Holidays Kicked Off Early at the 2016 Informz User Conference

The holiday season kicked off early for us at Informz. On November 15 – 17, over 200 Informz clients and experts gathered in Arlington, Virginia for the 2016Informz User Conference – AKA the Informz Superfan Summit. The Summit is a time when all things digital marketing for associations and non-profits are discussed. Digital marketing strategists’, Informz product experts and marketing peers gathered to talk integrations, marketing strategy, and Informz system efficiencies.

Summit Highlights:

As a co-planner of this sacred Informz event, I was internally high-fiving myself when I saw groups of peers re-connecting, meeting for the first time, and geeking out on digital marketing. It was great to see clients honestly getting excited about ideas to bring back to their office to be implemented right away. Some of my personal highlights from the conference include:

• 10 sponsors that rock (insert Rockstar emoji here). Engaging conversation in the exhibit area verified how beneficial and valuable our sponsors were. A huge thank you for their support. The emoji challenge where attendees had to guess the phrases spelled out in emojis on each sponsor table added a bit of fun! Can you guess this phrase? (Answer at the bottom of the blog)

• Networking, networking, networking. This shindig grew by nearly 20% from 2015, which means attendees had more brains to pick and people to connect with! There was a constant buzz throughout the event.
• Solution Center. True story, I use Informz daily, but I’m no Joe Tyler or an advisor (meaning I don’t have a knack to develop excellent software or support it.) The Solution Center saved the day because attendees could meet one-on-one with an expert to get answers to their questions about deliverability, design, integrations, digital marketing strategy, the Informz system (existing features and new enhancements), or whatever specific questions they had.

• What’s coming to town. While the coffee was flowing on the first day of the conference, Informz CEO, Joe Tyler and Informz Software Development Team Lead, Larry Gregory intrigued and revved up the crowd with an overview of new Informz features currently in development. I’m glad I composed myself enough to not randomly cheer – I’m seriously excited about these gems as a daily user of Informz.
• Scrappy Keynote. I’ve been pumped about our keynote speaker, Nick Westergaard for some time because his book really has great tips to get marketers thinking. Attendees were engaged during his presentation and after when he was signing books (yep, books were included in all attendee swag bags).

Here’s what you missed:

As an Informz user myself, I missed out a little bit (since my role was event related). I almost felt like a lonely puppy outside in the rain, looking in on a happy puppy family sitting around a crackling fire laughing (in this vision, puppies laugh). Can you hear the tiny violin? Anyway, here’s what I wanted to take part in as an Informz client (and what you missed out on if you didn’t attend):

• ALL the pre-conference bootcamps – yes all. I would have loved to attend the Marketing Automation Bootcamp to get constructive guidance on how to use the Informz Marketing Automation Suite to its full capacity (not to mention all the strategy advice)! The Email Design Bootcamp would have been a huge help since I tend to design and compose emails but I’m not strong in HTML. The Integrations Bootcamp would have been so helpful for me since we rely heavily on our integration to access your lists and statuses.
• Client-led sessions. I saw the slides (attendees can too when they log into the mobile event app) and I read client case studies on our blog, but it’s not the same as hearing the presentations and success stories first hand. It is so inspiring to hear what clients have been able to achieve while using Informz.
• What’s not new in Informz. Although I work at Informz, I’m busy like any other marketing team member and Informz client. I hate to admit that even I can overlook some of the great tools/features that have been there all along. I would have loved the review that this session provided.
• The Solution Center. Yes, it was a highlight to have it for conference attendees, but I personally would have loved to be a fly on the wall and hear the conversations taking place. Snagging extra time with my brilliant co-workers is always time well spent and helps me understand what our department is doing well and what we could improve on.
• Closing game show. This game show mashup was a big hit, especially the challenging trivia questions about Informz.

We’re in full planning mode and looking to top the 2016 Informz User conference. Will we see you? What would you like to see at the next conference?

*Did we stump you on the emoji game?! The answer was of course: A/B Split Testing!

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