What You Missed at Collaborate 2018: The Power of Connection

We are the lucky ones here. We recently hosted more than 2,400+ customers, partners, future customers and colleagues in Portland, Oregon for our ninth annual Collaborate Viewpoint User Conference. With more product breakout sessions, industry best practices, llamas and exhibitors than ever before, it was our very best conference yet. If you couldn’t make it to this year’s conference, here’s a look at some of the important things you missed:

Morning Inspirations and Technology Visions in Keynote Addresses

Each of our three mornings began with a keynote address. On day one, Viewpoint CEO Manolis Kotzabasakis walked the audience through the technology transformation we’re witnessing across the construction industry as evidenced by our work with customers on their evolving needs – and followed with the technology advancements Viewpoint is making to meet those challenges. Viewpoint Chief Product Officer Matt Harris continued with a sneak peek at coming products and hosted a panel discussion with customers Sachse Construction, Griffith Electric and Interstate Electric on the innovative ways they are meeting industry challenges head-on.

On day two, we followed Viewpoint tradition and hosted a Mel Robbins, acclaimed motivational speaker, who woke us up and made us feel empowered to handle whatever comes our way. And finally, McKinsey’s Jose Luis Blanco brought us into the final day with his insightful presentation on trends across the construction technology ecosystem to help our customers get a sense of the technologies currently impacting our industry and what we can expect in the near future. Get the detailed recap here.

More, and More Advanced, Breakout Sessions

This year was all about enacting the feedback we’ve heard from the 50% of our attendees who join us year over year. With five learning tracks (Vista, Spectrum, ProContractor, Team/Field & Industry Best Practices) and more than 130 breakout sessions, there was something for everyone.

We offered courses in each of the tracks for intermediate and advanced users as well as roles across the construction team: project managers, operations professionals, finance, executives and HR all found content relevant to their day-to-day roles, regardless of which Viewpoint product they use. We also featured experts from more than 25 other organizations sharing their expertise and best practices. Everything from dealing with difficult people to construction trends, revenue recognition standards and succession planning got air time.

Exhibits and Demonstrations from Our Valued Partners

The exhibit hall at the conference was constantly alive, buzzing with conversation, product and service demos and networking. Our exhibitors, all technology and service partners with Viewpoint, came prepared to educate clients about their products and services, and even reward our attendees with great prizes! Attendees enjoyed a happy hour in the exhibit hall, where they could chat with vendors, and our exhibitor-sponsored raffle for the winner of our photo scavenger hunt game that ran throughout the event.

Don’t Forget the Literal Party Animals

As always, networking and merriment are part of what we do in bringing so many together for Collaborate. Our annual customer appreciation party has a reputation of outdoing itself year after year. This year was no exception, as we really kicked it up a notch. Attendees enjoyed the Mardi Gras-themed event space arrayed with tasteful and bright décor to transport guests straight to the heart of New Orleans. Comfortable seating allowed guests to visit and enjoy the music over a drink or hit the casino lounge to try to win big in a good old-fashioned game of Texas Hold ‘em.

And then of course, there were the llamas. Yes, real live llamas. One llama and one alpaca, to be exact, graced us with their presence during the event as well. Rojo, the Portland llama and Napoleon the alpaca are therapy animals who visit hospitals all over Portland to bring joy to patients. They stole the show with their sweet, fluffy faces and excitement for photo shoots.

[Need to see more cute llama photos? You can follow @RojoTheLlama on Twitter!]

Save the Date for Next Year

Viewpoint’s Collaborate conference has morphed from a user conference into one of the construction industry’s most important industry events. You won’t want to miss what we have in store for 2019, so save the date for next year’s conference — September 23-27, 2019.

Still not sure you have the measure of Collaborate? Check out this video chronicling our time and the value over the three days.