HISTORY

2001
• Summit's very first UGMTC was an extremely successful one. It was held March 21-22, 2001 at the Chamber of Commerce downtown Fort Wayne, IN. Session topics included General Financials: SSI CheckWriter/AP©, RealWorld® Payroll, RealWorld® General Ledger, SSI Petrolac Accounting© v6.01 and SSI Manager’s Assistant Accounting© v6.00. Costs were $85 per session and we had 215 attendees. With such a fantastic turnout, we realized we had stumbled onto a huge need amongst our customers: on-going training in a large group setting.

2002
• In 2002, we divided the UGMTC into two different two-day events. Per customer requests, we held the events at the Marriott Hotel to eliminate the need for our attendees to travel between the conference and their overnight accommodations. We had 50 attendees.

2003
• Listening to customer requests to keep the event costs as low as possible, in 2003, we held the UGMTC at our brand new headquarters in Fort Wayne, IN. We offered 44 separate UGMTC sessions in order to meet the growing needs of customers. We had only 23 attendees.

2004
• Attendees find great value in networking and interacting with their fellow users at UGMTCs. So, in 2004, we held fewer events (21 instead of 44) in an attempt to draw more customers together at the same time. The new focus seemed to work because we had 62 attendees.

2005
• Drawing from our previous four experiences producing UGMTCs, in 2005 we decided to take a risk and host a large UGMTC outside of Indiana. In August, we held our first UGMTC in Kansas City, MO. The 7-session event was a huge success, producing 69 attendees at that 3-day event alone. Then, throughout the year, we offered 15 UGMTC sessions in-house and had 99 attendees.

2006 - And Beyond
• Celebrating five successful years of User Group Member Training Conferences, we excitedly look forward to what the future now holds for the event. Kicking off the year strong (February-June) with 19 UGMTC sessions, we are still in debate about how to handle the latter half of the year. This is where we need your input! We are considering hosting one large, 3-day UGMTC in Indianpolis, IN at a hotel located near the airport. Based on previous feedback, we are looking into holding the event in mid August. Moving to a larger city will:

• offer our out-of-state users an opportunity to more easily fly into town for the event
• provide more entertainment possibilities for pre- and post-event activities
• gather more customers together for one joint meeting, promising greater opportunities to network and interact with fellow users

However, this move will also raise the cost of producing the UGMTC...just how much, we are not able to tell yet. Much of the cost depends upon attendance levels. So, we need to hear from you. Would you prefer us to host one large annual event or continue hosting only small, monthly UGMTCs in-house? Let us know!