How Smart Systems Impact, Impede and Interlink Great People
ShareThePoint is a leading conference organizer that specializes in Digital Workplace Conferences (DWC). Our conferences are designed to help businesses learn how to leverage the latest Microsoft technologies to improve their productivity. Work smarter, rather than harder!
However, the success of the conferences is not just due to the expert speakers, informative sessions, and cutting-edge technology on display. In addition, we place a high emphasis on building a strong community. Equally important, we ensure we ‘walk the talk’ with systems and processes.
Eating Our Own Dogfood
A popular Microsoft phase from 1988, is “Eating your own dogfood”. It refers to the internal use of the companies own products in day to day operations. The entire DWC Team, really do live by this. We find truth, by personally using the tools. It is essential we embrace new technology. Afterall, we advocate these at the Digital Workplace events.
Consequently, every event works to showcase smart ways of working and understand why certain products improve or simplify processes.
In 2010, the DWC team used Microsoft SharePoint 2010 as a public-facing website. It provided attendees with easy access to event information. Bleeding edge perhaps, but a brilliant showcase of capability.
The DWC Team also leveraged Yammer to foster collaboration among conference attendees, speakers, sponsors, and exhibitors. This, however, needed a separate login.
Another innovation in 2013, was scanning session evaluations with new software. Likewise, from 2016, we leveraged OneNote to share Sponsorship information. This also provided participants with their own conference notebook. In 2016 the newest Surface Hubs and Electronic Whiteboards showcased new touch screen abilities. We included QR codes from Microsoft forms in 2019 to enable engagement during sesisons and evaluations.
As new tools became available, the conferences became THE place to experience what could be done with them. Our exhibitors contribute largely to this forward-thinking approach. Attendees get an opportunity to experience, first hand, how the technology can be used.
The Challenge of Multiple Disparate Systems
Our events are renowned for being professional, organised and impactful. To achieve the conference and business objectives, careful planning and execution is required. Efficient internal systems are essential.
Understandably, it takes a number of different systems to manage conferences. These include attendee registration, speaker submission and evaluation. Also, processes are required for campaign and database management, reporting and sponsorship liaison. Many of the systems require individual logins. Also, they lack integration.
As a result of the sheer number and variety of applications, training for staff is intensive. Moreover, several processes have remained manual. Besides the unnecessary time spent, the lack of automation has a heightened risk of errors.
We are constantly looking to improve our processes.
What next?
Microsoft discontinued public-facing websites in SharePoint Online in 2015. The conference websites were returned to WordPress. Again, multiple systems were needed, with manual input.
Microsoft tools continue to be essential for managing the conferences. Teams enables logical document sharing and communication. Microsoft Planner is used for task management. OneNote captures knowledge management and repeatable processes.
We are still actively “eating our own dogfood!”. However, there is always room for improvement!
2023 and ExtranetUserManager for Conference Websites
For this years innovation, the conference team worked with ExtranetUserManager (EUM) to create the New Zealand Digital Workplace conference website.
EUM is a SharePoint add-on. It allows organizations to securely share content and collaborate with external users. This is ideal for the Digital Workplace Conferences. With EUM, ShareThePoint was able to create a seamless and engaging conference experience that promotes learning, networking, and innovation. Read more about the solution and partnership with EnvisionIT.
This solution has simplified many of the conference processes. Rather than detail them all, we thought a discussion and demonstration might provide more value – so please join us!
The Importance of Building Community
Building a community around a conference is essential for several reasons. Firstly, it creates a sense of belonging and fosters engagement among attendees. This can lead to stronger relationships, which can drive business growth.
Secondly, building a community allows attendees to continue growth long after the conference has ended. This ongoing learning can lead to new insights, ideas, and innovations that can benefit attendees and their organizations in the future.
Engagement was a key theme for the New Zealand Conference this year. While the powerful learning is still the main reason people attend, our new approach to events received wonderful feedback.
Nicki Everitt
Classic Builders
I am not the person that goes to events for networking but this was incredibly valuable, more than I ever would have imagined!
We are now looking at ways to further build this into both our events the EUM solution.
The Future of Extranets and Conferences
Looking ahead, the use of extranets and collaboration tools is likely to become even more important for businesses that host conferences and events. As the world becomes increasingly connected, there will be a growing demand for secure and flexible solutions. ExtranetUserManager is one solution that can help organizations to meet this demand by providing a secure and user-friendly platform for facilitating collaboration.
As event organisers, it is imperative we too, work to keep improving our processes, and subsequently deliver events that quench our attendees thirst for knoweldge. We are excited to be bring more fresh perpectives and inspiration to the 2023 Australian Digital Workplace Knoweldge in Melbourne this August.
We look forward to welcoming you there!