I hope that all of you that attended InterACT 2012 made it home safely and arrived home with as much excitement and feeling of renewed energy that I have. (I think the last of the Red Bulls has left my system and I find I am able to walk a little slower).
As many of you know, this was my first InterACT user group conference. I admit, I went into it not knowing what to expect. I had heard from all of my co-workers that the many days of hard work and effort would be worth it based on the valuable information and relationships that everyone builds on throughout the week. However, call it the fear of the unknown--the combination of anticipation and the to-do list that grew by the second was enough to have me a little restless.
Then, registration opened. I saw Aspect Users that I previously only knew by name and voice coming up the escalators to register with an excitement to "interact" and get all that they could out of the week. People happily greeted their fellow users. They excitedly flipped through the conference book, mapping out which sessions were on their “not to miss” list. The energy only went up from there!
So for those of you that were not able to attend InterACT 2012, here is some of what you missed:
- 46 Retail Companies were represented by the over 85 retail attendees.
- There was a wonderful mix of expertise – there were 47 first time attendees as well as 17 “InterACT Alumni” who had each attended at least five conferences.
- For the first time, users had an opportunity to book time at the “Ask the Expert” booth. The response to this chance to have dedicated time with Katy and/or Kathleen was overwhelming! One user commented that the 45 minute session for him and his co-worker “paid for the entire conference”.
- More than 50 people participated in Special Interest Group sessions for the Sporting Goods, Fashion Retail and Off-Price retail segments.
- There were over 30 educational sessions to choose from (over half were led by you -our users). Agenda: http://www.aspectlp.com/interact/100067_agenda+
- A record number of Senior LP Executives met and attended the VP/Directors Workshops
- Aspect Loss Prevention business partners helped to sponsor the event and also took part in sessions and led moderated workshops and general sessions.
· The 7th charity event for Katie’s Helping Hand raised an incredible $9,000 to help provide meals to families whose children seriously ill in the hospital.
One of the things that struck me as so amazing from this conference took place on Friday - the day after the conference ended. Throughout the day, I was able to see that one of the main goals of InterACT was being achieved. On LinkedIn, I watched as many of the attendees were added to each other as connections. These connections were going beyond those of like companies connecting. They were connecting with Aspect being the common factor. We hope that throughout the year that you keep in contact with the connections you made at InterACT 2012. Use the information that you were able to gather from the sessions you attended or from the dinner conversations that you had with fellow professionals. Carry that excitement that we witnessed all throughout the conference into a productive year.
Also, by making connections with the Aspect Team, feel free to contact us when you have a question, comment or suggestion. We pride ourselves on the support we give to you, our users. I hope that by putting faces to names, better relationships are able to be built (and that even more of you participate on LinkedIn and on the Aspect User Blog). I think the last song of the night at Dueling Pianos summed up the philosophy of InterACT, everyone got up on that stage and belted our an enthusiastic rendition of "Lean on Me". The words could not be a better fit for what we hope you will always remember- you should always feel free to sing out (or just email) “I just might have a problem that you’d understand.” So... reach out, keep in touch and InterACT throughout the entire year!
