Whether this will be your first Acumatica Summit or you’ve been at every conference since the beginning, it’s a smart idea to plan for success before attending this year’s conference. Here’s a quick guide to conference success planning from the financial reporting and planning software experts at Solver.
Trust us: once you’re in Vegas at the Wynn, the Summit will speed by at a mile a minute. Before you know it, Acumatica Summit 2024 will be over and you’ll be on your plane heading home.
So, let’s get started planning right now.
Tip: Use Solver’s Highly Effective Planning Framework
At Solver, we typically recommend that our customers follow a 4-stage, cyclical framework for effective planning:
⦁ Plan – decide what you want to do and why
⦁ Execute – do it!
⦁ Report – see what the results were
⦁ Analyze – understand why those results occurred
After step 4, you should return to step 1 and plan your next moves.
Since Acumatica Summit is the first conference most of us attend every year, following the proven Solver framework can help you make the most out of every conference this year.
3 Questions to Plan Your Successful Acumatica Summit Experience
Conference success planning can be a daunting task at first because you have to start from a blank page the first time you do it. It can be tempting to avoid making your plan, or to simply throw together a makeshift “plan” that isn’t strategic. Unfortunately, both of these options can hurt you in the long run.
Yes, it takes a couple of hours of work to plan properly. However, we promise: If you strategically plan your conference experience, you are sure to get more out of this year’s Summit than if you just “go with the flow.”
Everyone’s goals are different, so we can’t tell you what you should plan. What we can do is get you started on the right path.
To optimize your Summit experience, take the time to carefully answer these 3 questions:
⦁ What do you hope to learn?
Think carefully about what you hope to learn at Acumatica Summit this year – and why that is important to you. Are you looking to learn about new Acumatica features, so you can take advantage of more built-in tools this year? Are you curious about seamlessly integrated software that can solve a specific business challenge once and for all?
It’s a good idea to take a look at which vendors will be at Acumatica Summit, so you can plan out your top priorities now.
If one of your challenges stems from lack of financial insight, we recommend that you stop by Solver’s booth #412 and ask us about the all-inclusive Solver Suite. It is a leading software suite that gets you up and running quickly with ready-to-use and customizable advanced reports including consolidations, Acumatica-integrated budgeting tools, and adaptive forecasting.
Visit Solver at Booth #412
Want a few more reasons to visit Solver’s booth? How about 3,250 reasons?
Visitors to our booth can enter to win our giveaway for a $250 flight e-voucher and can also have their Acumatica Summit 2024 acu-connect Passport stamped. This year’s acu-connect Passport offers up to $2,250 in Wynn chips! (details below)
⦁ Who would you like to connect with?
Most people consider connections to be the top reason they attend conferences. In general, the more meaningful connections you make, the more successful you can consider your conference experience.
Notice, though, our emphasis on meaningful connections.
Cruising through the Expo and collecting info-sheets may help you build a trove of reference materials (or trash) when you return home, but the best way to build meaningful connections is to spend quality time with other conference attendees in a relaxed and casual setting.
Acumatica Summit offers a range of casual meetups, like the Welcome Reception, the morning run and yoga, and the celebration dinner.
As an acu-connect member, you can get into 2 additional, exclusive meetups:
⦁ A cinematic experience at Sphere on Monday, Jan. 29 from 6 PM – 9 PM
Solver invites you to join us at Sphere, Las Vegas’s newest attraction that’s become an instant landmark on the Strip. Sphere is not only the world’s largest spherical structure, it contains the world’s largest high-definition screen with a fully immersive, multisensory cinematic experience that’s simply mind blowing.
Experience the magic of Sphere by joining us for a showing of Darren Aronofsky’s Postcards from Earth, which was specially commissioned to showcase everything that Sphere offers. Before the film, build your connections at Acumatica’s hottest party, including hors d’oeuvres as well as fun, interactive activities inside the venue.
Additional event sponsors include Avalara, Nodus, BigCommerce, BILL, DataSelf, SPS Commerce, Workforce Go!, and Netstock.
Happening Monday, January 29 from 6 PM – 9 PM. If you’re interested in getting an invite to this event, please contact marketing@solverglobal.com.
⦁ The acu-connect meetup and panel discussion on Sunday, Jan. 28 at 3:00 PM
As an acu-connect member, you are invited to kick off your Summit experience strong at the acu-connect meetup and panelist discussion on Sunday, an hour before the official Welcome Reception.
This event helps you build connections with other Acumatica users, community members, partners, and integrated software developers (including the planning and reporting experts at Solver). These connections matter. Your acu-connect peers can become fantastic resources you can turn to as soon as you’re ready to maximize your Acumatica system.
Happening Sunday, January 28 at 3 PM. More information on the acu-connect event page.
⦁ Which sessions would you like to prioritize?
This year, there will be more than 90 sessions at Acumatica Summit covering issues and emerging challenges for businesses like yours. To meet your goals, you need to be strategic about which sessions you want to attend and why.
Access the full Summit agenda to register for the sessions you’re most interested in, and make sure you’re not overscheduling yourself. The human brain needs breaks to facilitate better learning, which is why it’s so important to attend those casual and fun meetups.
If you’d like to learn how top-tier FP&A departments meet today’s constant demands for up-to-date information, integrated planning, and pinpoint forecasting, we recommend our session. “Revolutionizing FP&A: Solver’s QuickStart Path to Better Reporting, Budgeting, and Analysis will happen Tuesday, January 30 at 12:50 PM on Sponsor’s Showcase Stage 2.”
Your Next Step: Execute on Your Plan
Now that you have planned your ideal conference experience, it’s time to put it in action.
Acumatica Summit 2024 kicks off on January 28 – so that’s your start date. Although there will be a lot going on at the conference, we know you’ll be able to prioritize what really matters to your personal growth and development. That’s because you will have made your plan, and you will be ready to execute it. Congratulate yourself on this serious accomplishment.
After Summit, don’t forget to return to this planning framework! We can’t stress enough how important it is to report on the results you experienced (step 3) and analyze why those results occurred (step 4).
Follow This Example for Successful Planning
Here’s an example of what a successful plan looks like:
Let’s say you realized during your strategic planning (step 1) that you wanted to learn about your options for advanced reporting, integrated budgeting, and adaptive forecasting for Acumatica.
In that case, your execution plan (step 2) would be to connect with a Solver team member by stopping by Solver’s Booth #412, attending the party at Sphere, or meeting up with Solver and acu-connect members at the acu-connect session. You would also want to register for and attend Solver’s session, “Revolutionizing FP&A” on Tuesday, January 30.
To round out your knowledge, you may also want to register for and attend the only other sessions at this year’s Summit that address financial reporting. Those are happening back-to-back on Wednesday morning, January 31, starting at 9 AM.
For step 3 (reporting), you can reflect on whether those activities helped you meet your goal of learning about financial reporting, budgeting, and forecasting in Acumatica.
For step 4 (analysis), you can think about your actions at the conference. If you took notes during the sessions and saved a business card from a Solver team member you met at the booth, Sphere party, or acu-connect meetup, you’ll have built a pathway for growth. This can help you learn more about your options to improve reporting, budgeting, and forecasting in Acumatica as soon as you’re ready.
Remember that after step 4, you return back to step 1. And when you make your plan for your next conference, you’ll know to refine that plan so it includes even more targeted activities that help you better reach your goal. Other activities could be as simple as scheduling a one-on-one with a Solver team member to ask detailed questions.
Best of all, planning for your next conference will be much easier when you follow through on this framework because you won’t be starting from a blank page next time.
Solver’s patented rapid deployment for Acumatica includes free and instant access to $100K of value in ready-to-use templates from the Solver Marketplace. Solver is committed to helping you with all your advanced planning, reporting, and analysis needs with our industry-leading, all-inclusive Solver Suite. Our single, simplified FP&A solution empowers you to Accelerate Better Decisions across your entire organization and maintain your competitive edge. Contact Solver at inquiries@solverglobal.com
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