General Consultant Discussion

I just have to say it - I just returned from The BEST EVER 90Minds conference. I had an incredible time this weekend meeting everyone and learning something about each of you. And oh yes, Sage 100 was an added benefit. Hats off to Jim Woodhead for being a great event planner, without his expertise, we could have been meeting at a Super 8 eating at Taco Bell. I would give a shout out to everyone else who made the event possible, but the conductor is about to play music leading to a commercial. Please post your comments regarding the meeting below on this thread. Your comments will be very useful for the planning of the 2014 meeting. Conference content, meals, LOCATION, speakers and entertainment (just to mention a few) are area of desired feedback. If we continue to hold it at an Embassy, we will try to get an adult oriented one where the little people are barred from joy riding the elevators on Sunday. Thoughts on the next meeting - Admin council met on Sunday to discuss organized activities at the DC Summit. Ideas on the table were meeting a day prior to the start of Summit, hosting a hospitality suite, ordering 90Minds shirts (Polo or Button Down) and perhaps a night at the ballpark if the Nats are playing at home then.. Please post your ideas for this event also. If your idea is implemented, proper credit will be given to Peter Wolf. Thanks again for making this the event of the year.

I have to agree - best MOTM ever! (Okay, it was my first but as I told many of you, I thought it was well worth it and more than I expected.) Jim is a very gracious event planner - and restaurant chauffer! I can take eating at an In-N-Out Burger off my bucket list. Unlike Summit, where one tends to say Hi in passing or perhaps in a one-on-one brief meeting, we were able to get to know each other much, much better and exchange ideas/thoughts/concerns in a much more FOCUSED manner. Now when I see a post from one of you, I will appreciate and trust it even more. Thanks again to all of the 90 Minds admin team who put this together - Jim, Jeff, Wayne, Robert and Peter (wait, did Peter do any of the planning? Probably not since he seems to be a bit unorganized when it comes to dates... JK Peter!!!)

With compliments like this, who needs a paycheck?

BTW, I got a picture of Bruce Campbell doing the 90Minds sign.

So how was the wine??? Sorry I missed MOTM and would love to see a meeting before Summit. I think the hospitality room sounds great and a good opportunity to meet the members of the Oasis group too. I also think we might need to have it available one other time during Summit. That will allow anyone who doesn't come in the day before, able to meet some of the group. If new potential members see the shirts and have questions we can answer them but also say come past on XXX day and time to meet a few members. Is there going to be a recap of the MOTM so anyone who didn't get to come see what the group is thinking?

San Diego seemed to be a good place for the conference since we had access to Sage Resources and other vendors. Food and Entertainment was great as always. I think shirts would be a welcome addition to Summit. So many thanks to so many people for putting this together and including our company in the opportunity.

Sad to say, Deb and I didn't get to share a glass, @DianeRuth. :-( I'm sure you will be hearing some of the thoughts shared but I'll leave that to the admin group (see how easy it is to pass that responsibility? Seriously, I'd be willing to help put together a recap for your review, @RobertWood or whomever - let me know.)

I agree, @ThereseLogeais - since it was my first MOTM too - more than I expected, too. I just have to remember to get the right margarita next year so I can sleep.

It was a great experience! And I agree with Scott, the more we talk about holding it somewhere else, the more I think we would miss San Diego (access to Sage, vendors, and Jim's party planning expertise)! @JeffSchwenk, don't let today slip by without a pivot!

I just reached out to Avalara and told them that the reason for the call was specifically due to the presentation provided to us a MOTM. I think everyone should consider doing this if possible to reinforce the value of their sponsorship while it is fresh. Might be helpful if we ask them to continue to sponsor and possibly step up their sponsorship in the future. We might consider approaching ScanForce as well for future MOTMs. Seems like they are becoming a staple in barcode data collection.

I agree with @ThereseLogeais - best MOTM ever, and my first also. Since I was one of the ""authorized interlopers"", I hope I can attend many more in the future. I promise to update everyone on JobOps, and next year the USB drives will be 8 GB, even though by then you'll want 16 GB. Meeting and networking with everyone was invaluable, since there is no substitute for the value of face to face meetings. All discussions were relevant and of value. I especially benefited from Jon Reiter's presentation, the ""Instant Project Visibility"" software presented by @JohnnyPabian and (this one could be controversial) @PeterWolf 's Sage CRM presentation. I had no idea Peter was so outspoken. The admin group did a great job in organizing this event, so it ran very smoothly. @JimWoodhead - you really did well as the moderator/coordinator. All the meals were excellent. San Diego has a wealth of restaurants, so if the event remains there, I would look forward to other finds. I am always up for arriving early at Summit, so that's a great suggestion. As someone who has just been an attendee in the past, I also agree that 90 Minds members should be more visible at Summit, since the group is a force in the Sage community. I suggest the group have a separate meeting with the Sage executives at Summit. They have said (to me) they want 90 Minds to be influential in some way, so the invite has been voiced, so it's up to 90 MInds to define that.

@JohnHoyt we really wanted 16 gb this year. Next year we expect 64 gb with a 90 Minds logo.

Just spoke to Steve Schowalter and told him that he really missed out on sponsoring our meeting. He was bummed and definitely wants to sponsor something on the next one. I guess we might have Peter's happy hour doubles paid for....

It was a good meeting, I can say that because I didn't fall asleep during the accounting related sessions... Seriously, it was really an interesting series of sessions providing useful solutions (well...maybe not that whole CRM thing... ;) ) . I echo @JohnHoyt in thanking @JohnnyPabian for that interesting status visibility tool. And @AlnoorCassim for getting me interested in figuring out scripting again...just little ones Alnoor, I plan to leave the heavy lifting to you! As always the Admin team outdid themselves! Cheers to Wayne, Jim, Jeff, Robert, and, oh that CRM guy...what was his name? And I echo @ThereseLogeais in saying should help be needed, I too would be glad to help on things for next year. As for location, SoCal works for me, but I know it's tough on the east coasters...middle of the country? Sadly, the whole wine thing didn't materialize, but am planning on it for next year! Who's with me?! Oh and I am still willing to write the certification test...just sayin'

@DebThomas - you'll have to write a manual to go with it though...

We have a CRM guy, @DebThomas?

<NOT sarcasm>Thanks to the admins whose hard work got it set up and thank you to all of you for your contributions that made it go by way too fast.</NOT sarcasm>

@PhilMcIntosh no problem already done. Ready for the test? @RobertWood good, but who is that CRM guy again?

Do we have one, @DebThomas?

@PhilMcIntosh you were being sarcastic?? In this group?? That never happens...

Hummm...he seems to think so @RobertWood Though, admittedly, he's been strangely quiet through all of this. Which in itself is quite surprising...

I know not of whom you speak.

@DebThomas - just trying to be specific. I got a message on Sunday from a CEO of another software company who thought my LinkedIn post comment about ""SageTax.25"" and ""SageTax.396"" was a real product announcement.

@ThereseLogeais hope you don't mind that I used your summary on the blog. I edited it a little bit. http://community.90minds.com/2013/02/18/90-minds-meeting-of-the-minds-wraps-up/

Not at all @WayneSchulz !!

Where IS @PeterWolf anyway??? Did he make it home???

I think Peter was on the road for a while. His wife is probably making him do the dishes.

If that is all he has to do, he is getting off lightly! One year after Visions, I had to clean the fridge out when the compressor blew. NOT pretty!

She's probably making him wear the gimp suit again.

I don't even want to know.....

But you asked... And Zed is dead.

Thankfully. But perhaps he lives again in Peter's world....... I have to keep the sound very low when I watch. Certainly isn't a chick flick.

I said to many folks that this year was better than the previous year - in big part because of the excellent new additions. It really underscores the benefit of opening the meeting up to more people as @WayneSchulz advocated early on. I also think Mr. @JimWoodhead did a great job and huge thanks with all of his organizational activities. Jim - you are an awesome dude and thank you for all your efforts. I think the presentations were great this year (even if many of them were outside my wheelhouse) and the conversations were excellent. I think we beat up Debbie Hill a bit unnecessarily but I understand where that was coming from with past experiences. MotM is a great complement to Summit for reasons that @ThereseLogeais and a few others mentioned above. The smaller group allows us to get to know each other better and share ideas of what is and isn't working. One suggestion for next year: if @WayneSchulz (or someone else) would be willing to do it, I would like a gadget / web app showcase that gives out tips and tricks on using the latest and greatest tools. Maybe not a deep dive into everything but a good overview with a brief presentation. Thanks to everyone for making it a successful meeting. Together we are stronger.

I LOVED being at MOTM. First, for the opportunity to meet and get to know some of my brethren and sistren (did I make a new word?). What a great community we are a part of! I enjoyed the vendor presentations they were long enough not too long. And I came home with some choice tips and tricks that made the trip even more valuable. And I echo the thanks to the organization team. You guys did a great job!

@JonHoyt and @DebThomas Thanks for the shout outs. Hopefully I was able to paint enough of a story of how to use the visual project in the few teaser minutes I had. I presented it today to a company that has a huge void in the inbound PO's from China and they loved it. It might not be in MAS90 but it quickly communicates the status of whatever it is you are tracking. I agree with @PeterWolf - I would like to see each person come with whatever tool, trick, tweaks, app, ideas of how they have tweaked the system for a certain purpose and spend 15 -30 min telling us about it. I think Peter discussing lifeguards allowed us to see outside the box with how CRM can be adapted to a totally different industry/purpose. And I am sure @PeterWolf even has more CRM success stories that would show off even greater potential that would be an easy shoe in to what Azamba has done and can do for our clients. It was a great event. I personally like the idea of trying the location of Irvine embassy suites(maybe a day at Sage and a day at Embassy). Use Sage training center for meeting. And maybe get our group collectively closer to Sage. And maybe we get more reciprocation from Sage and next year is going to be critical since this year will be mobile and more integration. What will be next on the agenda after the roll out of Sage 100 ERP 2014. I would be more than happy to make those calls. And next year avoid Valentines Day week!!