them too.
• The Marketing Alliance kick off meeting was for marketing professionals inside the Dynamics Channel. We are now beginning to leverage each other’s expertise and make this channel a stronger information source for our customers.
• The Partner Connection Portal presentation was to help us gain knowledge about the vast options of portal solutions for our clients to choose from.
• The Outlook for CRM tips will assist us in supporting our clients with one of the most common topics we speak with them about.

Not only were we able to attend many amazing sessions, we also had the privilege of meeting with other industry experts and partners at the VIP Roundup Party, the Funky Tonk Party, the Future of the SMB Partner meeting, the GP Partner Dinner and the FastPath Annual event.

Many of these events are sponsored by the great 3^rd Party Solution providers we work with on a regular day like eOnesoftware, nJevity2Go, FastPath and Avalara.  The Partner only sessions were amazing for us to share our stories with other partners and hear ways to get better.  Some people comment that all we do is party at these conferences, I like to call them “Advanced Networking Opportunities”.

Lastly, and most importantly, we were excited to meet with our clients who attended the user group summits. Being able to host them to sessions, meetings with sponsors, and work together to help them learn more about the solutions is an honor and we love this time with our clients.  Receiving an email that said this after returning home made the whole trip worthwhile:

“Thank you for your insights, assistance at the Summit, and the introductions and conversations you fostered. It was great to spend time with you all and the ideas and opportunities discussed are very exciting. Helping us navigate through the conference was an invaluable asset and I for one am very grateful to have had access to your GPUG expertise.” – Maverick Freilinger, Commercial Finance Analyst, JS Products.

We are looking forward to #PhabulousPhoenix and all of the User Group Summits: #GPUGSummit, #CRMUGSummit, #AXUGSummit, #NAVUGSummit, #D365UGSummit – hopefully next year we will be sending more than 2 people since as you can see, there are countless reasons “why to attend.”

Written by David Gersten