90p Admin

Here's what I have so far for the agenda.

Sorry for the delay on this - I don't have Excel on my MAC and it usually takes me a few steps to pull this into Google Docs. Any chance you can view it here along with my comments? https://docs.google.com/a/community.90minds.com/spreadsheets/d/1yusAIeLBKaDl5idzEoYXjLmgqOidgjs3OMVzlt7r78Y/edit?usp=sharing

I did. Will try and realign the vendor sessions. As for the Cloud session, it was on your survey which is why I included it. It is NOT required but I'm a little concerned if suddenly, Gary cannot do any sessions simply because of iSySair. Does Joe Bisaha's membership or IIG's mean we cannot do our own session on ""Manufacturing Deep Dive"" utilizing say, Deb Thomas? Very slippery slope.

Not sure why we can't do a manufacturing deep dive and INCLUDE Joe and IIG..... I think that would be a great session. My other concern is that there are a great deal of vendor member sessions that will be marketing oriented which may deter members from coming as they perceive the conference to be marketing as opposed to knowledge based. A very fine line indeed.

If we give each vendor 15 minutes, and there are twelve vendors, that's THREE hours. We can do that the first morning but I'm thinking we'll lose attendees.

Last year I think we broke the vendor members (then sponsors) up over a couple days and most of them did general sessions. My main concerns: Overall: 1. We've sold vendor membership as giving VM a slot to speak at MOTM. I've said from the beginning this is NOT scalable. What I mean is past 12 VM (maybe fewer) we start to have difficulty slotting vendor members in so that it doesn't seem like a trade show vs educational. This is more an overall concern. At some point our guaranteed VM speaking slots are going to need to go away (or be a premium limited availability offering) and the VM are going to have to be satisfied with more of a pre-conference trade show and maybe some vendor member specific event where they get exposure to our members. 2. We have a problem with accepting vendor members for a fee when we have consultant members who in reality are also promoting their product/service. This is more an overall concern and not related to scheduling. The iSySair have repeatedly called me on this. I think they have a good point that they've paid money to join and are still barred from some areas were our consultant/vendor members (dual role but if we're honest they're really vendors). This is an overall concern of mine. Now to the sessions: 3. Vendor members have been promised a session. It's true that we could put them at the end of the day or up against our most popular technical sessions. We have not promised them any certain time. I think what I'd prefer to see is the vendor members are prompted to give a session on their products (which is what they know best) and which should be helpful to all of our members since Sage 100 is not receiving much R&D so the bulk of new activity (aside from upgrades) is third party add-ons I think some vendor members have more engaging content that's very topical (Websitepipeline comes to mind, BizNet, bar coding, service management). I do think these work as regular sessions and won't drive away attendees provided we have a title and content that is attractive. 4. Perhaps what we do is look at the meet and greet the night before and turn that into a casual event where we introduce the vendors in a classroom setting and give them a short period of time to talk about their product (maybe up to 5 minutes). 5. Perhaps we could put vendor member against vendor member session (this cuts our # of potential vendor member general sessions in half). TL;DR: What if we expanded our Thursday night meet and greet to include a short introduction for every vendor member. Make the intro be some type of classroom setting and not us standing around in happy hour shouting. What if we slotted vendor member session against vendor member? What if we went with three tracks (rooms) so some sessions could repeat? We should plan on another phone conversation with those planning the sessions sometime this week so we can narrow down our agenda outline and come up with something for everyone.

Here's a tentative schedule of timeframes - we can add or change as needed. I think in most cases 2 months is the typical early registration start. Then about a month later it's regular and a few weeks before the event is the late registration. https://www.google.com/calendar/embed?src=s-consult.com_c8erjgbviloulrl2ijt05apar0%40group.calendar.google.com&ctz=America/New_York

Another concern: We are not going to know which vendor members are going to renew until 12/31 (which I think is the deadline for our renewals). This is going to make drafting an agenda/session list tricky. As of new we have 9 vendor members entitled to sessions. Let's say 4 don't renew. If we've created a session agenda and given it to our members who then have signed up based on topics -- it's a little tricky to tell them that 4 of our vendor members won't present. Hopefully everyone renews but just in case.

I'm thinking vendor side-by-side 30 minute morning sessions split between day one and day two. Up to 12. I don't know your count @WayneSchulz but I have these: Current Vendors* SWK/MAPADOC IIG Compudata/ISysAir Scanforce Biznet JDB Solutions eRequester Scanco Website Pipeline BatchMaster *These could change depending on renewals. I can somewhat fill in the rest of the agenda depending on thoughts. It's little in PDF format but I can change that later.

The only change to your list is that Batchmaster never paid - so I think we have 9 total vendor member sessions to schedule.

Did you mean to make the first day regular sessions 1/2 hour? I think the vendor members are probably a good idea for 1/2 hour. Not sure that 1/2 hour is enough for Road Ahead, Upgrade tips (even though there's not much new). We definitely could squeeze the annual 90 Minds meeting into less time and allocate more to Road Ahead. I think this layout looks good - maybe it would be easier to have a 30 minute conversation just to fill in the blanks and talk about the length. Also has anyone talked to Alnoor about scripting? The more I think about pre-conference the more I think we're going to regret putting on more than one. We have enough on our plate with the entire conference I recommend we focus on one class for pre-conference.

Does the proposed calendar that I posted seem ok? If nobody has any feedback I'll just stop posting and hope for the best.

I'm somewhat tied up today. Will look again later.

I am talking with Alnoor about it. Details soon

@JimWoodhead are we set on lunch times, i.e. noon? Could I move Saturday's ahead to 12:15? Attached is a revised agenda.

Not a problem. Times are up to us

Thought so but thought I'd ask.

I like the line up so far. Is it possible to have a manufacturing panel shoot out (MRP, WO, SIA, JobOps, JOScan), BOM? The line up is a bit long in the tooth and old framework, but with hearing some creative ways that the modules can be used (when they should be used) could be an eye opener. How about a session deemed ""To merge or not To Merge, That is the question"" But then again, how many GDI's are left? Peter, what are the vendor expectations? Do they have to renew in order to have a session? Or since they have already paid up to 6K in 2014, does this guarantee them a session spot. ACS has their multi bin offering that rumor has it will be added to JO functionality in the future. Any way we can work a deal to get them a session? Don't they have some apparel offering? Has the mobile solutions gained enough traction to have a session on them? Random thoughts while waiting for the cloud webinar. @ThereseLogeais - This IS a LOT of work. I will help you in any way I can. Let me know how I can assist.

So if Joe Bisaha reups his vendor membership, how do we include him in a 1-2-3 deep dive into manufacturing? Does that count as his session? If he doesn't renew, does that mean he CAN'T participate???

If Joe re-ups he can participate and it would count as his session (his option). If he does not renew he won't participate.

So for the vendor sessions, I think I will leave it at TBA until we know for sure which vendors are going to renew. Of course, that means it could be January before the agenda is finalized. Thoughts? @PeterWolf ?

I'm reaching out to vendors for reup next week. I'm hoping it won't be more than a week or two to get answers. My intention is to let them know that the reup offer has a shelf life before I start reaching out to other vendors and giving them a chance to fill the spot.

But Joe is also a regular member of the group which would allow him to participate in the deep dive panel as a moderator, just as Deb Thomas (JO or WO) or Moira (SIA) would with their area of expertise. Where is @PeterWolf with his vendor member flash light. Getting very murky down here. I would hope that by the end of November (or sooner) we would have a good idea of who the 2015 vendor members will be.

And for pre-conference training, has anyone reached out to Alnoor yet about his view of holding a one-day scripting class? @JimWoodhead ?

He is definitely open to do it. We are looking at the possibilities. Robert and I have another call scheduled.

@ThereseLogeais why don't you give us some dates and lets schedule a call to get this schedule to the point where we can start asking people if they would lead sessions.

We could do tomorrow afternoon or some time on Friday.

Friday at 11am ET would be best - MOTM 2015 - Session Review and Planning 1. Please join my meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone on Fri, Oct 31, 11:00 AM EDT https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/228628509 2. Use your microphone and speakers (VOIP) for audio. You'll sound best with a headset. You can also call in using your telephone. United States (Long distance): +1 (626) 425-3113 Access Code: 228-628-509 Audio PIN: Shown after joining the session Not at your computer? Click the link to join this meeting from your iPhone, iPad, Android or Windows Phone device via the GoToMeeting app. GoToMeeting

Calendar invite sent - just decline if anyone cannot make it.

Jim & I had a good conversation with Alnoor yesterday. He seems very interested in doing a preconference session again.

Did he say how he would like it - intro/basic, prior attendees/advanced?

right now the thought is Intro/basic. We will have an advanced during the actual MOTM

Between Alnoor & I, we're thinking there are 10-20 folks who are probably interested in attending the 2 day basic class. We need to figure out breakeven points and all. Alnoor is supposed to be giving us some pricing options and I also chatted with Nicole to see if she was attending MotM and if she would be willing to assist again. She is planning on attending MotM and willing to assist. We may have to provide her with some kind of compensation for her assistance: hotel room, MotM comp, or something else.

So a two-day class??

It would be the same 2-day class that was offered at Summit.

The survey results posted below seem to confirm that 20 plus people session is viable. https://docs.google.com/a/community.90minds.com/forms/d/1AMUcpLuvGY4VwqX-zCW-tN7VP3vKWvE9cC-KYm9E5NY/viewanalytics The big question is whether they would pay $750 for the class. Alnoor charged 6.9K plus expenses for Vegas. He covered Nicole's expenses from what we paid him. So unless he discounts, figure $350 person (20). We charged $800 early bird for Vegas. Will our fixed expenses be that much different? How many will come, how much do we subsidize. I really don't feel comfortable letting our bank balance dip below 100K. So the next question is if we are willing to do a two day class for about 12% of the membership and subsidize it, why can't we offer some variety and add a one day class which will attract a different 15 - 20 people. I think we can. The survey indicates we can. If we aren't going to spend the 100K toward classes, we just going to have a bigger problem in 2016. I think we owe it to the membership.

Are you suggesting having 2 competing sessions? Just seeking clarity.

I think Jeff has a good point regarding variety. The overwhelming feedback on pre-conference as I recall was scripting. Historically a big percent who raise their hands never sign up (pay) so in order for pre-conference to work there really does have to be an overwhelming interest. Before we announce or confirm anything I've asked that we create a quick budget including all presenter and co-presenter fees so we know whether we are at breakeven or not on the pre-conference. I am against multiple pre-conference training. I think Summit was tough to juggle and the multiple classes made people stall at signing up for them. Having the one and two day split wasn't working in our favor either. These courses don't all necessarily have to be prior to a conference. We could hold them standalone during other times of the year in different locations if we wanted. There is also the option to open them to non-members at a much higher fee. We also may have class space so that potentially you could run a longer course alongside some of the other MOTM sessions. Just a few ideas. In any event lets get a budget ASAP before we announce anything. Usually conferences open for registration two months in advance. That would put us about mid-December. However with holidays, etc we may want to open a little early such as Mid November (and tomorrow is Nov 1) so we need to get a timeframe together today during our planning session.

Were we at the same session? Both events rated a 10 on my survey. Execution was nearly flawless, presenters great. Great bang for the buck. The ONLY reason we lost money in Vegas was the $4,300 90Minds social held on Monday. The only confusion I experienced was that we allowed people to split the session. Lesson learned. We have demonstrated that we can have two concurrent pre sessions. The only thing that makes this tougher is that is followed by two days of general sessions. @RobertWood - Not sure what you mean by competing sessions. Yes, they would both be held on Thursday so they would compete with each other. We have talked about having sessions at other times of the year, but the consensus has been to align with Summit/MOTM to piggy back on the travel expenses. For Vegas, we had numerous people NOT attend because they were not attending Summit. Which seems to state that travel costs are important. We still have time. Jim and Therese have done a great job in the past and there is no reason to expect any less this time.

Except the Scripting pre-conference session will now be Wednesday and Thursday followed by MOTM Friday and Saturday? If we do offer another session, I would vote for a one day session only and it cannot be split with the Scripting one.

Another updated agenda for our upcoming discussion.

That is my suggestion also. One day on Thursday. One or the other.....

I don't think a beginner scripting class can be done in 1 day, so if that's not acceptable, we'll have to go back to the drawing board.

Scripting is a two day class. A survey of the potential pre sessions will be published on Monday for all Socialcast members. Based on these results, a determination will be made.