This article will discuss the Microsoft Dynamics User Groups Summit, hosted in Reno, NV October 11-14, 2015, specifically highlights from breakout sessions, the Expo, and more.
Man, time flies. Unbelievably, the Dynamics event of the season was already a month ago. Last month, the Dynamics User Groups Summit for NAVUG, AXUG, GPUG, and NAVUG made Reno, Nevada their home base for a week of community building in the form of learning, sharing, and networking, in addition to some gambling of course. As this was my first time attending the event, I quickly could tell that this Dynamics event is the definition of consumer-driven, providing opportunities for visibility into roadmap plans and leadership for the user groups as well as the challenges and strengths of each individual accounting system. There were ongoing discussions of best-of-breed solutions and best practices that seemed to elevate how we define modern data management and analytics. That all said, let’s dive right into some highlights from the 2015 Dynamics Communities Summit.
The conference began with an adventurer sharing his story. George Kourounis served as a guest speaker at Summit, where he discussed storm chasing, adventuring, and exploring for his Travel Channel show, Angry Planet. His message was simple: fear is a call to action. The message seemed to be well received by the large audience of attendees. With change being a constant in the corporate realm, new processes, technology, personnel, and/or organizational structures can produce some fear (of the unknown), particularly if you feel like you just acclimated to the most recent change. Kourounis insisted that fear is actually your mind telling you to do something. In the context of this idea in the Microsoft Dynamics world, when you are working with new product releases or implementation processes for a new system and/or learning a new procedure, it was an impactful concept to perceive fear or discomfort associated with change as a call to action. He concluded the way he started, simply asserting, “If you want something you’ve never had before, you have to do things you’ve never done before.” This challenge seems much more achievable with the infrastructure of the Dynamics Communities.
The User Group leadership team was visibly excited to be there and host the experience for attendees. The theme of “Going All In” was quickly established as more than just a reference to gambling in the Biggest Little City in the World. Additionally, going all in refers to engaging, learning, sharing, and volunteering. If you were in attendance, you could see this in action with User Group members connecting with each other. One quote from the General Session that resonated: “In a word, ‘Community.’” As a first-time attendee to Summit, it was very obvious how powerful users helping users can be – by simply discussing the strengths and opportunities they specifically and generally are facing with their Dynamics product. The User Groups that convened in Reno looked to me like the most productive family reunion, which is not a surprise considering how these professionals are working day in and day out with data management. Just looking at the number of people in attendance, I’m not surprised that this was the largest Dynamics Communities Summit yet.
To continue learning more about the 2015 Dynamics Communities Summit, read the rest of this article here.
by Solver