IQMS User Group 2014 – The Day 1 Experience
Hellllooooooo, Las Vegas! I have been waiting weeks for the arrival of User Group 2014 and finally, after two years in the making, it is here! And let me tell you, Day 1 did not disappoint – It was a whirlwind of networking, learning and fun. If you were unable to attend User Group 2014, let me give you a quick peek into what you missed today:
The registration desk at The Mirage was busy this morning as our nearly 500 attendees picked up their badges and cool IQMS swag. Then it was straight onto breakfast for some chow and early morning networking. There were a lot of people I was looking forward to touching base with again since the last User Group conference in 2012.
At promptly 8:30, everyone gathered for the large welcome session. IQMS customers have invested their money, trust and business operations in our ERP solution, so User Group always features the State of IQMS to educate our customers about the future of the ERP company they have chosen to partner with. Highlights included our rapid expansion over the past two years, our recent significant growth investment from Technology Crossover Ventures and what the future has in store for the company.
User Group attendees were then treated to the much anticipated new development session with IQMS President, Randy Flamm. IQMS has a lot of exciting products in the pipeline and Randy never disappoints. From details of our new Advanced Warehouse Management System (WMS) program to review of our online shopping portal, HTML5 apps and WebAPI software development kit, our IQMS developers have been busy!
Lunch time featured our first networking event, with special tables reserved for different manufacturing industries. It is impressive to see how much our medical and aerospace/defense industry networking tables have grown over the years, as well as the addition of some new tables such as food and beverage.
Following lunch, the attendees broke out into one of our four session tracks, including classes for beginners in the process of implementation, intermediate users looking for best practices and tips and tricks, and advanced users cooperatively discussing enhancements to areas of the software with the IQMS development team. Topics today included IQMS’ mobile apps, RealTime Process Monitoring, quality, EDI and a special presentation about our new Advanced WMS product.
I am going to be honest, my favorite part of the day was toward the end. I am the coordinator of our IQMS Manufacturing Success Award program, which culminates with the presentation of the Highest Achiever honor at User Group. Our customers nominated some stellar projects this year and we knew that we couldn’t keep these initiatives to ourselves. So for the first time, we had a special roundtable session at the end of Day 1 with the top five finalists who shared their stories, challenges and successes with the whole conference to help educate and inspire.
Finally, the day was capped off with a special User Group Welcome Reception. Here, IQMS customers were treated to drinks and appetizers as they networked and mingled with IQMS staff and fellow manufacturers. We also took a brief moment to recognize and celebrate the Highest Achievers of the IQMS Manufacturing Success Awards. Congratulations to AMA Plastics, winner of the company initiative category, and Amy Albrightson of iMARK Molding, winner of the EnterpriseIQ champion category!
Whew, Tuesday was quite the day! I feel like I have just touched the surface of all that I can experience at this conference. With two more full days to go, our attendees can look forward to more breakout sessions (including the popular Top 10 manufacturing and accounting sessions), meeting with IQMS PSG and Sales team employees for individual help sessions, visiting with IQMS-approved vendors and a new Q&A panel at the end of Day 3 with key IQMS personnel.
What was your favorite part of Day 1 at User Group 2014?