How to run a world-class user conference

What we did at Opower to make PowerUp successful with our global client base

At Opower, we held our PowerUp user conference in Miami last week. The conference went very well. As one of the c-level attendees shared, “I attend and/or get invited to attend dozens of conferences on an annual basis. This one, quite simply, was the best that I have ever attended — every little detail was attended to and thought through and the quality of the presentations was second to none. How could you improve upon it next year? I haven’t a clue.” We got feedback like this from dozens of customers representing utilities around the world. Almost $300 billion in utility revenue was represented at PowerUp, and we wanted to make sure that our clients got the experience they deserved.

So, how did we do it?

1. Customers first—This is a conference for customers, first and foremost. We surveyed our customers and spent considerable time in 1:1 interviews, understanding exactly what our clients wanted to get out of the experience.
2. Content is king—We made extensive efforts to tailor the content around what our clients told us interested them. Whether external experts like Frank Luntz and Jim Messina, or CCOs like Jim Madej of National Grid, we put work into building a roster of presenters who would be compelling and relevant. Responsibility for the content and agenda was carried by everyone on the marketing team. I reviewed every presentation several times personally.
3. Details matter, so bring in experts — The field marketing team at Opower is very strong, but nobody here runs very large events on a regular basis where the focus is extreme attention to detail. We knew we wanted to attend to our customers in a way that gave them the experience they deserved, that was thoughtful and courteous. So we augmented our team with experts from Atlantic Media Strategies. They did a great job. Every element of the experience was thought through, and we couldn’t have done it at a high level without AMS.

The investment of this time, effort, and focus was incredibly worthwhile. Our clients are the lifeblood of our business. Giving them the opportunity to interact with each other and to learn more about Opower was a joy.

The last element worth mentioning about this user conference is perhaps the most important one. I have run user conferences before, but this one stood out and the customer feedback proved that. This user conference had soul, because Opower is a mission-driven business. If you can, I encourage you to tap into your company’s mission in every way possible as you plan your own user conference.