Day 0/1 #ASUG Volunteer Meeting 2018 Recap
Source: ASUG
This year we are in Nashville, Tennessee, staying at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. The hotel has almost 3K rooms so it is easy to get lost, but fortunately everyone is friendly and helpful.
ASUG Annual Conference Schedule Review
Source: ASUG
Starting at 3:00 pm yesterday, Former Member , ASUG Director of Education, reviewed the master schedule. This was something new from last year and the good news is that Danny heard us, and moved this meeting to start of the event.
Also this year ASUG Education took the lead in scheduling, using prior year metrics to schedule sessions in certain rooms. (This process reminds me of the Billy Beane). The meeting ended early and the good news is that attendees will have several great sessions to choose from for the conference in June. I want to be at 5-10 sessions at at time myself, spanning technology, industries and lines of business.
ASUG Volunteer Service Awards
Exciting times to see a great volunteer such as Allison Levine, who is both a BI/Chapter volunteer, win the Volunteer award:
Source: ASUG
Allison is pictured left standing next to ASUG CEO Geoff Scott.
Allison moderated 12 ASUG webcasts last year and lead this packed ASUG BI networking community session at SAP TechEd Las Vegas:
Photo by Mark Richardson
Congratulations to Allison on this well-deserved award.
ASUG Keynote Address
Next, Geoff Scott addressed “Where going, why going, what role do we play” and talked about the vision that powers him everyday. He said he wants ASUG to “build, operate, and grow most impactful technology community”.
He said there are “amazing things people do with SAP technology” using it as a way use it to fulfill customer needs
In 2018, Geoff said, “ASUG is going to think about itself not just a tech community but a collection of products and services” – organizations need to be successful to implement technology to make world a better place to live. He said this is a “lofty goal”. Compare it last year’s keynote of “GRV (grow, retain membership and add value).”
In 2018 the ASUG focus is on key products & services including community and events. There were two more items discussed but I won’t cover them here; in discussions after the keynote I don’t think my notes are complete.
Community “the fabric of what we do”
Effective Monday ASUG has appointed brand new leader of ASUG communities – Melissa Andrews
Pictured: Melissa Andrews, Source: ASUG
Melissa will “reimagine communities”. Those reporting to Melissa will “unify ERP community – SuccessFactors, new Cloud Community, Business One”. Geoff said the “development of cloud communities is essential”. He said it is “time to reimagine and think what modern ERP community
SIGs and Chapters look like” and “time to think through in a different way”
He said ASUG has a legacy of 26 years of ASUG powered successful, how does it make sure the next 26 years are valuable. How organize, what we do, we will use balance of 2018 to figure out
and in 2019 “make moves”. What is it going to take to bring line of business in, as buying patterns are shifting, and how to engage next gen professionals. How can we bring “Next gen” into ASUG?
Events
Events are a “significant portion of ASUG’s annual revenue”. ASUG acquired Eventful Conferences 1.5 years ago. ASUG wants to be “the best SAP events company except SAP”. Geoff said ASUG has made progress with more distance to go. Eventful Conferences is the commercial events arm of ASUG. Geoff said that Eventful Conferences will not operate ASUG Annual Conference, Fall Focus or HR Payroll
Eventful Conferences will grow as they have taken over the traditional ASUG events to Eventful – BI+Analytics and BizOne. They will bring new events to market
He said ASUG will work to improve the integration of communities teams into the event planning
Other
ASUG has launched a new Content organization with Ann Marie Gray leading.
What does this mean? Geoff said to think about ASUG, our own voice, help define ASUG voice
ASUG Research has a “State of Community Survey”, doing more projects, more on SAP Tech
He said will hear more from her over the coming year
Geoff said “technology is changing everything about how we live and work and accelerating change”
From @ASUG365: “We need our volunteers to help us make the next 26 of #ASUG to be even better than the last 26 and 2018 will kick that off! We welcome your input and thoughts.”
What do you think of the ASUG vision?