Automation Nation 2018: recap

Another Automation Nation has come to a close, and we’re so thankful to every one of the 1,300 partners, Solutions Partners, and hosted guests who made the event our largest one yet. I shared the recap of my mainstage keynote, and now I’m back to give you a bird’s eye view of the entire event.

If you were there, maybe you were one of the 103,000 mobile app engagements we saw! If you missed out, this should fuel some serious excitement for next year’s event.

Day one

Two pre-day workshops kicked off this year’s Automation Nation, giving attendees the chance for deep-dives into the products they cared most about. Four in-depth lab sessions offered even more hands-on learning, and a special orientation for first-time attendees welcomed the newbies.

Once the day was done, we headed into an evening of serious competition and even more serious fun. Our 2018 Script-a-Thon crowned this year’s ConnectWise Automate® scripting champion, and then we headed to the welcome reception for a celebration that kicked off the event in style. Want to see if you were captured by our busy event photographers? Check out the photo album.

Day two

We kicked off day two with my keynote, where I shared company updates and invited our product team on stage for a closer look at new and upcoming product features. We opened our incredible Solutions Pavilion, and attendees added to the growing pile of backpacks being stuffed for local kids as a part of our Automation Nation Gives Initiative. We also crowned our Tech Tank winner, and look forward to following their progress into the fall!

Sessions were well underway, with attendees spending the day learning more about how the ConnectWise platform can support their business success, and we closed out the night with two great events. The Automation Nation Pub Crawl gave attendees a chance to get to know our Solutions Pavilion vendors a little better with a fun, casual atmosphere and lots of local brews. We finished with our Automation Nation 2018 celebration at Dave & Buster's, where the games and dancing carried on for several action-packed hours.

Day three

Our day three keynote speaker, Bob Metcalfe, brought his years of experience and expertise to the stage for an inspiring and innovation-filled keynote. After we got together for one final networking lunch, we closed out the event with an afternoon of sessions including discussion breakouts, product-specific labs, and a few last chances for networking and info sharing.