As we count down to the fourth annual Skilljar Connect — Customer Education’s premier industry conference — we thought we’d ask some of our customers why they’ve attended in the past and what they’re most looking forward to this year. See more interviews with past attendees in our series of Skilljar CONNECTions!
View the full agenda for Connect 2021 and register now!
Skilljar CONNECTor: Suzanne Ferry
Role: Head of Digital Learning
Company: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE)
Industry: Enterprise Information Technology
Favorite Thing About Connect: Seeing what other companies are doing for
Customer Education
Skilljar Connect is such an open, collegial, sharing environment of like-minded folks who do things differently, but are eager to see how others are doing it. Everyone who attends — even if they’re new this year — will find a welcoming and open group of people. Each year, there’s someone new to learn from who brings a different perspective. Skilljar Connect is enriching for everybody at any stage of their career. — Suzanne Ferry
Suzanne Ferry has been part of Connect since the beginning. View her keynote from 2018, in which she makes a case for education developers, product managers, and the folks who deliver content to “get a seat at the table” to influence budgets and commitment levels to customer education.
Here’s an inspirational excerpt from Suzanne’s keynote at Connect 2018:
Make no mistake. We are emerging as the critical cheerleaders of product designers and product managers. When you consider your product, you need to focus on what we – as education content creators – do, because we create the experiences that drive influence in our user community. And we enable success, which translates into awareness, influence, purchase, renewal, and loyalty. The work we do moves the needle, it moves the bottom line. So let’s grab it. Let’s get some budget and do this thing.
Skilljar: Can you tell us your biggest takeaways from attending past SkilljarConnect conferences?
Suzanne Ferry: I have to say it was really a seminal experience. I met a lot of colleagues there who are leaders in their firms and got to take a look into their business. We’re all trying to figure out how to keep the party going, so to speak. And that’s been difficult just because of time and distance and jobs.
Seeing the stats that Skilljar can bring to bear, in aggregate, on what’s working in customer education is also something very worthwhile.
Skilljar: What are you most looking forward to at Connect 2021?
Suzanne: I think what I’m looking forward to most this year is all that networking again.
Skilljar: What advice do you have for learning professionals who may be attending Connect 2021?
Suzanne: It’s the same message I had for them in 2018. We’re in charge. We can persuade and educate and get a seat at the table and decide what’s right, because nobody knows it better than we do. They (the C-Suite) are waiting for us to come, to help them, to tell them what we know in order to make our companies and our customers successful.
Skilljar: What would you say to people who are on the fence about attending Connect this year?
Suzanne: Attending Connect is a very personal experience. You’ll meet people there who are going to become reference points for you, reliable colleagues that can talk to you about your issues.
You will experience a great sense of accomplishment and professional value that you won’t get at any other conference.
As a result, you can go back to your job and make better content and deliver more things in a timely manner. I think Connect gives you a creative way to look at development across functions. For example, figuring out if your certification program is worth it. And if so, what should you be charging per exam? What are some comparatives? What else should you know about your strategies, so you can improve them?
It’s one of the most compelling experiences you can have as you personally develop as a customer education training professional.
View the full agenda for Connect 2021 and register now!
Thanks Suzanne, we look forward to seeing you November 15 -18 at the Fairmont Sonoma for Connect 2021!
