I got off the plane in Denver on Wednesday and took an Uber to Doug Hollenback’s house where I was greeted with Denver hospitality.
I had met Doug at Acumatica Summit 2017 in San Diego (click here) and got a good impression of him, but I never expected to get an invite to stay the night at his house.
On Wednesday night, Doug had a get together at his house that was a combination of Acumatica people and Doug’s neighbors. We hung out on Doug’s roof eating BBQ and watching the sun set over the Rocky Mountains.
The next day (Thursday), we met at the Intuitive Solutions offices.
We were greeted with more food and drinks. Doug and his team know how to make you feel at home.
We had a couple of presentations, then more meet-and-greet time with more food and drinks.
The whole thing lasted a few hours.
Here’s what I learned:
1. Meeting people in person is important. Even if we don’t have anything Acumatica-specific to talk about, at least we’ve met and made a connection. Then we can build on that connection in the future.
2. Not everyone can make it to the Acumatica Summit. It might be too long, too expensive, too far, etc. Having a local user group gathering gives more people the opportunity to participate in the Acumatica community.
3. Both formal and informal are needed. Without an agenda and some presentations, the time would feel too empty. Without the food, drinks, and casual talking, the time would feel like a business meeting and not like community. I liked the balance that I experienced.
4. Prospects, not just Customers, were welcome to attend. I thought that was pretty cool. What better way to get a Prospect excited about Acumatica than to invite them to a User Group meeting where they can meet real Acumatica Customers.
5. The sticky name tags helped with introductions. Nice touch Doug and team.
Thanks to Russ Graf from NETSTOCK (click here) for giving me a ride to the airport. His flight left about the same time as my flight and he had a rental car. Russ was much better than an Uber.
It was great to experience an Acumatica User Group meeting in person.
Maybe I can make it down to Atlanta next.
And hopefully I’ll be able to attend a user group meeting in Ohio sometime in the near future so I don’t have to get on a plane to meetup with other Acumatica users in person 🙂