This year’s BI360 Partner and Customer Conference, Ascend 2019, has proverbially sailed into the sunset. And it was amazing!


Renaming the event, from Focus to Ascend, truly embraced the essence of Solver’s business direction—helping organizations take the journey towards the next phase of corporate performance management and decision making. Not only did attendees and presenters discover valuable and innovative insights into BI360, but many power users from across industries also shared just how they used BI360 to empower their own businesses to solve complex problems.
Here are key moments worth mentioning:

Workshops

The two-day training workshops remained a favorite for many attendees, and provided a worthwhile avenue to ramp up their knowledge of the application. Students were appreciative of the content and effective training guides, walking away with the added skills to move them further along the path to becoming BI360 gurus.
Many full service integrators from various partners joined the conference early when Solver created the first-ever one-day Partner training workshop that provided extremely valuable hands-on lessons covering ways to solve complicated implementation challenges. Initial results have been extremely favorable, and have executives considering it for next year’s event.

Partner Sessions

Top Partner sessions included the Opening Keynote presented by Solver’s CEO Nils Rasmussen and CTO Mike Applegate where they shared Solver’s vision for the future of BI360 and corporate performance management. Another favorite session was the introduction to the Micro Vertical Program, where Vice President of Solutions Engineering, Stephanie Gamber revealed a new business development program designed to help support industry-focused Partners offer best-of-breed BI360 business solutions to their target markets.

Welcome Reception

The Welcome Reception was the perfect way to close out Partner Day and the Training Workshops, while kicking off the Customer portion of the conference. Held outdoors in beautiful balmy Southern California beach weather, poke bowls, tacos and gelato cookie sandwiches were enjoyed while hundreds of attendees conversed with old friends and new acquaintances alike. And to cap the evening…attendees were treated to a beautiful coastal sunset.

Keynote

Wednesday’s keynote shared Solver’s vision through the eyes of CEO Nils Rasmussen, CTO Mike Applegate, VP of Solutions Engineering Stephanie Gamber, and Principal of Fifth Square Manish Bansal. While Thursday’s keynote offered attendees a chance to meet, ask questions, and gain nuggets of wisdom from guest speaker, Misty May-Treanor, a three-time Olympic gold medalist in beach volleyball. This year’s event program took on a different tact than prior years by utilizing customers and partners to share their BI360 experiences and functional strategies; and they were very well received.

Solver Awards

Solver’s annual BI360 awards were announced during Thursday’s keynote and gave attendees a chance to celebrate notable partners and customers for their contributions to BI360 and Solver. We congratulate the following customers and partners for their efforts in the BI360 field. Customer winners and their respective awards included: Seacom for Innovation, Jackson Healthcare for BI360 Ambassador, Conquest Completions for New Customer of the Year, #1 Cochran for Business Impact, and Atlas Networks for Budgeting Customer of the Year. Partner winners and their respective awards included: Fifth Square for Breakthrough Partner of the Year, BKD for Cloud Ambassador, and Velosio for Partner of Year.

Extra Activities

Other popular activities included the hands-on lab and support room with seats filled most times; the newly introduced Sponsor Passport Giveaway program, where prizes like a Bose Bluetooth speaker, a Yeti cooler bag and $200 gift cards were given away; beach yoga and beach volleyball; as well as, the customer and partner appreciation dinner followed by the energy of Journey cover band, ESCAPE in Solver’s first-ever conference concert.

Although the first annual Ascend is now history, the feedback received has Solver planning for bigger ideas to make next year’s event even better. Interested in seeing what it’s all about? Then mark your calendars: August 24-27, 2020 as Ascend 2020 returns to the Hyatt Regency Resort and Spa in Huntington Beach, CA. I hope to see you there!