Thinking about attending the 2019 Insights, but have a few Q’s
What doe the main fee include? Are any workshops or classes included with that, or all they all extra?
Are the workshops well defined? I’d hate to sign-up for one thinking it was for more advanced users, only to find out it is for basic users.
A link to last year’s schedules of events and classes would be helpful.
Access to the agenda is given post-registration, and it seems they’ve taken down the 2018 agenda already. You can always cancel your reservation - just indicate that you are paying by check instead of credit card and you can get agenda access and delay your final decision until a month out from the conference. We do it that way.
As for an overview - it’s worth it. Information, future road map, new products/features - and networking with folks. We send someone every year with a list of questions because Epicor’s folks are there and very open to chatting with you about anything - it’s definitely a huge reason we go. Just ask around at the Epicor desk until you find the right person to talk to!
As for sessions - they are generally very informative - more so than not. But it’s a mixed bag depending on what you are looking for. A lot of them focus on easy subjects for those who are new to Epicor which is a good thing for those users. The extended Ed sessions tend to be “labs” where the session is laid out in a lab book but the instructor will do some teaching and be there to answer questions and such.
All in all, I think they do a very good job of covering basics for new users, and new features for existing users. It’s bit light if you want some deep-down technical stuff, but that can be found in some of the sessions, labs, and Epicor product folks on the exhibit floor.
A few details from ‘inside’.
The agenda is released via an app similar to the following:
https://www.epicor.com/customers/insights/agenda-preview.aspx
This means installing the app or registering online for the web version. I don’t think you can do this if not attending though and not sure about when old stuff gets taken down.
AFAIK, everything in the core conference is included - I am sure others can correct my ignorance if the case.
The two days before the conference are ‘extended education days’. Four classes, 2 per day so four hours on each topic. These are extra $.
The core conference has 45-75 minute sessions broken out between presentations and hands on labs (HOL). You’ll get a slight taste of a subject in the HOL but usually only enough to have some confidence in starting to dig into material at home once back. That and a contact to abuse once home (Other than the folks up here).
There are hands on exercises in the ‘Hall of Solutions’ (HOS) where members of Epicor University are sitting around mentoring folks. These are massively under utilized. They are a great resources to get 1 on 1 walk thru of a subject by the trainers you usually have to pay to attend their class. You should take a stab at material and may need to go back when a true expert is available on the subject so assume it may take some flexibility on your part.
The one thing I get a huge kick out of is meeting folks at the HOS booths. There are a hundred booths setup for you to walk up and talk to support and devs on a particular subject. Again a little flexibility may be needed to return when the correct person is there but you can meet with the dev or PO over a particular feature and abuse them with missing functionality or problems. I have met a huge number of wonderful folks at the booths and solved a ton of issues. If not at the booth, then in a follow up chat with the customer and a support person (Knowledge transfer from dev to Support is critical in my mind so abuse this constantly). There are also the folks who dial up their production environment and push changes from the booth when talking to me to scare the heck out of me every year. Some stories…
So in summary, expect a sampling or look for breadth, not depth.
Network, network, network. Get names. Product Owners, Leads in Support, your CAM, other customers in the same product / biz domain.
If you have a specific issue, dig into it with someone at a booth or at the hands on exercises. Assume this will take a couple of tries to connect with the correct resource.
Give feedback. The silly little conference app always has a give feedback link. Abuse it. We get held accountable for following up on those submissions. It’s the best way to bypass some channels.
I can only echo Mike and Bart! Another point I like to bring up is how committed to Epicor and the platform are you. If you are committed to the platform and maintaining it long term, then being at the conference is a MUST. It gets you to the experts, the road map, and more. It helps build the relationship instead of just being a user. You get to deep dive some topics, and networking with other uses is a great resource.
I would like to suggest some improvements on this. I walk around the HOS looking for something useful, and there are a lot of booths for add-ons that I don’t use (I get it, they are trying to drum up paid business) and are most of the time empty when I am walking through, and (from what I can tell) a limited number of core functionality booths, which usually have a line. I think an expansion on core product booths would be very helpful and welcome. Maybe I’m missing something when I’m looking?
Could you guys maybe track the number of visitors to each booth in order to look at adjusting resources for the following year? Maybe you do, I don’t know.
Just a thought.
But to answer @ckrusen original question. Yes, Insights is totally worth it. Be careful about getting in into entry level break outs, they are extremely basic, but are necessary for those users (don’t cut them Epicor!). Sometimes though, even those basic ones show you something you don’t know. But I think there is definitely some areas that will challenge you technically. There were some classes that were way over my head so I know there is room for me to grow and to learn. Just find a class where Bart is, and you’ll learn something new.
Thanks.
As I’m self taught on most things (I’m actually an electrical engineer, that took exactly one programming class in C when college - just plain C, no ++, or #. And that was after I taught myself C) I always justify education courses with the minimum of, “I might not have learned anything new, but I did get confirmation that I was doing it the right way.”
The networking aspect is HUGE!!! as a ton of us here on E10 and EUG are one or two person shops.
I figured that. But I might not be able to afford all the beers I owe, to people here that solved my many questions 
Just do a business justification on the cost of a consultant to come in. I’ll bet we all could throw a huge party if we used just 10% of the funds we would have spent on consultants!
You just got alot cooler in my book 
I became a programmer to write the firmware for my devices. Bart was a hardware guy in a previous life too.
Took me a second to realize that wasn’t the floor plan of Insights 2018.
lol just a silkscreen layer. I used to design target systems for the military.
The difference between civil engineers, and electrical / mechanical engineers…
EE’s and ME’s design weapon systems.
CE’s design targets.
I always state to folks I owe them an adult beverage payable at the open bar / dinner, the night of Insights entertainment.
Also, confirming Chris’s statement. I’m an old EE. I wanted to do BIOS coming out of school.
Define “old” …
Here is the CPU system we learned microprocessor fundamentals on…
An AIM65
(Rockwell 6502 8-bit CPU)
My first contact with programming was with basic on a ZX Spectrum clone built by Timex. The original spectrum had one of those Z80A.
Was that also called the “Timex Sinclair” ? Available in two versions: assembled, and un-assembled.
