How energizing today was! Cognition22 opened with Robin Wadsworth building up the energy and focusing attention on the content for the day. Barry Kelly, as the visionary he is, talked about what learning everywhere can mean as we build our strategies without limits. And then he backed it up with people who do just that every day: Henry Schuck is the CEO of ZoomInfo, TI’s Overall Excellence award winner, and showed why as he spoke to the importance of customer education in his customer success and the role education played as they scaled to be REALLY BIG. This was followed by a great conversation with Zack Parnell, the CEO of ITI, another TI award winner. Zack showed us how this happened by talking through the way they’re launching new technologies into the learning everywhere scenarios. It was amazing to hear the progress they’ve made.
Favorite quote: Henry Shuck said “ROI and CE go hand in hand”.
And if you ever wanted to see how the maturity model really works, this was the day. Tom Studdert walked us through exactly how the ZoomInfo team scaled, and grew to the powerhouse it is today. I am consistently in awe of the way he has lead his team through the growth spurts to be something that the CEO touts in a global conference.
Favorite quote: Training is retaining.
And a great big shout out to Song Division. One of the best break-time fun-times there is. They were certainly a big hit with attendees.
Listening to Geoffrey Moore discuss “Leading with Learning” was one of those opportunities to see the synergies in customer education. His remarks coincided so much with so many of the conversations I’ve been having these last several months. It was great to feel that validation in approach.
Favorite Quote: The Age of the Customer is putting the highlight on training and customer education
The afternoon breakouts were outstanding. I sat in the Leadership track this time, which gave me another opportunity to learn from Tyler Foster. The discussion around boosting engagement through social learning just was incredibly insightful.
Favorite Quote: A customer that completes training will lead to higher retention.
And who wouldn’t like to listen to Debbie Smith talk about customer education? She’s full of information and mentor-ese in just a 45 minute conversation on product education v. customer education. It was great to be able to learn more from her.
Favorite Quote: Features & Functions, This allows you to, This appears on screen.
The end of the day brought round tables on a variety of topics. Since I’m in community these days, it made sense to hang out there with my colleague, Amanda Lee. It was great to see old friends, and make new ones (go Cougs).
It was great to see the themes that kept recurring - Halloween (headless), Hogwarts stairs (programs, systems, programs, systems) as well as the value of customer education.