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In just 16 short days, we will welcome nearly 200 ascenders to the second ascend User Meeting, “Innovation United” and I can’t wait. There is nothing more energizing than to meet with our clients to talk about ascend, the most comprehensive advancement system based on Salesforce.
I’m looking forward to reconnecting with customers whom I haven’t seen since CRM evaluation days, or since project sprints for those I attended. I’m looking forward to meeting new users I haven’t ever met, to hear how ascend is helping their institution do work more efficiently using a modern system. I’m looking forward to connecting users with each other so we can all share information, best practices, and experiences and learn from each other. And yes, I’m looking forward to hearing from our users about how ascend could be enhanced to help their institutions even more. After all, ascend is built by practitioners for practitioners, and receiving feedback and suggestions is vital to keep ascend moving forward.
The meeting itself is chock full of ascender-led sessions; in fact, the topics were all generated by our community, which just proves that our users are happy to share their knowledge. Of our 55 client sites, representatives from 43 will be attending, a testament to the power of our community.
Aside from networking, sharing, and learning from each other, Innovation United is also an opportunity for our users to meet and talk with those of us “behind the curtain” of ascend. All of our leadership will be at Innovation United – and not up on stage, untouchable but completely accessible to anyone and everyone. We pride ourselves, even as we’ve grown, in being responsive and accessible – it’s one way in which we stay accountable for what we do.
Community. That’s what this meeting is all about. And while this in person meeting is once a year, the ascend community is active all year long. With Campfire Chats (user let discussions), virtual user group meetings, Innovation Council meetings, webinars on topics ranging from ascend specific information to general advancement information, there are many ways in which an ascend user is active in our community.
Our mission is to make our clients our biggest fans, and community is a large part of how we keep our users as our fans. It’s also one of my favorite parts of being a vendor: after all, the profession we’re serving is all about relationships, and the ascend community has amazing relationships.
If you want to learn more about ascend and Innovation United, please reach out to Caroline Chang, VP of Product Evangelism. She is happy to talk to you and share her experience.
Finished reading? Check out Part 2 for more insights!
As the Vice President of Product Evangelism at Kindsight, Caroline Chang is an advancement services expert, with over 30 years of experience in the higher education industry and non-profit fundraising.
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