In Q1 of 2020, Signet hosted its second Uplevel Event. Our UpLevel: Signet Leadership Forum surpassed everyone’s expectations by exceeding the scope of the first event held in 2017. Back then, we organized a much smaller and intimate event with guided discussion over dinner with only ten attendees.
But this year, we took things to the next level by featuring keynote speakers, vendors, and a design-thinking lab. Hosted at Signet’s Global HQ, there were over 50 attendees this time, all of which were prominent leaders in the EBC (Executive Briefing Center) space. Also, attendees were treated to amazing drinks at our open bar and delicious hors d’oeuvres before dinner. Below, we’ll reveal more about our first event and a few highlights of UpLevel 2020.
How It All Started
Signet held its first UpLevel event in 2017, which took the form of a privately hosted dinner with ten attendees. While this event may have been low-key, we were able to discuss issues such as digital transformation, personalization automation ideas with integrations, pain points, and future ideas that can shape the industry. Now, Signet re-ignited the event with plans to host in annually, and hopefully, grow it to include more industry thought leaders and companies so that they can showcase their solutions.
Speakers And Topics At UpLevel 2020
This year’s UpLevel was hosted by Bryan Hobbs from Symantec. Bryan was a great choice given his illustrious career in Customer Service and Sales, which has allowed him to approach the briefing industry, with a unique perspective on customer engagement. And, as a 12-year briefing professional that has worked on Cisco’s and Symantec’s briefing programs, he has developed a passion for customer experience and transforming the traditional briefing experience.
Key Speakers:
David Rogers – Microsoft
- Topic: Beyond Briefings: Executive Client Experience at Microsoft
- Provided insight into world-class execution and strategy through the lens of his experiences at Microsoft
John Kolesar – Electrosonic
- Topic: Building Corporate Amusement Parks for Executives
- Using amusement parks as the metaphor inspired us to think outside the box, and find ways large and small to surprise and delight clients, leaving them with positive lasting impressions
Marshall Thompson – Signet
- Topic: Defining The Future of Client Center Experiences
- Described the current trends, landscape, and provided examples of how businesses are currently winning in the EBC space
Contributions
Signet would like to take this opportunity to thank all the vendors that supported the UpLevel event. Your presence and valuable contributions made the evening truly special. A few notable highlights include the following vendor demos:
Multitaction
- “MultiTaction is a leading developer of advanced collaboration and visualization solutions; it is our focus and our passion. From concept to market, our concentration is on creating solutions that allow people to connect in real-time, share ideas, and solve business problems using live data across teams and around the world.”
- Multitaction demoed their responsive touch technology at UPLevel, showcasing their collaborative and innovative Canvus technology
Stark RFID
- “We’re an enterprise-level RFID systems integrator and solution provider, based in Greenville, SC. We opened our doors in 2004 and initially focused on an inventory control system designed to track finished goods in harsh and challenging industrial environments.”
- Stark provided RFID badges for the UPLevel event. Users could scan their attendee badge to trigger on-screen content in real-time
Signet Demo Lab
- The Signet Demo Lab showcased our variety of endpoints in the CenterSuite space
- Demonstrated templates: Welcome Screens, Product Promos, Leadership Quotes, and Dynamic Communications Channels
- Featured new content services for executive briefing centers including “Curated Digital Artwork”
A Design-Thinking Exercise
During this year’s UpLevel evening, we conducted a design-thinking exercise, which was a huge success, and we received plenty of positive feedback. Furthermore, it presented us with an excellent opportunity to speak openly with our clients about their wants and needs. Here’s a few quick takeaways:
- We asked guests to provide feedback about given topics, generating a lively conversation around Signet products and the EBC industry as a whole. The feedback included a generated mosaic of post-it notes on our conference room walls.
- Signet evaluated all of this feedback and integrated it into our future roadmap, immediately taking action on client requests.
- To make it easier for attendees to provide feedback, we made available the following categories: Content Curation, Global Consistency, Personalization, Presentations and Demos, and Scheduling, to name a few.
In Conclusion
Without a doubt, this year’s UpLevel event was a huge success, but we couldn’t have achieved this without all our valuable partners. Once again, we’d like to thank everyone that attended and all demonstrators, speakers, and vendors for contributing to a memorable evening. We’re looking forward to seeing you again in our upcoming UpLevel event!