Value received: Amazing energy and motivation for our entire team

There’s nothing like getting together in person to network with peers, exchange ideas and build a rapport that will evolve into impromptu calls and emails—and continue the knowledge-sharing experience far beyond the Summit itself. Those personal relationships can be a great source of information and camaraderie throughout the year.

We also used the Summit as a rare opportunity for our advocacy team, which is virtual, to get together face-to-face. It gave us an opportunity to debrief immediately after the Summit to identify new concepts that could be applied to our advocacy program. We capitalized on the momentum and motivation from the Summit, and it was amazing how much we got done in a concentrated period of time.

When we’ve had travel restrictions, we tried to achieve the same thing remotely by web conferencing, but it’s just not the same. The energy isn’t there. Dialogue isn’t spontaneous with most of the team on mute. Someone’s cell phone would die. The crick-in-the-neck syndrome would happen (from trying to balance the phone while taking notes). While there certainly was a level of productivity in the virtual meeting, the creative brainstorming and exchanging of ideas was not maximized.

In contrast, when we attend a Summit together, our advocacy managers came back invigorated and excited to incorporate into our program some of the concepts we learned. At a recent Summit, we were particularly interested in ideas that would help streamline processes and gain efficiencies for our team and our customers.

Bottom line: Attending the Summit on Customer Engagement–in person, and together as a team–has been well worthwhile for our advocacy program team!”