We haven’t published the extended education sessions yet, but, save room for my extended education session on advanced troubleshooting that is new this year–knowing how to triage the system when something falls apart is a valuable skillet for those on the ERP/IT admin side of the house.
Beyond that, I can’t contribute anything that others haven’t already in terms of the value of the conference in general–especially buying @Bart_Elia an adult beverage (money always well spent).
At this rate, I think @Bart_Elia is going to be on a six-day drunken binge - with drinks to spare. I wonder how many extras he can fit in 3 oz bottles in a ziploc bag?
I think that been the norm for years hasn’t it?
The sessions we are missing because there are soo many…are they available afterwards?
videos, or powerpoints presented? so we can still grasps some knowledge… ?
Many are available multiple times, you usually can hit most everything you want.
And the slide decks are available during and afterwords. It’s hard to get much from just the slide deck though without the presentation.
The first 2 years you go you take in a lot in your functional area. After the first 2 you might branch out into others areas (finance, purchasing, mfg, service center) that can make you far more productive in coming up with solutions and good ones at that for those other business centers. As time carries on you get less education out of the classes, but gain a lot more from the networking. You get direct access to Epicor folks that you otherwise wouldn’t have access to, as well as community members that after a few beers are more than willing to talk LOL! Every few years or so you end up back in the education seat as framework changes (eg going from 9 to 10 and now SmartClient to Kinetic) and the cycle starts over. There are too many intangibles to put a dollar value on the Insights trip. Unless your company will never implement changes in Epicor and will never update Insights will always be a winning proposition.
Wow greatly appreciated !!! 
Now if all vote for me, I will put that as part of my case… at the end…the decision maker… they could not refuse to send me then!!!
LOL
Add in to your case, “And I think they’re getting tired of answering all my questions…”
Never be shy about leaving a session if you realize you’re in the wrong one. I always have 2-3 session per hour on my agenda in case during the first 5-10 min I realize this isn’t what I am looking for (wrong Epicor product :)) or it is either too basic or too complex for where my knowledge lever are today. Move onto the next class on your list and soak in all the availalbe learning opportunities.
Actually, going to insights just opens up doors for more questions.
Before you go to insights, you don’t know what you don’t know (ignorance is bliss right?) then when you get back at least you know what you don’t know, and can ask the questions to start being able know it. lol.
@Hogardy
I have to agree with everyone here. I went in 2017, ended up paying myself after nearly 10 years of asking at my previous employer. It was the best experience, meeting people and learning new things, although it was pretty overwhelming, at some points I just didn’t know which way to look! Adding in that 17hrs time difference, it was a great adventure.
The content and actually being able to actually put a face to a name after stalking the vantage yahoo group and e10 help, from the dark side of the world for so long was a great help.
As mentioned earlier. Your company will get the investment back in spades. It’s all those “Aha” moments that you will have.
Epicor 10 is such a huge product you can’t know everything and Insights is THE place (apart from here) to help you pickup those tidbits that really make the difference.
In actual fact your business should send a team. I really was impressed by @Randy and his company they sent three people all with different business backgrounds which I sure helped them get the most out of their investment.
Yep that happened to me…Exit stage right to a company committed to implementing E10.
So many responses here.
First @Hogardy there is usually a white paper put out on why to attend Insights so check with your cam for it. Honestly the responses up here are probably as accurate and better stated in many cases. Their real life experiences echo what I have witnessed over 18 years of Insights.
It also aligns with my strategies when I attend a Msft Build out similar event :
Good luck!
Oh and how silly of me. Hands on labs! Epicor University has dozens of computers setup and all the instructors there to guide you thru the training courses one on one. That would probably pay for the price of admission alone
Pierre;
This is always a tough thing to do and until someone goes it is hard to pinpoint one specific advantage. However, There is or should be a ROI calculator on the Insights web page that will allow you to calculate the value. Also not sure where you are located but, i am the Regional Consulting Manager for Epicor in New England, New Work and Eastern Canada. I would be more than happy to discuss with your management or get your Epicor Customer Account Manager to help you “Sell This” to your management.
Terry McGrady
Are the Fundamentals breakout sessions geared towards a specific E9 or E10 version? Will these Fundamentals apply and be helpful for those still on E9? Just wondering how different the two versions are for these Fundamentals sessions if there is some benefit to attending them.
Playing devils advocate:
I’m in the UK and unlikely to ever attend. My perception, having been there, is that Vegas is a party town - those in the US can tell me if it is also known as a conference location. My perception may be what management are applying to your request - $6k for a glorified jolly with lots of subjective benefit.
Maybe it the location of the event that is creating the reticence.
Vegas is a party town, yes. But they also do have world class level conference resources simply because they do have so much tourism. Flights are usually cheap and hotel rooms are plentiful. Honestly, if your goal is to go to a bar and get drunk, you can do that in pretty much every city and town in the world. Like pretty much anything, it’s what you make of it. If your employer won’t let you go simply because Vegas is a party town, your employer has trust issues. Now, if he thinks his employees won’t take it seriously, they shouldn’t go no matter where it’s held.
