Dynamics Corner

Episode 333: In the Dynamics Corner Chair: Days of Knowledge Americas 2024 Unraveled

• James and Torben • Season 3 • Episode 333

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Days of Knowledge is a partner-driven initiative that provides deep technical and functional training for consultants and developers working with Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. The conference offers a variety of tracks, including developer, consultant, power platform, and introduction sessions. The agenda includes both 45-minute and 90-minute sessions to cater to different content needs. The conference also features a pre-conference training day for in-depth learning on specific topics. The speakers are industry experts who volunteer their time to share their knowledge and experiences. The conference provides valuable networking opportunities and the chance to connect with peers and mentors in the industry.

In this episode, Kris and Brad speak with James and Torben to dive deep into the history of Days of Knowledge, why you should attend, and what you should expect at the conference!

If you're looking to supercharge your Business Central Implementation - attend Days of Knowledge.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner, the podcast where we dive deep into all things Microsoft Dynamics. Whether you're a seasoned expert or just starting your journey into the world of Dynamics 365, this is your place to gain insights, learn new tricks and gaining days and days of knowledge. I'm your co-host, Chris.

Speaker 2:

And this is Brad. This episode is recorded on July 31st 2024. Chris, chris, chris, days and days. Speaking of days and days, in just six short weeks September 13th and 14th, with the workshop day on the 12th, which I recommend everyone goes to is the first Days of Knowledge conference here in the United States. With us today, we had the opportunity to learn all about the conference, what someone can expect and what's going to happen there, and maybe even a little bit about the world. With us today, we had the opportunity to speak with Torben and James.

Speaker 3:

Hi, james with Torben and James. Hi, james, torben.

Speaker 2:

Hello, good afternoon.

Speaker 1:

Hello, how are you doing? Good morning, good afternoon.

Speaker 2:

It's morning for Chris, afternoon for them, afternoon for me too, evening for them maybe. How are you both doing? Good, good, good, Good good. Been looking forward to speaking with you. Uh, even more so because you know you decided to take a trip or plan a trip over the pond. Is that how I'm supposed? To say it, it's, oh it's, over the pond to it's a very english expression, I think Brad.

Speaker 1:

We'll use that To be more than a pond.

Speaker 2:

It's much bigger than a pond, but I like to say, and it's another one of the jolly good day.

Speaker 3:

Yes.

Speaker 2:

See, I'm learning. I'm getting ready for an event that's going to occur in September, so I'm practicing my old English words and James said he would help me afterwards. So to the set. I'm prepared between now and then. So this will be a jolly good episode, and then James and Torben and many others will be coming over the pond this September for the first time in the US. Days of Knowledge 2024 US in Atlanta. That's my clap. I can't wait. I'm excited. A lot of great sessions have been published already, a lot of great speakers and a lot of great content. And, James and Torben, we could think of nobody better to speak with than the two of you to learn more about Days of Knowledge, the conference and what someone can expect to learn and do while they're at the conference, among many other things.

Speaker 3:

I think we're excited as well. I mean, you know, yes, the agenda's out there now. There's a great fusion, I think, between some really good content from the US, because, you know, the US has some real experts on the call apart from anything else on the call apart from anything else, but also, um, you know, bringing some of the, the kind of veterans from, from europe across um to help, um, kind of give different perspective, different ideas, different kind of possibilities. And I think that's where, um, why I always enjoy you know, I go to days of knowledge.

Speaker 3:

This will think my fourth, fifth one this year I've lost track but everyone I go to, while I have the same set of speakers and so on, everyone I come back with, oh, that's a really good idea. And it's the conversations around the sessions, as well as the sessions themselves, that you just get to spark, with people who do what you do all day, every day, and kind of face similar challenges, similar kind of obstacles and kind of yeah, um, you know that that really makes it worthwhile going for me. So I, I love it, I absolutely adore it that great.

Speaker 2:

I am looking forward to it. The conference is in September. It's the 13th and 14th, so it's a two-day conference packed with a lot of great content as far as Days of Knowledge is concerned?

Speaker 2:

what is the target? Who should consider going to Days of Knowledge? I know there's a lot of conferences. We see a lot of information available about several conferences domestically, here in the United States, as well as several conferences abroad. But someone who's looking to make a decision about attending the conference, which type of person should attend, or do you think you would recommend attending?

Speaker 4:

Maybe I could put a little history behind it also, because this kind of started five, six years ago in Denmark when some of the bigger partners realized that they really need to continue to invest in their staff, in their employees, and there was a lot of things happening on the platform. And there was a lot of things happening on the platform and there was a lot of things happening inside the application functionally, and there was a lot of add-on solutions that were required to actually deliver successful solutions. So these three, four bigger partners, they got together and they said what can we do? Can we do something together to help get our people trained? And they came up with the Days of Knowledge concept and then they went on to us at the Directions Group and said can you help facilitate and run that? So it's basically a partner-driven initiative where they realize that we really need to get something put together for our people.

Speaker 4:

And when I say people, it's primarily the delivery people, the consultants and the developers, so the ones that are out doing visible work both days, either as a consultant or doing development work. So those are the people that don't get to go to directions, don't want all the sales and marketing fluff, but wants to know how a thing works and why the work they do. So it is fairly deep technically and functionally. It's not the normal direction sessions that you see there. One difference is also that some of these partners they have customers with their own BC department and they are actually inviting some of their customers to come also. So if you have a bigger BC department, then some of the end customers will show up and get trained and that actually works well, because we're not talking pricing, we're not talking go-to-market strategies or anything like that. We are focusing on educating around the product and, of course, these people, they need that education as well. So it is really the people that are deploying and building solutions.

Speaker 2:

Okay, excellent.

Speaker 3:

Thank you. I think you know I was having a debate with one of my colleagues here today. I've been in the office, as you perhaps can see in the background, and we were having the debate about what is the lifespan of knowledge now. And you know, I know you had AJ and Waldo on this podcast a few episodes ago, kind of talking about the old days. I grew up in those old days as well, where you, you know, we had a five-year gap between releases. If you go back into the nav days and you could learn the product in in perhaps the first year, and then you've got four years to get payback on that, that learning and and you got you know, and then a new one will come around and actually it was a big upheaval because we all had to start learning again. Right now that happens every six months, you know, and actually it's kind of stuff that I learned three years ago. Four years ago.

Speaker 3:

I'm now looking at I was pulling out, um, some of the presentations I did, uh, and just looking back through them I'm saying, well, that's no longer valid, that's no longer valid, that's no longer valid. The lifespan of your knowledge is actually much shorter than it was. We have to keep turning that over. You know a lot of our consulting teams, myself included. You're going into a client, you're trying to give best advice and you're sitting there going.

Speaker 3:

I wonder if that's still right, because I haven't checked it for six months and kind of one of the things that David Days of Knowledge is designed to do is kind of crack that problem of, yes, you could sit in front of endless hours of video, but you know, and we all do that, but actually the concentration level and not hearing questions from other people interactive is so much better.

Speaker 3:

So we still think that there's a place for in-person deep dive by people who do the job. So actually in this conference you know there are a couple of Microsoft presenters, but the majority are community presenters, so they are your peers who are doing the job day in, day out and they're not just regurgitating. The party line from Microsoft of co-pilot will solve everything, kind of is probably the current one, but we're actually going well. This works really well. You should use that. That might need another release. So you're actually getting to the crux of something that you hopefully acknowledge, that the following day you can pick up and make sure a more authoritative, more productive person, in whatever sphere you're in.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. The conference, then, is geared towards, as Torben had mentioned, the delivery portion for Business Central, so someone who's a functional consultant or development, and it's also for partners as well as customers that they can attend and get the information and have the real world experience as well. One thing, before we go further I was so excited to talk with you both, but before we go any further, talk a little bit more about the conference. I'd like to let everyone know who's listening, know a little bit more about you as well, as you talked about um, you know the, the peers that we'll have at this conference, along with some of the microsoft presenters, but if you could tell us a little bit about yourself, we'll start with you, toren yeah, so I have.

Speaker 4:

I don't know if you can see it, but but I have gray hair and gray beard. So I've been around for a couple of years, uh, but I've probably been in in the Nav channel since about 2005. And I have been running a consulting development team for Columbus here in Denmark, and then I worked for Continia Software for five or six years, as well as their global sales and marketing, and then for the last three or four years I've focused all my time on the directions, community and running events and building out new initiatives like the Days of Knowledge initiative. So my drive is getting more content, more knowledge, more community out in this channel. That's really what I'm getting up to do every morning now.

Speaker 2:

Fantastic, that is fantastic and I know all about the gray, I decided to try to grow a little something, just color it. Maybe I'll try, one day I'll come on and I'll have a nice dark, dark beard or something. Mr James, sir, how about yourself?

Speaker 3:

So similar long background, implementation consultant for what we now call ERP software, I suppose out of university pretty much, and in November 1994, I did my first novision training course, um, and so watched uh novision grow as a product in the uk and became part of a um ceo of a uk partner that still exists, um, so I I have that kind of commercial thing. But my, my joy is always on the kind of implementation development side. So I've, I've written a bit of code in my time, um, I've, I've done a lot of implementations and I have the joy of, well, the the privilege of being a microsoft mbp as well for 10 years now. So I made a lot of complaint back then that there were a lot of developers in the MVP community and no consultants and I mean no consultants at the time, and they ended up saying, well, you better join it then and try and try and redress that balance.

Speaker 3:

I've been there and similarly, a few years ago I think I was somewhat vocalctions, so they asked me to join the board and then I got to the first board meeting and they told me I was going to be the chair of Directions and that's great. I'm probably responsible for quite a lot of Tobin's grey hair because the mad idea is like well, whether he has to persuade me not to, or that it's how the hell he's going to do it. So that's been a fun ride to kind of watch it mature into something that's really valuable to the channel and the wider community, users and partners.

Speaker 4:

I want to add to this also that I'm also a customer of James, so he's actually making sure that we do our PC upgrades correctly, yeah.

Speaker 1:

You hold him up. Well, I have a discussion later.

Speaker 3:

Tobin, I was responsible for my crystal fountain. Yesterday you were in with the rest of them.

Speaker 2:

That must be such a unique relationship, to work together on these conferences or days of knowledge and then also to have that customer partner relationship, which is wonderful. And also one thing I picked up from you, james, is something that I say to many people Be careful what you ask for, be careful what you say, because it may come true. So if you're complaining about or making noise about about something that may come right back at you, but it's, it's a lot of fun.

Speaker 2:

We all have a lot of fun with passion thanks for being our pioneer for yes, yes, a functional consultant mvp and making it easy for everybody one thing that you had mentioned when we were talking a few months ago, which I think is important and I noticed myself with the in-person conference events and the importance and the place for them and what you can get from that, alongside the material that is presented.

Speaker 2:

Watch on YouTube we can all read blog articles, we can all watch a number of different things, but being able to sit down and focus and surround yourself with other individuals that have the experience working with it and you can put everybody together and, like you said, it's sometimes easier to focus in that area. And also you can take in the real world experience and real world knowledge of those individuals outside of the session room. Right, so that small talk has a lot of value. That I think often gets overlooked when you're talking about conferences, presentations or how someone can go through training. It's similar to like in classroom training. You know having others in the room that can ask questions and make you think differently, because you hear the questions they ask and maybe help you understand it, which is extremely important.

Speaker 3:

Um so, right, I've made connections at conferences, um, over the years that that I still use regularly now. Um, you know, and the thing about watching something on youtube is you don't know who else is watching. That's a privacy concern, right. You can't kind of um is watching, that's a privacy concern, right. You can't kind of communicate with them, whereas actually you know, in an in-person event you go out for coffee and you bump into three other people and you go, well, what did you think of that then? And you know everybody gives an opinion and what do you do? And you make connections, and you know those are enormously valuable.

Speaker 3:

So very few days go by without me pinging somebody a message in some description, saying can you remember? Or what's your take on this, or have you come across this, and so on. And those connections are not just at the conference, they last for life, just at the conference, they last for life. And using those enables me to give a much better service to my customers, because actually I can access a wider network of information, that I could spend my life watching YouTube and reading blog posts and all the rest of it. But actually, you know, often they'll just say I wrote a blog about that and I'll be able to search and find it and kind of reference. So I do think that those connections are underrated and something that it's. You can perpetuate them online, but forming them in the first place is much faster, much more real, much crisper in person.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you have mentors. You gain mentors along the way. That's an important connection.

Speaker 3:

Yeah, and I think the other thing I would say is you know, at a speaker at this event and many others, I love it when people come up to me at the end and ask me questions and you know, probably three out of four questions are fairly straightforward yeah, just this is how, or yeah, I mentioned that, or whatever. But there's one question which is a real doozy, which challenges you as a speaker, and sometimes that's the one you think about on the way home and you come and then you work out the answer and you go. Actually, if that question had been posed to me, um, I'd have never thought about it and I never worked it out. And you know, some of the some of the best kind of innovative ideas that I've had in my career have come out of that kind of exposure and those discussions. So I think you know, just being able to kind of express what you know, share it, gain pointers from other people, it works so much better.

Speaker 3:

During COVID we tried to run, you know, several virtual events. We used some of the virtual conferencing platforms when you couldn't travel. It wasn't the same.

Speaker 4:

I think also that some of these sessions you connect with people that are at the same level as you, so it could be testing or something like that, and then you go home and you start to implement or do something with it afterwards, but you have other people to share that with, so you actually build people that you can continue to work with after the conference also, and we do try to give some room for people to be able to connect, and we have a reception also and one area where we do the catering coffee thing, so people have a chance to discuss the topics after the session and then form these small groups that they can continue to work on afterwards.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate that because I go to several conferences and that's one of the areas where I've always liked to see more opportunity. And how can you shape it? It is a challenge. I mean, you go to some conferences. There are sessions all day, sometimes there's long days, individuals have to work. How do you afford the opportunity for that networking to occur where they can get that value from it outside of the sessions and the knowledge that's going to happen? Have what we've been talking about with those personal sessions? But to go back to Days of Knowledge Days of Knowledge America on the website there are a number of sessions and speakers listed. Has the final agenda been published yet? Have you finished going through all of the sessions that are on there? Are you still working through those?

Speaker 4:

99% or something like that. We are missing one or two of the add-on speakers, they're abstract the ISVs, and then we'll get that in as well and then we will have that completed. So what we're doing is we're trying to do a developer track, a consultant track and then a power platform track, and then we have what we call introduction, getting started track, where we will kind of have a topic that is at level 100, 200. So this could be something around co-pilot, where it's an easy track, or it could be getting started with visual codes, hints and tricks, tips and tricks, where we will have different introduction sessions, and then we will have the ISV track also. So we will try and have these five tracks and run parallel sessions there, and we are missing a few of the ISVs, but we should be done, I guess, this week.

Speaker 2:

Well, that is great to have all of those different tracks so that the audience again it's for those that are working on the deployment, but also for the different areas of the deployment, as you had mentioned, with the different tracks and also varying level of skill or level of experience, I guess is the proper way to say it.

Speaker 4:

I guess the introduction track is really if there's a topic that you know nothing about but you just want to get your feet wet, you will go see that and get inspired to go home and try something else or connect with someone else and work with them on a topic. So I think, James, you had a case in your company where we did the Days of Knowledge in the UK around setting up your own co-pilots, so you couldn't get your people to stop doing that when they came home.

Speaker 3:

Well, we had 14 running, I think, within about a six-week period and you know, and it's perpetuated. We just published the first app into AppSource which uses Copilot, so allows you to natural language set up filters. Rather than you know, filters can be quite complex with all the different options of symbols you've got, and so they built that out and that came again from a session. One of the differences, I think you know we have some 45-minute sessions but we also have some 90-minute sessions, and the 90-minute sessions you get enough time because as a speaker in a 45-minute session, you know I'm frequently well, I can't get all this in, I've got to leave something out.

Speaker 3:

90 minutes I still say that with 90 minutes, to be fair, you know it's a fairly rapid pace that you go through, but you're expecting the audience to kind of understand what you're saying and kind of get the hint. Even if you haven't done it before, I think it's you know you will come away with a good understanding of get the hint. Even if you haven't done it before, I think you will come away with a good understanding of what's possible. You might not be able to follow it enough to repeat it, but you'll certainly know what you can do, and I think both of those are actually quite valuable if you're whichever way you are, whether you're new into Business Central or you're somebody, a veteran, who's done it for a long time.

Speaker 1:

I am super excited you need those 90 minutes to slow down and have a better grasp.

Speaker 2:

No having the variable length sessions at any conference like this. I think is important to have that 45 and 90 minute because you're not putting a lot of content in a small window and you're not trying to stretch out content to fit a larger window.

Speaker 2:

It gives you the opportunity to scale the length to the content. And I again, as James had mentioned, I've gone to several cons. I'm like, wow, I wish this was just a little bit longer, because I feel like I just need a little bit more and that 90 minutes will give you that. And then also, on the flip side, I've been in some and I said, oh, this should have been a little bit shorter. Not that it wasn't valuable content, I'm not saying anything that the content wasn't valuable. It's just that maybe the session could have been a little bit, you know, shorter. So having that worked into the conference, I think, is a a big benefit. And with this, how many speakers do you have for the conference as of today? I?

Speaker 4:

know that you still have a few more sessions. I think we have 32 or 33, I think 33, that's some great speakers.

Speaker 2:

So you have 33 different speakers, five different tracks over two days, and it's one of those conferences. You know not to get into the differences, I want to maybe mention the pre-conference also, because we didn't really mention that at all.

Speaker 4:

But there is a day before the conference where it's a full training day that people can sign up for specifically, and this is really where, if you want to learn something, you could say more in depth.

Speaker 4:

Then there is training days running the day before, and one of them is like preparing for the MB820 exam, so there's like a getting ready for that exam, and there is like a whole one on the service management. So there's quite a few of different sessions that go deep. There's also one for newer developers, so you can get a one-day deep dive into becoming a BC developer. So we do try to get these pre-conference trainings up the day before. And then it's also a way for the speakers to actually make some money from this, because that money pretty much goes to the speakers and then they have a way of getting some money for the efforts, because I want to mention that all these speakers are doing this for free. They're traveling to Atlanta, they are taking time out of their calendar, away from their family, and are actually coming there and sharing knowledge. So I think the pre-conference is great and the speakers is just phenomenal. We couldn't do this without them.

Speaker 3:

I know that I've done some of those pre-conference sessions. I remember one that waldo did on devops, um, probably seven, eight years ago now, and it kind of changed my view of the world. Um, I have kind of how significant devops was going to be and and at the time he was pioneering, shall we say, in the way that Waldo can, and that just everything he said in that session has come to fruition. And because I attended that session, none of it's been a surprise in the last seven years and I, you know, I would hope we've been ahead of the game rather than behind. So I think, if there's an area that you feel that your um, you know, your, your partner or the end user that you're in is not as strong as it could be, picking one of those sessions out of that. So build a power app. I think Roberto's doing that again, torben.

Speaker 4:

He's actually doing the NBA 800 because he helped write the material for that one. So he's actually doing the tips and tricks for the certification.

Speaker 3:

Have a look through that list and if there's stuff that you go well, I don't know much about, but that would be really useful and get up to speed rapidly then those sessions are well worth doing for a day Tapped onto the conference, so you're traveling anyway and all the rest. It's just an extra day away and you really get then not just 90 minutes but a whole day of deep dive.

Speaker 2:

No, I enjoy those workshops. The workshops are valued, mentioned you know they're in addition to the conference, so it's an additional. There's an additional charge for someone to attend the workshop, but the workshops are geared towards a more in-depth, concentrated, uh review of a topic and often it's a lot of hands-on as well, so it's not watching someone lecture for a full day. But I know some of the speakers that have workshops and I've talked with them and they're planning for a participant to actually complete exercises or you know, as I say, you know hands-on and actually touch it and do it and ask questions. So it's an additional day of knowledge for them. To you know, hopefully not overload themselves, but get a lot more out of the conference from a technical point of view and not have to listen to.

Speaker 2:

I'm not a sales guy and I never will be one, but, to you know, this is like you had mentioned this is how you sell this, this is how you do that. It's no, let's just get in and not go with the rah, rah, rah, and this is how we actually use it and do the work. So I think it's why I'm excited for it and I was happy to see that this was coming in here because every year I try to make it over the pond and unfortunately with scheduling it gets a little bit difficult. So seeing it here in the United States is a great opportunity for many of us.

Speaker 3:

So we kept getting asked if we would do it in the US. Every time we came to directions Tobin and I would get asked by different people from you know, from senior leadership of partners down to individuals themselves, and you know we because it's tough. You can't fly tens, hundreds of people across from the US to Europe. It's a week out, there's time zones, there's a lot of costs and visas and all the rest of it that come into a factor. So the best way is we took it to Germany, we took it to the UK first. After it started in Denmark.

Speaker 3:

They've established themselves successfully, had several good years, and we kept getting asked well, the technical content at Directions North America is, you know, there is some but not enough. There is some but not enough. And could we bring that more in-depth technical contact to the US? Because there were a lot of people over there requesting it. So we had a conversation with the guys at Directions North America and said, do you want to do it? And they went, no, can you do it. And so we're cooperating really well with them to come over. It's the first one. We'll see how it goes. If it goes great guns, then you know we'll definitely do more than one, because we always do. You've got to give it a few years to kind of establish itself and get known. But we'll see how it grows and where it goes after that.

Speaker 1:

I think it's going to go great.

Speaker 2:

I think you'll have a lot of growth for it and anyone else again with anything, the first conference you may not have the million people that would show up, but to me that's a benefit as well, because anybody that attends if there's not 40,000 people there, even if there's just 1,000 or 2,000, sometimes you can get that extra special attention and networking opportunity with those that are there. You can have more conversation and get more out of it. But I've been waiting for something like this for a long time. I think it's needed and necessary, as well this for a long time.

Speaker 1:

I think it's needed and necessary as well. Well, it's definitely needed because I remember pre-COVID they had more focus sessions where you get 90-minute sessions, and then after COVID it kind of died out and so there wasn't really anything out there. And then when this was announced that hey, it's more technical focus, you get more, you know more, longer sessions, it's very exciting because there's a lot of people that are looking for something like this.

Speaker 3:

But I think you know, if we get a few hundred at this event, that's our expectation. So the ratio of speaker to attendee, you know, attendee, you know is going to be significantly lower than the kind of you would expect at a lot of other events. I think and that again, I think, makes it quite quite a you will bump into the speaker who will have time to talk to you in the hallway over coffee between the next session and then the session after that, or in the evening or whatever um at the mixer at the end of day one. So I think that really makes it a little bit uh. You, coming back to what I said about forming relationships, I really think you can do that, you can highlight.

Speaker 3:

I think we're looking forward to bringing this to a North American audience. I think dynamics in North America is in a different space. I think it's not the length of history behind it. In North America, because Greg Plains was the dominant player for a lot of years there's pockets of expertise, but there's not that kind of bank that you get in Denmark, where we have 650 people show up.

Speaker 3:

Well, here the BC partners is like Starbucks there's one on each street corner almost, and it's not derving in your mouth because you lead a session there and you talk about a feature of the application and somebody wanders up to you at the end of it and said oh, when I was at Navision I built that bit and this is why I built it that way and it really did kind of you know, yeah. So I think that's a little bit different. We think you're trying to fuse the best of the US and the best of Europe together. We'll give it a mix that actually will be good for both.

Speaker 2:

It's a great opportunity for growth. So to step back for the conference for a moment, so the 13th and 14th are the days for the conference. The pre-workshop is the 12th. It's going to be located in Atlanta. Where in Atlanta will the conference be? Just logistically speaking?

Speaker 4:

It's a conference center called Loudermilk Center. It is downtown, close to the university, and it was one we were recommended. It's been used by Salesforce and one of the other big Cisco I think. So we thought, okay, they used it for their internal training. So we thought if it worked for them, it would work for us as well.

Speaker 2:

That's great and with it being downtown Atlanta, transportation to and from the airport should be hopefully easy outside of the Atlanta traffic. But everybody knows to prepare and plan for that, so it's just the way it goes, unfortunately.

Speaker 4:

There should be hotel opportunities around there also for people when we plan conferences. Some people want to stay in five-star hotels and others want to be 10 people in an Airbnb apartment and share that. So I don't think we don't want to get into the hotel booking. We will let people decide what is the best option for them and then we'll just make sure that everything works at the conference center. That's really our objective.

Speaker 2:

No, I think that's great, and I did look where the conference center is when I saw the announcement for the conference and there are several hotels within a short few blocks walking distance. So it's not that somebody would need to. You know, someone could stay where they'd like to stay or choose to stay, but if somebody wanted to be close, where they didn't want to have a rental car or something, there were several lodging options close by and they were what I would know fairly decent and adequate lodging options. It's not, uh, you know, some basement below a restaurant somewhere. I'm sure there's some of those too, but they had some nicer hotels. One other thing I always have to ask about the conferences is there going to be any food, like I'm all about the food yeah, yeah.

Speaker 4:

So I must admit I outsourced that decision to the local people because I think they were better deciding what would be good for an American audience, except the beer. I ordered local beer there. So there will be, I think, plenty of food during the day and then at the reception from 5 to 7, we will have local beer and wine also, and some canopies and hopefully some good networking opportunity there.

Speaker 1:

Beer brings people together. The question was yes, let's do.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I know, logistically it's tough with conferences to plan for food for a number of people to all have it at the same time, so it's tough. But I don't know. I just I like to eat, so I gravitate to the food. On top of the knowledge, I learn a lot of information, talk to a lot of people. I want to, you know, eat a lot too. So I'm looking forward to the food.

Speaker 3:

You know, one of the things around Torben and the team behind him doing multiples of these is that we know what we need to do at each one now. So they've got a really slick kind of checklist of make sure this, make sure you know, the signage of how you find your way around, the kind of we use the conference app that people are used to for directions, actually developed by Viejo, and he's had a lot of feedback from Torben about what it needs to do next and all the rest. So I think they've got that really slick now and the feedback and all the rest of it is just there. So, because we do this multiple times a year, you know, in multiple different countries, these guys are really used to now to what they need to do. So I will be staggered, Brad, if it doesn't run really smoothly, really slickly. They've got it off to a T.

Speaker 4:

But I must admit, brad, you've got me concerned now, right, because I need to go back and check what the menu is.

Speaker 2:

I would check for the menu and it's important, and I won't say. I did go to a conference recently and they ran out of food. I won't say which one, but they ran out of food, so it didn't go too well. No, it's good.

Speaker 3:

We have history of food. We had the Directions de Mere in France and the food was fantastic but it was really small. So people got food but they didn't get enough of it because the french thought you didn't want to eat masses of food during the day. Um, so you know? Torben's now checking how many, how many ounces each portion is, to kind of make sure that not just the quality is up there but the volume as well well, you know, when you go through the us airport, you can just get it yourself.

Speaker 2:

When you order a salad, you know, I think in europe you order a salad it's when you go through the US airport, you can just get it yourself. When you order a salad, you know, I think in Europe you order a salad, it's this big. In the US you order a salad, it's like this big and you know I was with someone one time traveling Family style. They said back in Europe. They said that's a portion for one.

Speaker 3:

They said back where I'm from, that would feed a family of four. That's how we eat Half a farm's worth, we think, in the US.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, no, it's good. It's good. No, I'm looking forward to it and I'm happy to hear about the conference, what individuals can expect, and it's a good time of year too.

Speaker 4:

I think that actually makes me think. One of the other cool things about this is that we may eat differently, but we all you know, work around Business Central and we love that and we have that in common. So when you meet someone from Germany, someone from the US, from Asia, singapore, we all have that one thing in common and getting that many nationalities together is just great. We actually have a German guy flying over to the Atlanta conference also I just saw here on the registration. So I think this is one of the really nice things about this type of event is that you get people in from everywhere that have the same passion and they beer everywhere. It does show and.

Speaker 2:

I appreciate that. And, to go back to what James had mentioned, I myself even, at some of these conferences and with the world, with the internet, with the virtual conference and with webinars, with workshops, you have the opportunity to know of some of these individuals that are going to be there. Then to actually meet them in person is also or to see them or to meet them in person, even some of the old timers that you know. You mentioned some of the names that we've known for years, since we grew up, when we were little children, back when the vision was first invented. That you know, just to be able to meet them, talk to them and share with them is also something that's nostalgic, it's great, it's intriguing, but also you can share the passion and the energy to be around like people from all over the world, and even here in the United States, if people are coming from all over the country or different parts of the country to get everybody together to share that information.

Speaker 3:

We all work in our own little bubble and I think you know, especially for people new into our community who perhaps only joined it in the last few years, to understand that it's so much bigger and there's so much more opportunity there. And this is a platform where my career has been based on I'm 30 years plus veteran now I'm coming to the end of it but for them to understand that the opportunity there is really limitless. Every confidence Microsoft will continue to evolve with the way that they've done multiple times so far. And the other thing I would say is our customer base is getting ever more dependent on what we do. We are the central engineers of the business world.

Speaker 3:

I think these days that without it is in trouble. So getting that inspirational factor for people who perhaps just understand that, wow, this is it I've seen I remember first conference coming back just so enthusiastic, so wanted to to learn more, do more, explore more, that I put way more into it than than I would have done previously. And I think I've seen that inspiration factor affect some of my colleagues that are over my shoulder and that's really good, because our community needs more talent in it. We're all flat outs. I think we're constrained by the capacity and we need to attract more people. You need the transition phase. Yeah, the more people, the transition phase.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, the growth of the product is great, but you did mention a couple key points there as far as the inspiration. So if an organization or somebody would like to go one, these conferences are with people that are passionate for the product. You have these five tracks they shouldn't be intimidated to go because everyone is passionate about the product. You have these five tracks that they shouldn't be intimidated to go because everyone is passionate about the product. And I have not found a community of passionate people like this community that is so willing to share information. You know it's not a community where everyone wants to like hold it to themselves. You know it's maybe when we first started out back with James, when you said it's five years, you wouldn't update, then that's when you had a little more competition. But now, partner partner, customer, customer, partner, customer everybody seems to be helping each other. So anybody that may be intimidated to go because of you know that just learning or they have different skill levels go because you will be welcomed by everybody, I found, and you also will learn a lot. And then with that, sometimes the question is okay, now why? What's the benefit or the value to an organization to send somebody? But, james, you hit at that key point, the inspiration when you come back.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes, I know, when we talk and we have people go to conferences, we ask them to take notes. You know what did you learn? What did you bring back? You know what are some ideas, just to help maybe say, ok, now we're going to send one, two, three or however many people that we see appropriate. What can they bring back to help us as a customer Again, because not only partners are going, but as a customer, can I bring to the business but also a partner, and that's a key point to one of these conferences that are more I'm just on a little ramble here, I'm sorry that are more. It's more important than those what I call like the sales pitchy type conferences or the fluff type conferences, because these are real world, experienced presenters and also participants of varying level that you can share ideas with and collaborate with to get ideas. It's how to make your implementation better, which is great.

Speaker 3:

Brad, as a CEO, you know talking to CEOs of other partners. I think why should I incur the cost of sending people on? Well, there's the old adage if I don't train them, if I don't invest in them, they'll probably be tempted to go to somebody who will. So you give them, you take away the excuse of I don't know this, I've never been taught. You're investing in their career and my experience is the loyalty that that brings back not for everybody, but the majority will reward you for that.

Speaker 3:

I think the other factor is that day rates with customers are going ever up, right, even in relation to inflation. I think Business Central is becoming a more expensive product, primarily around expertise. Now, if you're as a CEO, you like handling complaints from your customers because consultant didn't know what they were talking about, then um, uh, good luck to you. Uh, don't send your people. But if you really want to have uh conversations with the customer where my you know I I love the conversation where my customer's biggest complaint is why can't I have X back sooner? Because they really knew what they were talking about.

Speaker 3:

Those are the conversations that are good for X's career but also for my business, because they'll keep coming back and they'll keep asking those questions and you have to deliver value for that day rate. The third thing is we're in a subscription world. I can't sell a big license now, take the profit and run. I've got to make the customer happy if the subscription is going to perpetuate. And the way I make them happy is by delivering expertise so that they really believe that they're getting the max from the product that they've invested in. And you know, the only way I can do that my product is actually my people.

Speaker 3:

I. You know if I'm not investing in my product, then effectively it's going to age as we said right at the start of this very quickly and so, um, people are going to start looking over the fence and going is there something better out there? And that gives my competitors an opportunity. So I think it's two days a year. We've deliberately done it and actually in the US we're doing. One of those days is Saturday. So arguably you can say to that person look, you want to invest in your career. You're giving up a day of your weekend. We're investing by paying for you to go. You know you get the win-win scenario from both sides of that fence and make sure that people have the right attitude for your business going forward. I like that. That's great yeah.

Speaker 1:

I like that. That's great.

Speaker 2:

I like that too. It's well said. You have to invest in your product and again, it's not the people, the product, but again that's the services and the talent that you have. You invest in the talent, in the people that work with you in your organization and they also will. They have the opportunity to learn more and feel, you know, some achievement as well, because they're learning new things and also, you know, feel that the organization has the trust in them to also be able to, you know, go to these conferences and take things back and become, you know, more comfortable with the application and provide better services.

Speaker 3:

The only differentiator you have these days. You know you can with the application and provide better services to their customers. It's the only differentiator you have these days. You know you can buy a Business Central SKU from any Microsoft partner. There's no kind of you can only buy it from. You know Navision days where you can only buy it from certain partners. No, there's a lot of competition out there who would love to take that SKU off you. And you know the only reason the customer's going to be loyal to you the IPs and app source. Potentially that's much more available. It's the knowledge. The knowledge is your differentiation. You have to invest in the knowledge if you want a growing, well-regarded, great reputation business, and that's the way, I think, to be successful in Business Central in this century.

Speaker 1:

Well said.

Speaker 2:

Very well said. Well, torben James, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us about Days of Knowledge. I've learned a lot about it. I hope others that listen have also learned quite a bit and are now interested in going.

Speaker 2:

But before we finish the conversation, I'd like to ask each of you what is the one thing? There's many things. There can only be one number one. Right, a lot of people say, when you say what is the best or what is the thing Everyone's like, oh, what about this? But again, it can only be. Just because you pick under one doesn't mean you don't like number two, three or four, you just like number one, maybe a little bit better. What is the number one thing that you hope somebody can take back from the conference? It can be anything, any topic. They can go and say they liked Atlanta, they can like food. You know you can pick anything. What is the one thing that you would hope that somebody would be able to walk away from that conference with? Torben James has more time to think, so yeah, so.

Speaker 4:

So I'm gonna look at the ones we did in in Europe this past few four months, and I think that the main thing that I was happy to see people walking away with was a much better understanding of co-pilot, because we hear co-pilot every single day. You can't do anything without hearing about co-pilot. But actually getting that down to a more concrete level and having a basic understanding of AI and co-pilot. They are not data science by the end of these two days, but they have some kind of understanding about the topic, either as a consultant or as a developer, and that was the biggest takeaway, I think, for many people this year.

Speaker 2:

Great. Thank you, James. How about yourself?

Speaker 3:

Confidence.

Speaker 1:

That is.

Speaker 2:

Nice, perfect, you don't need to say anything. That's a one-word answer and that says a lot.

Speaker 1:

Confidence in Copilot.

Speaker 3:

Confidence in whatever you want confidence in no no, no, it is okay and and it's what makes you tick what it comes across when you're presenting, when you're talking to anybody. If you have confidence, you can teach them. It's contagious, it is yeah yeah and so you know, going back from that conference, if they've got one thing, it's more confidence than they had when they arrived.

Speaker 2:

That is powerful. That is the best one-word answer. Torben, you had a good answer too. I'm not saying it wasn't good.

Speaker 4:

He had more time to think, but of the questions that is a very powerful statement.

Speaker 3:

He's trying to explain if she would have been better.

Speaker 2:

No, and from all the conferences I've been through, I think anybody that goes to the conference and takes full advantage of the opportunity presented to them again, because that's part of it. When you go to these conferences you have to sometimes, maybe if you're a little shy, a little nervous, maybe sit down and talk to someone that you don't know and make conversation which can help build to the confidence. But I found that many people get things from these conferences such as confidence. So I think if anybody who attends and they fully participate with what is available to them there, they will walk away with that confidence. Again, thank you both for taking the time to speak with us, and if anybody would like to learn more information about the conference or speak with you about the conference or any other services, james, with you, with the partnership, torben, with all the great things you do with planning, or even your experiences with Business Central, how could they get in contact with you? Torben, we'll always go with you first.

Speaker 4:

Now, they can just definitely go on the website and there is a contact us, or they can write me directly at torben at directionsforpartnerscom, and then we can take it from there, have a call or exchange emails, whatever's necessary.

Speaker 2:

Excellent. Thank you, James. How about yourself?

Speaker 3:

Well, just change james at directionsforpartnerscom for both of us to write about it that way, or reach out on LinkedIn or Twitter. I'm the only James Croucher on there, I think. So, yeah, find a way to reach out. It doesn't matter, it's the reaching out that's the important, not the back up.

Speaker 2:

It is important and how I always find the website is. I always search for Days of Knowledge or Days of Knowledge Atlanta, and it will bring you right to the website instead of having to remember it as well. So again, thank you both for taking the time to speak with us. I appreciate you taking the time and I look forward to seeing you both in just six short weeks in Atlanta and having some of that local beer. Thank you, guys. All right.

Speaker 3:

Thank you All right.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, ciao, ciao. Take care everyone. Thank you, bye. Have a good day. Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode of In the Dynamics Corner Chair, and thank you to our guests for participating.

Speaker 1:

Thank you, brad, for your time. It is a wonderful episode of Dynamics Corner Chair and thank you to our guests for participating. Thank you, brad, for your time. It is a wonderful episode of Dynamics Corner Chair. I would also like to thank our guests for joining us. Thank you for all of our listeners tuning in as, and you can interact with them via Twitter D-V-L-P-R-L-I-F-E. You can also find me at Mattalinoio, m-a-t-a-l-i-n-o, dot I-O, and my Twitter handle is Mattalino16. And you can see those links down below in the show notes. Again, thank you everyone. Thank you and take care you you.

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