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Quickbase News

Your Guide to Empower 2019: Real Advice from Past Attendees

Written By: Jessica Hawley
January 4, 2019
6 min read

We’ve told you what to expect in Quickbase’s Guide to Empower 2019. Nowyou can hear from attendees themselves what Empower is really like.

Empower 2019 – what are the details?

Empower is Quickbase’s annual conference, where users from around the globe get together for 3.5 days of learning, networking, and lots of fun. This year, Empower 2019 will be held in Miami, Florida from June 10-13.

We asked past attendees to share what the event is like, what they learned, and what Empower is all about. Here’s what they had to say.

How would you describe Empower to someone who’s never been?

“Empower is a conference that does exactly what its name implies. It is a 3.5 day conference that starts out with a training session or action packed app building marathon and ends on a high note with the after conference party. Packed in the middle is many amazing mind opening sessions that empowers any level of user to go home and build bigger and better things into their own apps.”

– Daniel Pate, RCP Inc.

“Empower is literally the best conference I have ever been to. With Quickbase being such a powerful tool, Empower shows you how to harness those capabilities and create some amazing apps to help with just about any work process. I went to Empower 2018 after being introduced to it as a cloud database and found out how much more it could do and was immediately hooked (and I’m not an early adopter of anything) and now I ask myself how Quickbase can help when any business task that comes to me.”

– Stephen Arnold, Texas A&M University

“Get ready for a whole lot of purple! It’s an amazing experience filled with enriched learning and awesome networking. There is something for everyone and you will not leave disappointed.”

– Erin Riley, VARC Solutions

What types of things do you learn at Empower?

“With the broad selection of sessions there will be much to learn at Empower! Networking with other developers is a big bonus for me as well as the previews for new features! I love being able to bring back new ideas for our users!”

– Janet Plumley, CCI Systems

“Being at Empower inspires me to use Quickbase more and to learn new ways to use it. It’s impossible to come home after four days of all Quickbase all the time and not want to use it more (and better).”

– Tyler Kipps, Director, Analysis and Reporting, PSL Group

“I have attended every Empower so far. I learned about new features coming that will make many of our Quickbase applications better and learned new things about what was already available that I had not used before. The knowledge that you can gain by interacting with other users of the product is invaluable.”

– Joe Lichtefeld, ResCare

“While I learn many new things each time I go, I think nothing is more valuable than the renewed energy and excitement I get for Quickbase development each time I attend. It sparks my creativity and passion! Our team is always excited by the solutions we bring back.”

– Jessica Curtis, VP, Clinical Systems & Analytics, Formation Healthcare Group

What value do you get from attending Empower?

“After Empower 2018, I was completely hooked on Quickbase. I went back to work and told my boss that these conferences are ones I never want to miss because they are too valuable. I am so excited to go to Empower this year. I have already booked flights and my hotel. I’m working on becoming certified to see if I can get the 10% off before I register.”

– Stephen Arnold, Texas A&M University

“At the 2018 Empower conference I was on the panel for the first Women’s Leadership Breakfast. I loved the idea and was thrilled to participate. The room was packed—it was standing-room only towards the back… The conversations that came up were candid and meaningful, and I think that really had an impact on all who attended. People asked about female mentors—how to find one, how to be one—and they wanted suggestions and advice on how to encourage and help more women to break into the field.”

Joanna Schreck, Senior Manager of Operational Excellence and Data Analytics for Digital Reach at Informa Exhibitions

“Everything about Empower was so impactful to me and my organization. Some of our best app ideas have come directly from the breakout sessions. Hearing about the ways that others have implemented Quickbase throughout their organizations helps us to dream even bigger.”

– Kelly Hayes, Senior Business Analyst, CCI Systems

“Empower gave me an opportunity to meet Quickbase team members face to face that I’ve been speaking to for years. It’s a great way to connect with other Quickbase users and see how they put this amazing tool to work.”

– Gil Spigleman, Senior System Architect, Hitachi

Making your case to attend Empower 2019

It can sometimes be challenging to get approval to attend a conference, no matter how valuable it will be for your organization. Before you approach your boss for approval, be prepared to demonstrate the value you’ll bring back, and have responses ready to counter any objections he or she may have. A great place to start is by writing a formal justification letter – and we did the heavy lifting for you. Download your copy here and modify it to suit your role and business goals.

In addition to highlighting the benefits of attending Empower for your company, have a plan for what you’ll do after the conference to justify the cost and time out of the office. This could be as simple as scheduling a debrief meeting or listing out your goals in advance with a plan to write up a summary after the event to share with your team. Here’s some ways past attendees have shown the value they got from Empower.

After Empower, what did you do to share what you learned with your organization?

“I made a few visual changes to forms while I was at Empower that I had been wanting to do for quite some time. It made everybody happy I went!!! I also came back excited with Quickbase swag and some ideas to make the life of my boss better. While there were hundreds of things I learned that helped our team, he was able to see a direct impact quickly. I had a quick meeting with him the day I came back and let him know the big things I learned and the ways I plan to put it in actions at our companies. I did not put a dollar figure on ROI, but learned ways to speed up our processes that saved both time and money.”

– Linda Floyd, Director of Operations, Specialty Pharmacy Management

“Now that we’re all situated back in the office, we plan on having a couple debriefing meetings with the others who were able to attend Empower2018 so that we can all share what new knowledge each of us learned in the sessions. We each tried to attend a different session throughout the three days, so that we could try to absorb as much new information as possible to bring back to the rest of our company.”

– Mark Lind, CCI Systems

Are you ready?

Check back for more – we’ll update this blog post with more tips and tricks directly from past attendees as we get closer to the event. Looking forward to seeing you in Miami from June 10-13th!

Written By: Jessica Hawley
Jessica Hawley is a marketing manager at Quickbase, focused on SEO, content and social media.
Tags:
EMPOWER

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