Should You Attend Sage Summit 2013?

Sage Summit is Sage North America’s annual customer and partner conference. This year it occurs July 21-26, 2013 in Washington DC at the Gaylord National. There are hundreds of educational sessions covering nearly every product that Sage offers. The educational sessions are reason enough to attend however there really are two standout sessions which should easily pay for the entire conference.

Three Reasons To Attend Sage Summit 2013

#1 Sage City

If you’ve ever wondered how other companies in an industry similar to yours manage their business using Sage products then you will want to attend Sage City. Organized into small groups you’ll network with other attendees and collaborate on solving mutual problems – or maybe just sharing some tips and tricks.

However the real value in Sage City may not be in the hour or two that you participate at the conference. If you’re smart during Sage City you’ll gather up names and email addresses of fellow participants. When you get back to the office if you keep in touch with your Sage City friends you’ll find that you soon develop an active network of peers who you can ask questions of and share ideas.

Over seven years ago I saw this happen at a Sage conference with a group of Sage resellers. At the time we were only about 6 or 8 people who kept in touch by email after the conference ended. Since then we’ve grown to 130 consultants and we are having annual conferences and educational sessions hosted by our own members.

Here’s a quick video overview of Sage City

#2 Hands On Courses

Sage brings a whole room full of computers to Sage Summit where they host full sessions of hands-on training courses. These sessions have great materials (very similar to the regular Sage educational guides) and offer an ability to ask questions of Sage’s trainers. If you don’t feel the need for an all day hands-on course and just want a short (but professional refresher) then don’t miss these courses.