3 Ways to Uber-fy Your Business By Attending a User Conference

"We are all here to 'Uber-fy' our business."

That was the best line I heard last week. Everyone wants to be the disruptors in their space and be super successful doing so, just like Uber.

At Five9, we just wrapped up our second user conference in Washington D.C. last week and now I'm understanding the true value and benefit of hosting a user event for our customers and partners. Our East Coast attendees got to hear from product experts, our company executives, and customers who shared their best practices and success stories. Along with best practices, customers also shared their challenges, which was helpful because there is someone in the audience who most likely shared the same struggles. It was great to stand in the back of the room and see all the head nods when a customer was describing their issues and others could relate.

In addition to hearing from our own experts and customers, attendees were able to spend valuable time with our partners to discuss how to improve their already implemented solutions. Some great feedback I heard included, "It was a great reminder of all the options out there because you forget about how much more you can get out of the product when you are always in the day-to-day routine."

From my experience at our last conference in San Francisco, the best part is hearing the feedback from our customers and seeing others inspired by what they can implement in their own contact center environments.

Here are three valuable ways to begin the Uber-fication of your business by attending any user conference:

1. Seek out your peer references: There is no better time or place to learn best practices for your business than from your peers. This is an opportunity to hear that other companies have faced similar challenges and what they are doing to improve their environment.

2. Listen and learn from company vision and roadmaps: Does the company's vision and roadmap demonstrate how the product aligns with your business needs? Hearing that information about the product you're invested in is great validation they understand your needs as a customer.

3. Start connecting: Building a network with the people in your same industry not only becomes invaluable for your company but also for your personal brand. So it's time to start talking.