We have entered the final countdown to Empower 2019. With only a few weeks left until the conference, the schedule has been set, sponsors are locked in, and attendees are registered. (Right?! If not, you know what to do: Register Now). Here are a few things that we’re particularly excited about:
Sponsor spotlight
What do Gainsight, Solvvy, Zendesk, SalesLoft, Front, MaestroQA, Stella Connect, Boldr, and Square 1 Bank have in common? Besides being amazing companies, they’re all sponsoring Empower! We feel incredibly lucky to have such stellar companies sponsoring our first conference. Our team at Guru works closely with our friends at each organization and we look forward to spending time with all of our sponsors during the conference. Keep an eye out for their booths and come prepared to stock up on swag!
Plus – sponsors will have answers to the scavenger hunt questions! Visit their booths to get the questions, then if you get all the answers right, you’ll be entered to win a 55” Samsung Frame TV.
Conference highlights
If you haven’t seen the finalized schedule yet, you can find it here. We’re super psyched to have two jam-packed days full of keynotes, panels, break out sessions, and networking. Keep an eye out for:
Day 1
Catch the Wave: How to Leverage Hidden Learning MomentumKristen Swanson, former Director of Learning at Slack
What better way to kick off a conference than by hearing from a learning expert on how to better leverage learning momentum? Kristen will help us set ourselves up for maximum retention at Empower.
Build & Scale a Revenue-Centric CultureKyle Porter, CEO atSalesLoft(Silver Sponsor)
When it comes to generating revenue, the onus no longer falls solely on the shoulders of sales. Everyone who works with customers belongs to the Revenue Team. SalesLoft CEO Kyle Porter will walk us through how he is building and scaling a revenue-centric culture at SalesLoft. Later on, Doug Landis, Growth Partner at Emergence Capital, will join Kyle on stage for a follow-up session including a tactical framework for implementing a revenue-centric culture at your company.
Listening at Scale: How to Glean Actionable Insights from Support & SuccessSarah Sheikh, Head of Customer Success atFront(Silver Sponsor); Shauntle Barley Head of Growth atMaestroQA(Silver Sponsor); Camille E. Acey, Head of Customer Success at Nylas; moderated by Hillary Curran, Head of CX at Guru
During a recent webinar Guru co-hosted with Front, Sarah Sheikh shared that her #1 rule for keeping customers happy is “Share customer feedback with your entire team.” Well, Sarah is back and coming to Empower to elaborate on this topic alongside Shauntle from MaestroQA, and Camille from Nylas. Find out how these CX leaders share customer insights with other internal key stakeholders.
How Sales Teams Can Keep Pace with Buyer ExpectationsAstha Malik, VP of Platform and Product Marketing atZendesk(Gold Sponsor)
Buyers are more educated than ever, and their expectations going into a sales conversation are always rising. To keep pace, sales reps today need to be able to answer a wide range of questions. Find out how Zendesk’s product marketing team addresses this challenge.
How Companies Can Facilitate Feedback Loops and Differentiate on SupportCaroline Nolan, CX Manager at Brooklinen; Maria Jiang, Director of Marketing atSolvvy(Gold Sponsor); moderated by Diane Stern Ruth, VP of Customer Success & Partnerships at Guru
Although it’s gonna be May (where my JT fans at?), we’ll be getting cozy with a fireside chat at Empower. Find out how Solvvy and Brooklinen ensure Customer Support has a voice in determining the product roadmap, and get guidance on how to better position your products and services to align with customer expectations.
Empower Bash
You can’t host a conference at a cool music venue like World Cafe Live without making a party part of the festivities. To celebrate the end of Day 1, we’ll be kickin’ back with live music, a DJ, yard games, video games, and of course, a full bar. The Guru crew likes to have a good time – trust me, you won’t want to miss out!
Join us for some early morning yoga at the Inn at Penn (down the street from World Cafe Live at one of our hotel blocks) before jumping back into learning mode for Day 2. Solvvy is bringing us a Vinyasa-style yoga session taught by Maria Jiang. Whether you’re an inflexible beginner or a head-standing expert, this session will be a great way to start your day.
Design a Customer-Centric Organization in the Subscription EconomyAllison Pickens, Chief Operating Officer atGainsight(Gold Sponsor)
What does it mean to be a customer-centric organization? Gainsight has it figured out and COO Allison Pickens is coming to Empower to share ways for you to create your own customer-centric culture and empower your teams to rethink how they manage customer relationships.
Support is a Revenue Driver, Not a Cost CenterMarcie Murray, Director of Support at Shopify; moderated by Rick Nucci, Co-founder & CEO at Guru
Does your organization still see your contact center as a cost center? Shopify has completely flipped the script on that stereotype. Learn how empowered people, empathetic processes, and best-in-class technology can transform your contact center into a world-class customer experience center and drive revenue. (And do some pre-reading by checking out Guru’s Shopify case study.)
Customer-facing Team Collaboration: How World Class Product Launches HappenJeremey Donovan, SVP Sales Strategy atSalesLoft(Silver Sponsor); moderated by Roz Greenfield, Co-founder & Chief Enablement Officer at Level213
Product releases and launches are crucial opportunities to bolster and elevate your value to customers. In this panel, find out how to align your product, marketing, sales, success, and support teams to knock product releases and launches out of the park.
Action Plan: Turning Your Ideas into Action
We’ve been talking a big game about making Empower actionable, so this is your chance to actually take all the great ideas you’ve had over the course of these two days in Philly and makesomethinghappen. We are not sending you back to your desk without a concrete action plan in place for you to tackle a challenge or opportunity at work. So bring your thinking caps. (Read more about action planning here.)
See you soon!
This list hardly scratches the surface of all the amazing things we have lined up for you at Empower! Check out the full schedule here to hype yourself for all the great talks and sessions coming your way. And, if on the off chance you made it to the end of this blog post yet have not registered, get your ticketherebefore registration closes tomorrow!
We look forward to seeing you in Philly Philly soon!
We have entered the final countdown to Empower 2019. With only a few weeks left until the conference, the schedule has been set, sponsors are locked in, and attendees are registered. (Right?! If not, you know what to do: Register Now). Here are a few things that we’re particularly excited about:
Sponsor spotlight
What do Gainsight, Solvvy, Zendesk, SalesLoft, Front, MaestroQA, Stella Connect, Boldr, and Square 1 Bank have in common? Besides being amazing companies, they’re all sponsoring Empower! We feel incredibly lucky to have such stellar companies sponsoring our first conference. Our team at Guru works closely with our friends at each organization and we look forward to spending time with all of our sponsors during the conference. Keep an eye out for their booths and come prepared to stock up on swag!
Plus – sponsors will have answers to the scavenger hunt questions! Visit their booths to get the questions, then if you get all the answers right, you’ll be entered to win a 55” Samsung Frame TV.
Conference highlights
If you haven’t seen the finalized schedule yet, you can find it here. We’re super psyched to have two jam-packed days full of keynotes, panels, break out sessions, and networking. Keep an eye out for:
Day 1
Catch the Wave: How to Leverage Hidden Learning MomentumKristen Swanson, former Director of Learning at Slack
What better way to kick off a conference than by hearing from a learning expert on how to better leverage learning momentum? Kristen will help us set ourselves up for maximum retention at Empower.
Build & Scale a Revenue-Centric CultureKyle Porter, CEO atSalesLoft(Silver Sponsor)
When it comes to generating revenue, the onus no longer falls solely on the shoulders of sales. Everyone who works with customers belongs to the Revenue Team. SalesLoft CEO Kyle Porter will walk us through how he is building and scaling a revenue-centric culture at SalesLoft. Later on, Doug Landis, Growth Partner at Emergence Capital, will join Kyle on stage for a follow-up session including a tactical framework for implementing a revenue-centric culture at your company.
Listening at Scale: How to Glean Actionable Insights from Support & SuccessSarah Sheikh, Head of Customer Success atFront(Silver Sponsor); Shauntle Barley Head of Growth atMaestroQA(Silver Sponsor); Camille E. Acey, Head of Customer Success at Nylas; moderated by Hillary Curran, Head of CX at Guru
During a recent webinar Guru co-hosted with Front, Sarah Sheikh shared that her #1 rule for keeping customers happy is “Share customer feedback with your entire team.” Well, Sarah is back and coming to Empower to elaborate on this topic alongside Shauntle from MaestroQA, and Camille from Nylas. Find out how these CX leaders share customer insights with other internal key stakeholders.
How Sales Teams Can Keep Pace with Buyer ExpectationsAstha Malik, VP of Platform and Product Marketing atZendesk(Gold Sponsor)
Buyers are more educated than ever, and their expectations going into a sales conversation are always rising. To keep pace, sales reps today need to be able to answer a wide range of questions. Find out how Zendesk’s product marketing team addresses this challenge.
How Companies Can Facilitate Feedback Loops and Differentiate on SupportCaroline Nolan, CX Manager at Brooklinen; Maria Jiang, Director of Marketing atSolvvy(Gold Sponsor); moderated by Diane Stern Ruth, VP of Customer Success & Partnerships at Guru
Although it’s gonna be May (where my JT fans at?), we’ll be getting cozy with a fireside chat at Empower. Find out how Solvvy and Brooklinen ensure Customer Support has a voice in determining the product roadmap, and get guidance on how to better position your products and services to align with customer expectations.
Empower Bash
You can’t host a conference at a cool music venue like World Cafe Live without making a party part of the festivities. To celebrate the end of Day 1, we’ll be kickin’ back with live music, a DJ, yard games, video games, and of course, a full bar. The Guru crew likes to have a good time – trust me, you won’t want to miss out!
Join us for some early morning yoga at the Inn at Penn (down the street from World Cafe Live at one of our hotel blocks) before jumping back into learning mode for Day 2. Solvvy is bringing us a Vinyasa-style yoga session taught by Maria Jiang. Whether you’re an inflexible beginner or a head-standing expert, this session will be a great way to start your day.
Design a Customer-Centric Organization in the Subscription EconomyAllison Pickens, Chief Operating Officer atGainsight(Gold Sponsor)
What does it mean to be a customer-centric organization? Gainsight has it figured out and COO Allison Pickens is coming to Empower to share ways for you to create your own customer-centric culture and empower your teams to rethink how they manage customer relationships.
Support is a Revenue Driver, Not a Cost CenterMarcie Murray, Director of Support at Shopify; moderated by Rick Nucci, Co-founder & CEO at Guru
Does your organization still see your contact center as a cost center? Shopify has completely flipped the script on that stereotype. Learn how empowered people, empathetic processes, and best-in-class technology can transform your contact center into a world-class customer experience center and drive revenue. (And do some pre-reading by checking out Guru’s Shopify case study.)
Customer-facing Team Collaboration: How World Class Product Launches HappenJeremey Donovan, SVP Sales Strategy atSalesLoft(Silver Sponsor); moderated by Roz Greenfield, Co-founder & Chief Enablement Officer at Level213
Product releases and launches are crucial opportunities to bolster and elevate your value to customers. In this panel, find out how to align your product, marketing, sales, success, and support teams to knock product releases and launches out of the park.
Action Plan: Turning Your Ideas into Action
We’ve been talking a big game about making Empower actionable, so this is your chance to actually take all the great ideas you’ve had over the course of these two days in Philly and makesomethinghappen. We are not sending you back to your desk without a concrete action plan in place for you to tackle a challenge or opportunity at work. So bring your thinking caps. (Read more about action planning here.)
See you soon!
This list hardly scratches the surface of all the amazing things we have lined up for you at Empower! Check out the full schedule here to hype yourself for all the great talks and sessions coming your way. And, if on the off chance you made it to the end of this blog post yet have not registered, get your ticketherebefore registration closes tomorrow!
We look forward to seeing you in Philly Philly soon!
Experience the power of the Guru platform firsthand – take our interactive product tour
