KnowledgePlanet Customer Conference

Today I wannabe Roger Ebert.

KnowledgePlanet held their 'Imagine' Customer Conference this week in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. This was a reinvention of sorts from previous Customer Advisory Board meetings they have regularly held in the past.

This day and a half gathering of KP customers and KP staff provides a venue to hear product and company updates from the leadership of KnowledgePlanet as well as allow their customer base to interact and share with one another what is going on in our organizations that use all or part of the KP product suite. Both Carol Monk and I attended this year's event representing Agilent and our learning technology platform.

What I think they did right this year?
I was impressed with the KP teams' willingness to scramble a bit and shake up their formal agenda to accommodate attendee feedback throughout the two days. It reinforced the 'responsiveness' vibe they are trying very hard to live for us. I also liked their approach this year of making available 'one on one' mini-sessions with every KPer in attendance. Being able to schedule 15 or so focused minutes with someone was an excellent way to make sure everyone had the opportunity to meet with those they really wished to connect within the short time together. It struck a nice balance between an overly formal 'sit down' meeting and a more chancy 'let's try to catch each other in the lunch line' approach. Closely related to this was the KP presence itself. It was great to have such a large contingent of the KP team there participating. More than the value of 'putting a face to a name' it showed again the commitment of their team (at all levels) to know and understand their customers.

What I think fell flat?
The room they used for most of the conference sessions was set up with rows of long tables. A simple thing like layout can really play against the intention of fostering interaction. I personally noticed the difference in the amount of interaction I had both during and between sessions from last year's round table set up. They did have a few round 'overflow' tables set up in the back this year...I was not surprised to see the number of people choosing to sit back there steadily grew over the course of the two days. I was also disappointed that they chose to bag their group dinner plan for a 'every man for themselves' approach this year. I felt this put the KP CRMs and PMs in a tough situation of worrying about covering their multiple clients...who was going where with whom when...Too much coordination after a long day. I personally liked the previous year's 'cooking school' dinner. It was a fun, interactive way to extend the day of sessions and allowed for me to meet and talk more with other customers.