Episode 504: You're Not on the List

In this episode of Dynamics Corner, Kris and Brad are joined by Bobby Small and Bri from the Dynamics User Group (DUG). It all starts when Brad shows up to the DUG Southeast Regional Winterfest in Tampa — and gets turned away at the door. What happens next earns Bri a nickname she'll never live down. Bobby and Bri then share the one thing most attendees get wrong at conferences, and the simple mindset shift that could transform your entire event experience. They reveal the secret to landing your first speaking opportunity — and it's not what you think. Want to know the number one mistake speakers make when submitting sessions months in advance? Bobby has a surprising take. The group also tackles a question that's on everyone's mind: in a world where AI can replicate your voice and your writing style, what's the one thing it still can't do? And just when you think the conversation is winding down, Brad delivers a PSA so passionate it might just change the way you behave at every conference from now on. Whether you're a seasoned community member or attending your first event, this is one episode you don't want to skip.

Chapters

• 0:00 Opening Banter & Guest Intros
• 2:30 Inner Voice, Writing, And Creativity
• 5:45 Tesla Autopilot Tales & Travel
• 8:30 Registration Fiasco And “Bree The Bouncer”
• 12:00 Bobby’s Community Path And MVP
• 15:20 Bree’s Journey Into Events And Sponsorships
• 18:30 Why In-Person Learning Matters
• 22:20 From Lectures To Collaborative Sessions
• 25:00 Choosing Which Events To Attend
• 28:00 Local Groups As Launchpads
• 31:00 How New Speakers Get Started
• 35:10 Authenticity, Basics, And New Attendees
• 38:30 Growing From Local To National Stages
• 42:00 Tracks: BC, F&O, CE, Power Platform, AI
• 45:00 Networking Design: Roundtables And Socials
• 48:00 Starting A Local Meetup And Leadership
• 51:00 AI, Identity, And Human Connection
• 55:00 Call For Speakers Timing And Agility
• 58:30 Keeping Agendas Current As Tech Changes
• 1:02:00 Be Intentional: Phones Down, Eyes Up
• 1:06:00 Practical Networking: Expo And Lunch Tactics
• 1:10:00 Respect The Details: Waste And Courtesy
• 1:14:00 Plans For Vegas And Follow-Ups

Transcript

SPEAKER_04: 0:05

Welcome back everyone to another episode of Dynamics Corner. What does organized chaos look like? You're about to find out. I'm your co-host, Chris.

SPEAKER_02: 0:14

And this is Brad. This episode is recorded on February 4th, 2026. Chris, Chris, Chris. Organized Chaos? Events? Planet Currents? And more. We had a great conversation today. We had the opportunity to speak with Bobby Jr. and Bree the Mountain.

SPEAKER_04: 0:51

To the mental institution.

SPEAKER_02: 0:54

I don't know if it's a mental institution, but it it made me become one.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01

I love the name there. Is that your brief? The mental institution? Where are you heading? I'm heading to the mental institution. See ya.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12

That's uh sometimes I believe I'm in one in my head.

SPEAKER_04: 1:18

So I don't know. It's like essentially you're alone in your mind, right? You're always gonna be alone in your mind. So yes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:27

I'm not alone in my mind. I have friends in there with me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:30

I I'm writing a book, and and part of the rewrite that I'm going through is adding a character, which is my inner dialogue. And so I've uh you know, giving it a voice and a and a demeanor is interesting. Right now it's it's solid, like peaky blinders, low kind of growl, you know, weird amalgamated, you know, you know, British Isle accents like, hey, what's going on there, Bobby? It's right somewhere up in there. It's just it's you know, just the as grading as you could get, you know. That is a when do you when will that book be released? That's a good question. I I I started writing it when I when I was turning 50, so that's eight years ago. Um but it but just so you know, it's got I've got 40 to 50,000 words written, so now I'm just fine-tuning. So we'll see. Maybe this year.

SPEAKER_02: 2:18

Good. I'm looking forward to seeing maybe maybe we can put that on the 2026 list of things to do for you to finish up. I think we need to put a date on that. Or if you want to send it my way, I'll read it. I enjoy reading.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31

So as we said, no, I'm at the stage of of that final kind of rewrite um, you know, through some editing process, like just grabbing that last little, you know, oomph. Um yeah, I'm excited. I think 26 will be the year.

SPEAKER_02: 2:44

Good. Uh well I'm looking forward to it. And uh uh it was a pleasure seeing you in Tampa for the Doug Southeast Regional Winterfest. Uh I know we we talk about the cold, but it's not. And I will tell you an interesting story about this because I was fortunate to have the opportunity to present a session at the conference. And then I drove up. Well, I didn't drive up, my Tesla drove up as we uh we were speaking about a dinner that evening. Is that the name of the Tesla?

SPEAKER_00: 3:18

Do you call the Tesla Lazy Bum? Is that you have a name for it?

SPEAKER_04: 3:20

Yeah, no, you got chauffeur now.

SPEAKER_02: 3:22

It listen, that thing drove 99.9%. Lazy Bum, send me home. 99.9% of that trip that drove for me. The only thing that it did not do, because I I wanted to do a test, was pull into the charging station at the hotel. Because it went in and wanted to find a parking spot. Like there isn't a way to say find the charging station or park for the charging station. So it didn't. So I walked into that.

SPEAKER_04: 3:51

First, first available spot.

SPEAKER_00: 3:53

So the very first spot you pull in, it's like right there.

SPEAKER_02: 3:55

You're you're you're 200 yards away from the entrance. Well, now you can specify, you can say that your destination is a parking lot, driveway, or street. Okay. And if if curbside, yes. So when you pull up, if you're going to a home, it will just leave, you know, stop on the street. If you're saying that uh it's uh driveway, it will pull into the driveway. I really wish that they would change it to add some options because I back in to my house because I have the charging station and the garage. And if I go to other places, sometimes I'd like to back in as well.

SPEAKER_05: 4:29

But you need a license to drive this car.

SPEAKER_02: 4:33

Say that again, please.

SPEAKER_05: 4:35

You even need a license for this car.

SPEAKER_04: 4:39

You know, it's funny. Funny comment with that because I have two kids, high schoolers, that are just finished their their driver's head, and what we're we're talking about, they're not interested in driving like what we used to, right? When when I was growing up, it's like it was freedom. Like, I need to give my driver's license. Yeah, exactly. Now, I mean they've seen the car drive itself because I also have a model three similar to Brad. And they they're like, I can I just have this like take me to places.

SPEAKER_02: 5:12

It's it's great. And when we went to go to dinner, I had it summoned because uh there was a lot of individuals that tried. It was a great event, and I wanted to talk a little bit about the event, but I um so we drove to dinner as well, so I had to come come to the entrance of the hotel, talk about lazy uh and pick me up. But the the the funny thing is, is so I I went into the uh hotel. It was in a hotel conference area. Uh it was a nice event. So I walk in, there's a line, you know, for registration. So I'm standing in line for registration, and they wanted, you know, the usual check-in process that you go through, so you can get your name tag, you land it and such. So I walk in, and then uh the the other guests on here said to me, uh, oh no, there was someone else doing it. They said, uh, can I have your name? And I said, uh actually, no, they didn't. Hold on. I'm screwing this up, everyone. They said, Oh, you're not on the list.

unknown: 6:09

And I said, What?

SPEAKER_02: 6:10

I'm doing a session. And then they pointed me over to the bouncer. That is the bouncer, and I went over to her and she goes.

SPEAKER_05: 6:26

And Brad hits me with that. You don't know who I am?

SPEAKER_00: 6:30

He said, I'm the Brad.

SPEAKER_05: 6:33

So then she goes, Clear as the you know, nice.

SPEAKER_02: 6:38

And I said, Well, I have you know, I have a session doing this. She goes, scan the QR code and fill out the registration and get back in line. And by that time, because I got there a little early because I wasn't certain about the traffic. Now, by that time, when I got there, the line was probably five deep. And then when I finally got to her, because everyone was coming to the the uh event, it was like 25 people deep. So not only did I have to take the time to fill out the registration, I had to go all the way back to the end of the line.

SPEAKER_05: 7:10

I do not remember it like this, man.

SPEAKER_00: 7:12

And I came this close to calling his car back to the front. I came this close to hotel going back to the phone. It's like meet me at the front, I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_02: 7:21

I waited in line again, and then I get up and I said, I filled out the registration. And then the bouncer goes, You're not on the list still. And I said, Here's my code. And then thankfully, Mr. Bobby came to the rescue and said, Oh, he's on there now. It just took a minute to refresh. So, but now that's why we have Breathe the Bouncer.

SPEAKER_05: 7:48

That sounds like a very dramatized rendition.

SPEAKER_02: 7:51

That wasn't a dramatized rendition. You were like, get back like literally sounds like a movie scene. Scan the code, scan the code, get back in line. And I'm like Who are you? Who are you? And that's now I call her breathe a bouncer. So if you ever go to an event, make sure that you fill out the registration. Yeah. One, I think it's important, and you know, all jokes aside, it is important. I have two things to say to this. Fill out the registration allows individuals to plan properly. And if you're not going to go, cancel.

SPEAKER_00: 8:26

Those are great tips. Great tips.

SPEAKER_02: 8:28

And I I mean that's all jokes aside. I mean, there may have been a little embellishment in that story, but it pretty much went that way, and that's why I say read the bouncer. But if stories don't have embellishment, Brad, they're not stories.

SPEAKER_00: 8:40

Every story needs embellishment.

SPEAKER_02: 8:42

Well, I've also learned there's three sides to every story: the side A, side B, and the truth. So did you want to share your rendition of the story?

SPEAKER_05: 8:54

I just know that the regional popped off. Let's start there, and there was so many people in attendance, lots of people to check in. Check-in's always mayhem.

SPEAKER_00: 9:05

So I was 10 minutes before is mania.

SPEAKER_05: 9:08

Craziness. And you're just you're taking names, you're giving badges. So if I don't see your name on that list, you're not valid. And that's an I know.

SPEAKER_02: 9:20

Yeah, yeah. That was uh that was what is I really don't even think she looked up. She was like, scan, go, scan, go. Because uh thankfully I wasn't the only one. Uh, but with that, it's a little fun story. Would you mind telling us what yourself, Bobby?

SPEAKER_00: 9:32

Yeah, yeah. So I'm um longtime dynamics community person, been doing this for 20 plus years as a programmer and an IT person. But my favorite part has been the community side, which I started doing in 2014, 13, something like that. Um, leading local meetings in Colorado, and um, and then just jumped on board, literally. I just showed up to Doug's offices one day until they gave me a job. I I think it was like you know two months in before they gave me a paycheck. Yeah, so um love doing what I'm doing for the community, so that um that kind of spins it around to where I find my most passion. Um was awarded MVP last year, so been excited. Congratulations. Thank you. Bring that forward and and do do a bunch more with that um access. So yeah, so just really love being here for the community, listening and providing all the opportunities. I'm the worst. You know, somebody just asked me, How did you get Bobby to do that? He's like, he I just asked. Like, I will pretty much do about anything people ask. You know, that's what Breeze for. She bounces inside, by the way. She'll be like, what are you even doing with it? What you're doing. Yeah, no, yeah. So um, yeah, I have to be reined in because I love just providing access for the community to whatever it is they're looking for.

SPEAKER_02: 10:44

Excellent, thank you. And Miss Bree the Bouncer.

SPEAKER_05: 10:52

Yeah, I started with Doug in 2023, my senior year of college. I was a social media intern for Doug and really got the first taste of community when um DynamicsCon was in San Antonio. Um, and I was very much like a behind-the-scenes girl doing the social media content and always admired the event from afar, and then um joined Doug full-time as a member manager, and I was helping with speakers, the programming committee, just making sure that the event stayed afloat. And then um last year I got promoted to a sponsorship account manager, so now I'm more in that sponsorship sales world of Doug, but I've really seen a lot of the faces of Doug and really have grown just in admiration for the community as a whole and doing what I can to you know support that.

SPEAKER_00: 11:47

And just to point out, she uh we didn't promote her to Bouncer until after her first MMA fight. When she saw that, like, oh yeah, it's over, yeah, we got it. We're good, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 12:00

We had the opportunity to speak at dinner that evening as well because afterwards um we uh several of the attendees were able to go out um for a dinner uh to talk. It was nice, and then uh she even added to her bouncer role because then when she told me she was from the Bronx in New York, I said forget it. Forget it. I'm not even um I'm from Queens, but yeah, I I I was uh obedient from that point forward. I was obedient after I got put in line, but uh I this going forward, forget it. So when I when I see you at DynamicsCon or other regional meetings, don't you worry. I will uh bow. Yeah, go bow. Salute. Yeah, you know that the uh there's so many things to unpack with all of this that um, you know, as we were talking about that evening, and to continue with the conversation, we're in 2026. There's a lot of information online, there's a lot of uh uh ways to get information, there's a lot of you know, you know, to me it feels like I'm inundated with information, and I almost have to throttle and control some of the information I receive. And there are a lot of events to go to, and I have conversations with individuals and they talk about the events as far as what are these events about? And the events I'm talking about, they could be the large-scale events like DynamicsCon, which uh Doug has once a year, or even now with the Doug Regional um meetups, I guess. Do you call them meetups? What are they? Doug Regional Meetups, Doug Regional Sessions? What's the proper name for it?

SPEAKER_00: 13:41

We're calling them, we rebranded them to DynamicsCon Regionals because they are we we view them as like mini DynamicsCons. Um we're trying to we're trying to level up. Madison, who's running this program for us, is just bringing a little more heat to these events to make them feel just like an immersive large-scale event, even at that small scale. So we're calling them DynamicsCon Regionals.

SPEAKER_02: 14:03

Okay, so the DynamicsCon regionals. So as a participant, and and I have these conversations with that as far as information comes out. And I I struggle with this sometimes myself, and which is why I wanted to speak with you about it, is what is the benefit for somebody attending some of these large-scale events or some of these smaller scale regional events, uh, such as what the Dynamics Cone Regional is doing. Yeah, Brie, you want to jump in first?

SPEAKER_00: 14:34

Yeah, give your opinion on this.

SPEAKER_05: 14:36

Yeah, I mean, I think too, I uh grew up in obviously like the age of COVID online learning, um, did a lot of like remote college classes. And I think we all know that that online component, very easy to get distracted, very easy to tune in and tune out. Um, I think when it comes to like in-person learning, it's really very valuable to be able to stay engaged with the session when you're you're sitting there face to face, but also you have the opportunity to contribute to the discussion, whether that be raising your hand and um asking a question or showing your own use case in a session, or even like something new that we started to do, like in convergence, we hosted this um sweet C-suite round table and had some like round table discussion topics on AI. So even taking people out of that traditional education, educational session setting and having them in roundtables, there was so many valuable conversations going on that I think benefited people even more. So when you attend these in-person conferences, you're you're just that more immersed in the learning experience, and you're getting that professional and personal like develop development in one.

SPEAKER_02: 15:56

I like the point that you had mentioned there, and I think and I did see it and I have seen it, and I have also changed the way I'm doing presentations in a way, because you you hit on that round table discussion type where it's not lecture. And I know just from that event, not to just go back to the same event, it's just it's sort of what sparked this conversation, was the room and the sessions weren't lecture sessions, they were more collaborative discussions led by someone that someone had an outline, they had content. So uh as a side note, anyone who's doing presentations, I'm a big fan of those now. And also why I'm on the big co-presenting, because you can get different perspectives. But it was interesting to hear the participants in the room, and and it was uh a wide and large group in the business center room that we had. What I mean by wide is a diverse group as far as organization uh diversity as far as and stage of implementation. So it was actually it was nice to hear, oh, we used it this way, we use it this way, and they could share their stories because someone was starting their BC implementation and someone was seasoned, and they were able to connect and talk about it outside of the the context of the topic that we had, which I thought was interesting.

SPEAKER_04: 17:15

More engagement and yeah, the conversational type of thing.

SPEAKER_02: 17:19

I I think that you hit that. So um now there's another part that's with this. So there's there's a lot of events and opportunities that an individual have. And how would someone determine which one to attend? See, these are some struggles that we have, and I'm talking with you as the event coordinator, bouncer, and uh planners. How do these events get structured and how can someone determine which ones to attend as well? What are some advice on that?

SPEAKER_00: 17:56

Yeah, I mean, I could just put a double click on what Bree said. That was, you know, that was uh just great information. I I saw that switch, I started seeing that switch a couple years ago in sessions where it turned from that lecture kind of format, like I'm talking to you, as opposed to we're talking together, and collectively the room is you know a thousand times smarter than any person giving that lecture. And so bringing that together and creating that transformer, like you know, to you're you're all learning at one time um is is incredible. And I'm glad that it's it's becoming more of the DNA of like you said, you've adopted it. We're seeing more of that in the sessions, where we're just it's naturally happening, which is which is really great. Um it's tough, I think, to answer your question, in my opinion, to figure out which, you know, you know, m many of these are structured so similarly. Um and so, you know, I think the the key that I've seen, you know, again, just to tell what we're doing, the local groups, and this is something that I you know when people ask, is the one thing that I gr go back to. Local groups are so fun and such a great place to start. If you're lucky enough to have a local group meeting near you, um just being there with them and creating that that local connection is so important because that just moves forward into the it's like you know, when you when you go to school and you have the elementary and the middle school and the high school and you feed in from the elementary to the middle school, and you know at least I know at least ten people that I'm gonna bring into middle school with me, and then I meet some new people. So that's kind of the way it works for our local groups to our regionals to our national meetings. You're you're bringing all these people with you and and building those relationships even deeper, but then it's easier to create the next level of relationship.

SPEAKER_04: 19:34

So I do want to add on your local having these smaller kind of regional things. Because when I started speaking in and I was in a session at a local uh uh meetup, and one of the things that really inspired me is when you have somebody that uh turned these sessions, not such a lecture, but more of a conversation. It allowed everybody else that kind of like hesitant to speak, to speak up and made it more comfortable. And when you get them very comfortable, they get super excited in terms of okay, how how I want to do that. I also want to uh lead a session. So in that case, it kind of turned into that uh snowball effect. And it's like, hey, I'm I'm excited about this, I want to start speaking more. And so it starts with a smaller group of you know uh uh session or or regional uh meetup like this. So this is fantastic for for this kind of type of sessions.

SPEAKER_02: 20:26

Yeah. No, it's good. It's not it's a it's a great networking opportunity, and that's it's sometimes even uh it's it's a I I do like the I'm starting to like more. This is again my opinion, um, and going back to what you said about the networking, is being able to talk with other people. I I really do enjoy being by myself, and now in the world of AI, I find myself talking with AI agents all day long, and I'm even like verbally uh in the room here by myself. We talk about the mental institution early on, and I'm in my head. I sit here and I people probably would think I'm talking to myself when I speak out loud. But that networking collaboration is important, uh, and it's nice to see and feel and talk to people at times because I think we are you know a more communal type species, I guess you could say, uh, which is interesting. So with these events now there's there's two sides. So you have the attendees that attend the events, you have sponsors that sponsor the events, and you have the speakers that present at these events. Uh so we talked about um, you know, there's some things to consider, or we talk about things to consider when you want to choose which event to go to. But now from a speaker point of view, uh I also I have questions all over the board, and unfortunately they're not narrowed down to just an attendee uh I have uh across the board. So we'll talk about from the speaker point of view. There's many.

SPEAKER_00: 21:49

Just so you know, Brad, I think you know the cool thing about where Doug is, and I think the community is I I view um with this, you know, we this started off as a user type thing. If you go way back It was really you know user-centric. Like, you know, lots of local meetings had to be user-only, or if you were a partner, you had to invite 10 users to come. And I think we view it a bit differently. I think we view more holistically um the entire community. You know, it is there's value to everybody from partner to ISV to Microsoft to consultant. All these folks bring value. And when it's you know, with when it's when it's corralled properly at that, especially at that local level, so they start to learn, hey, we come here to this education, this isn't sales, this isn't this is the opportunity here is to is to grow and learn from each other. Man, that is another great thing that just you know kind of spirals out and spiders out into the community.

SPEAKER_02: 22:40

It is it's a great community. No, I like that what you said, it's just to bring everybody together because uh we all do learn from each other. Just because you're a partner or a knot, right, or a user, it doesn't mean you you can't share experiences or you can't learn something, which is another thing why I like that human interaction because you can share those stories. Um now from the this my ADHD is going all crazy this morning, but from the speaker point of view uh as well, and we'll get back into the attendee uh uh perspective. Uh, I have a lot more questions on that, and I just want to jump a little. How does one become a speaker? What are your recommendations for becoming a speaker as and also what criteria should somebody consider when they want to think of a session to present? And I have another catch question for you uh as well that's on top of choosing a topic.

SPEAKER_00: 23:37

Yep, I'm excited by this because this is something that I took on as a passion project this year. So we're in the process about midway through a speaker, um I call it we call it an origin story, uh, you know, speaker origin story. So helping to kind of go with our superhero theme, um, helping people who either are just on the beginning of their journey into learning and and becoming a speaker in the in the industry, and uh or people have never done it before, and how do you do it? So we've had a couple of great meetings so far, webinars and and kind of panel discussions with with folks who have done it for a long time to help people do exactly like how do I choose a topic? Where do I even start? Some of the cool things that came out of that discussion um were you know literally just being intentional around you for an end user, every day you're faced with an with either a challenge or a success, jotting those down, um, realizing that what you might find banal is interesting to everybody else in the world. Like, you know, your one thing that you solved, you might think, ah, this is just an everyday thing. But people want to hear about not just again your successes, but also your failures and how you learn from them. So, you know, opening up just what's around you is you you've got topics probably just you know, you're flying, you can just grab them all the time. It doesn't have to be this grand thing that you know that you know you have to sit down and think about for forever and ever. It's it's sometimes the simple things that are the the most impactful things.

SPEAKER_04: 24:59

Yeah, that's uh really quick on that too, because when when you're when you're speaking for so long and you think that you always have to share the newest thing, and you forget that the the application itself is continue to grow and you have new users and they still need those uh refreshers or not just refreshers, but like new to business central, right? So I thought about that when I was doing a session where and I was like, uh everyone I in my mind, everyone should know about this by now. And then I realized that you know, I'd say, hey, raise your hand, who's new to business central? And it was like half of them.

SPEAKER_00: 25:37

And I was like, oh let's go back to the the basics that every year at dynamics gone, I'm amazed by the number of new attendees coming to an event. Like it's like even the Tampa event when you know we had a couple rooms where I was in, we you know how many people the first time event, it was like you know, a third to you know you know, half of the room. It's like wow, that's insane to me. That but you do know there's millions of people who are out using the software who just aren't engaged and there's you know they're slowly seeing and coming in.

SPEAKER_04: 26:06

I I do believe that that's a good way for people that are new new new to speaking, look at maybe submit the basics, right? Because if you especially if you're a new speaker, but you're new to Business Central, learn your the the path that you took to learn that uh that feature in Business Central. I think that's a good start for those who are thinking about it.

SPEAKER_00: 26:25

I'll mention authenticity was is the big thing that that we're you know kind of putting forward is like just be authentic, don't try to build some crazy PowerPoint, you know, you know, you know, structured thing. Just be authentic up there. If you tell your story and and you're you're open and raw, and you know people are gonna be like, yes, I felt I'm feeling that with you. Hell yeah. And you grab the room so deeply in that way. No, no.

SPEAKER_02: 26:53

These are some good pointers. And again, it's uh you we talked about the conferences and the events, and like as I mentioned, I have some things I want to talk about. But from the speaker point of view, those are some good things. Is think of something that you're passionate about. This is what I'm hearing from what you're saying, right? I mean, I'm I'm picking this up and uh that's what I extract from it. Is is find something you're passionate about. It doesn't have to be overly complicated, but you're as you said, be authentic and don't have it something that you feel you have to be scripted or nervous about because if you have the passion, it will be easy for you to present.

SPEAKER_00: 27:25

It resonates. It resonates in the room. You see the reson. If you're in a room watching that happen, you can tell the difference opposed to somebody just trying to read notes on a PowerPoint and trying to get through it, as opposed to just submit and it I mean it takes a it takes some confidence and even just some you know some you know you know some faith to get there and and be that open and raw in that moment, but that's where you're gonna start to really hum. Um and the the other thing is I'm gonna go back to local, just to put a button on what you asked. If you start locally, if you have that ability to start locally, even online, like we, you know, some of these you know meetups we have, the local we call local chapters are are virtual, but if you start local with a group and they get to know you, then you your chances are gonna increase to get that next level of speaking opportunity. So it's like, hey, I'm gonna, I'd love to just, you know, I'm here locally, I'd love to talk about something I learned, even if it's 10 minutes, like I just have a 10-minute thing. I mean, most most of these, or you know, most of these groups will do will you know do that. Like, yeah, 10 minutes, sure. If it's a user story for sure, or it's impactful, yeah, let's hear it. We can fit it in somehow. So then you get to know the group, and then that just helps at that next level of, like you said, getting that getting yourself in front of, oh yeah, I'm in the I'm on the programming committee for Dynamics Con or whatever event. And then I I see Brad, he spoke at our event you know two months ago. I did a great job. I'd love to hear that story again or hear Brad do this again. Let's definitely put a star on that one and take a look at it in our group. So that's to me, it again happens locally. The more you can engage, and even it's virtually, going back to what we were talking about, you know, being intentional, whether you're in person or you can do this virtually, it just takes a little more work. If you're on a a webinar, virtual meeting where you can watch the chat, you interact, you know, you still can have impact and that networking value uh can can you know can succeed for you. Um, but those are my like for the speaker, those would be my tips.

SPEAKER_02: 29:10

Those are some great tips. And uh Chris, you had mentioned business central, and uh just to go back to this this DynamicsCon regionals and the DynamicsCon conference isn't just business central focused. What other types of information uh would an attendee or a speaker expect to see at the DynamicsCon meetings, whether it's the regional, the local, or the national? Bree, what do you think? I mean, we got everything, right?

SPEAKER_05: 29:37

Yeah, everything like product-wise, business central, finance operations, power platform, customer engagements. We sometimes have it our own like AI tracks separately. Um, some groups like to have AI infused content. Um, but yeah, I think especially when it comes to regionals, I know that Madison relies heavily on like our meetup leaders to um source the content. Um and a lot of the times they tap into their local community groups of people who like, you know, really shine, whether that be speaking or participating. Um so like Bobby has been saying this whole time, like staying present, staying active, showing that um, you know, you're here to learn and collaborate.

SPEAKER_00: 30:27

And we're trying to provide those networking opportunities too. Like you said, that's the important part. Like you want to, if it's a regional, you you see we've got you know midday networking opportunities, evening network networking opportunities, the advanced networking at the metery, wherever the metery whatever metery you end up in, whatever town you're in, all those are happening, you know, and you try to build those extracurricular opportunities as well.

SPEAKER_02: 30:48

That's great. I I I wish I wish they were more of these types of things. It's it's challenging. I understand it's challenging from the an organizer point of view as well as sometimes it's challenged from an attendee point of view because how does a location get chosen? And it's I'm not asking a question, I'm just thinking of it because I see in my area, for example, in Tampa is uh an area that uh we have a regional uh meetings, uh the Nam's kind of meetings, and uh there's been several. Sometimes it's challenging with the distance to to figure out which place to attend. Um and it sometimes it's a struggle. So if somebody wanted to have something closer to them, because maybe they're in a in a populated area, but the closest regional meeting or local meeting is further away, is there a way that they could start a meeting or start a meetup?

SPEAKER_05: 31:44

They can become a leader. Step step up, you know, if you have somebody that you know would attend your meetings, we have the opportunity like Madison is um very in touch with empowering community leaders to step up and become a leader. We actually in February have our meetup leader retreat in um Vegas, and we bring our leaders together to just talk about like what works, what doesn't work, um, how is Doug supporting you best? How can we help you more? Um, things like that. And like I there like you have every opportunity to just go out there and start your own group, but like Doug really is that kind of like safety net under you to give you the tools, the advice, the network to flourish as a leader and start your own group while also like having resources to rely on in case maybe a partner comes in and wants to pitch their product. So like we step in and we say, Hey, maybe you want a sponsorship, things like that.

SPEAKER_02: 32:47

That's that's interesting. So some it's easy for some not say easy, but if someone's interested in in organizing, there are there is a path. Uh less, I mean easy's all relative, I guess you could say, but you do have a plan in place for that because I know personally I'm finding I I joke about me sitting all day by myself, but I do find pleasure and I'm I'm seeing the importance of having that human interaction. And even it's nice sometimes to say, hey, I have an idea because now, you know, if years ago you had that, you know, let me Google that for you. If somebody asks you a question, you say that. And I had a conversation with someone just recently, and we we started talking about this because it was always like before you ask a question, you should ask you know, pick pick an AI uh platform. Ask it first and then talk about it. But uh, if you pause for a moment, it's like, wow, you're really taking humanity out of it or the human aspect out of it, we're all going to become just uh perspective in general.

SPEAKER_05: 33:44

Like I think our experience and our perspective will always be so much more valuable than what AI has. And like that comes into this whole conversation of like community and collaboration. You'll never get that from AI. And that's why these conferences, these meetings will be evergreen.

SPEAKER_02: 34:03

No, I like it. I do, I like that. This is there's a lot of valuable information that uh you you're uh saying then it's making me pause and think it's it's a nice perspective on it. Um to see even uh you if if uh coming into the community or coming into the product or the space or the ecosystem, whatever uh we want to call it, uh it's nice to have a a fresh look on it. As Chris even kind of alluded to, it's like if you've been in it for a long time, sometimes you just get into the same perspective with the same rhythm and the same routine. So it's nice for to see other in other individuals coming into the community as they say, I don't want to use the word community, but coming into the space with a new fresh perspective. Um and I'm I'm happy from my point of view that Business Central is doing well because we're adding additional users, and those users come across different generations, they come across different industries, different backgrounds. And that's something that I'm happy to start seeing is a is a blend of that, um, where everybody's sort of coming in instead of seeing the same, and I hate to say it, but I don't, the same old faces everywhere you go. Uh it was I don't know.

SPEAKER_00: 35:12

They're awesome faces though. You I mean you'd hate to not see the folks in our community that you're used to seeing the Chinskys and the Prophets and the Carters, all these people that are out there that you just love. Um but also you want to you want to you just have to it's cool, you gotta keep making room in the circle.

SPEAKER_04: 35:27

It's like you know, yes, no, your your face, your face is new because Bree did not know your face, man.

SPEAKER_02: 35:34

I'm okay with having still new. I'm okay with having the new face, but no, and I do want to step back, but I wasn't uh I just want to be clear, I wasn't referencing saying, you know, seeing the same little faces, but uh I do appreciate seeing them because it's it's uh those faces can also provide mentorship in a sense for the new members of the space. Yeah, but it's nice to see that there's other fresh perspectives, and I think that's important as we uh evolve as a species, as business evolve. Like I said, I call us a species now because we're humans. I don't know why I'm on this kick now, but lately I'm into this. Uh you know, that's another philosophical discussion that I have in my mind. But uh I like that.

SPEAKER_00: 36:18

What what level is AI as a species? Is it you know it's rising, right?

SPEAKER_05: 36:22

It's getting, you know tech is its own species now.

SPEAKER_02: 36:28

You'll throw me off on a tangent because it's uh if you look at some of these thinking models, if you have it do something, if you go through, it's oh and now they want to ask me this and that. And I really had a conversation with one the other day, and it started to push back on me. It was really impressive that it was getting at first, it started to be like, oh, whatever you say, I'll do, whatever you say I'll do. Then it started to be combative, and I was like, whoa, right. I mean, the end result was right. It's like, are you sure you want to do this? Oh, we should do it this way, and I was like, Whoa. But you're right. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 37:01

Uh no, it it's uh it, you know, I I communicate with my Chat GPT and co-pilot and we named it. Yeah, it's it's a very personal conversation a lot of times, and you set the tone, and and you have with with the book, for instance, that I mentioned earlier. I wrote it, I don't want it to write it for me, but I did want it to review it and say, hey, give me your opinion. And I want you to put on, yeah, I don't want it to be like the typical, like, this is great, you should keep going. Keep writing, you got it. You know, almost there. You know, it's more like no, I want you to be serious and tell me, and it was, it was like, yeah, no, and I and I would push back. It's like, you shouldn't I add more words? It's like, if you are an idiot, but if you're not an idiot, you listen to me, then don't, you know, keep it clean. You know, it wasn't quite that you know, fresh, but but it was pushing back. Like you said, it was like, no, I think you need to stay where you are, you know.

SPEAKER_02: 37:47

Which is it's it's good. And I'm I'm happy that it's not writing it for you, but it it's I don't see harm in it helping. Uh like an editor.

SPEAKER_00: 37:55

I mean, I'm treating it like an editor, I would treat an editor, like, hey, you know, am I on track? Do you understand what I'm trying to convey? Is my message clear? You know, this is all things that are really good to hear back, and I'll get human input too, because I think like Bree mentioned, we're still we're still so individual. Like AI is never gonna replicate me if you ask it a question. I'm gonna come up with Brad, Chris, we're all gonna come up with our own unique answers, but AI is still great to talk to and and get you know feedback.

SPEAKER_02: 38:22

You don't think it can do that? Uh I have to move out to my question. So you're gonna send me down the road here, but down the road. If if if I were to record my entire life, now there are apps to do this because I've listened to other podcasts where individuals have these things running where it records their entire day. So if I recorded, let's say, a year of my life, and I was able to transcribe every conversation with everyone, and again, this is something that has to be in totality. I don't think it can be segmented to work or home or or other things. Do you think you could feed a year's worth of transcripts to a model and then have that model learn to interact like you, and then you use another product that can then replicate your voice? Can we create an AI that's like ourselves where if I were to go away and someone was at home, I could say, here, talk to this while I'm gone, and you can ask it questions and it will respond like you.

SPEAKER_00: 39:27

I think the possibility for sure. I Julie Yak would not mind sharing this. She does this already. Do you know Julie at all? She's a power platform MVP, CE MVP, just AI. She does she has an AI model that she uses to respond to certain requests.

SPEAKER_02: 39:44

I have to talk with her about that.

SPEAKER_00: 39:46

Let's call her up. Yeah, and she is she yeah, and it even I mean, it even has a it's a video, it's it's the full model like you're talking about. Like, I'll give you just for instance, she we did a thing last year to promote DynamicsCon, and I asked a certain group of people, I said, hey, you know, give me a video on you know, 10 seconds. Uh if you've ever seen, I think it's the Webby Awards, you get five words to do your speech, and you have to you have brevity of speech. So you got five words when you get up there to give your speech. And so I did something similar. It's like, give me ten words in ten words, promote your session. You've only got ten words. And uh and hers, she's like, Yes, sorry I took me so long, but I was working on my model. You know, my model kicked this out, and it it I mean, you you know, it'd be hard pressed to tell a difference. It was 10 words, it was you know it was her face. Yeah, it was video and everything. So so yes, I I think so, Brad. But I tell you, I I've tried in my own personal, and I haven't fed it a year's worth, but it has it still can't capture my voice. If I say, hey, write an email like I would write it, it's not gonna know that for no reason at all I want to talk about, you know, pangolins. Okay, that came out of nowhere, Bobby. I don't know why you want to add that in, but it's not quite there yet. Like it can try to capture my pattern and cadence, but it can't capture just the the non-sequitur that my brain might go to, or yours or Bree's or or Chris's. So I think that's gonna be that would be the interesting part. Could it see enough to make that determination? Like, hey, it looks like Bobby takes a 180 every third paragraph, so I've got to do that now. And it's gotta come out of nowhere. Like, and that to me would be the hard thing to capture. Right, so that'd be the hard thing to capture. Like, and but but could it, I think possibility, yes. I think all that as it continues to then I don't know where we'll be.

SPEAKER_02: 41:23

When if that is to occur, I don't know where we will be because then it's are you talking to Bobby or are you talking to Bobby's you know, AI and uh little Bobby, Bobby Jr. Was it Howie Mandel that had that? Who had that show back then? Yeah, Bobby's World.

SPEAKER_00: 41:39

Yeah, I love that Bobby's World. You see me PTSD, by the way, because I am a junior, and so growing up in my family, I was my dad was Big Bobby and I was little Bobby, and I'm 5'2, so it didn't help my my confidence a lot, you know, growing up like hey, little Bobby. It's like ah, okay, you don't have to rub it in.

SPEAKER_02: 41:56

All right. It's it's funny. I don't know, Chris. Do you know who Howie Mandel is? Yes. Okay. Do you remember when he had hair?

SPEAKER_00: 42:04

Yes, there's photos of him with hair. Yeah. Because now he's like just he's been bald for so long. Uh you know, on the biggest thing.

SPEAKER_02: 42:11

Yeah, but it's that Bobby's world is funny how many people would remember that. But that's that's what we're at. See, the the past predicts the future in a sense. But um, see, now you have Bobby's world. Bobby's world. The new world. I'm interested in 2028. This is I I think we should challenge you. I'll I'm sure I'll speak with you before the end of the year, but maybe at the end of the year we'll have to see if we could have uh a Breeze World or a Bobby World.

SPEAKER_00: 42:34

I'll keep feeding more of my writings and you know and brain thoughts into AI and see if it can come up with something that's Bobby's world.

SPEAKER_02: 42:43

That would be interesting. Uh uh jump back again, ADHD. This is good. Um speaking. Now we have the regional uh and national meetings. And uh DynamicsCon, at this point, I know the speaker sessions have been uh closed, and you're currently reviewing those sessions for the presenters in May and uh for a wonderful time in Las Vegas. Uh is that why you're going to Vegas in February to check out the venue as well as Yep, you bet. Okay, that's what I kind of figured. So DynamicsCon uh National will be in Las Vegas in May. Uh I'm looking forward to heading back to Vegas. Uh you know, I've been a few times in my life, so I'll be uh looking back to head back to um to share uh some knowledge with um the participants, you know, and learn a lot from the users as well as the other uh partners that attend. Now, the call for speakers for some of these conferences. Now I'm gonna put you on the spot here. Uh they end, this one ended back December, the end of December, I believe, with 2025 was far as it slid into January, but still saw. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, it's it's uh I'm rough time frames. I know it's not easy um to do some of this stuff. I and I'm I let me tell you, I'm being sincere when I say. It I would not want to be on the other side of these things. I'm just going to tell you, I have a lot of respect for anybody that tries to plan an event. And that's why I said before at the my intro, if you're going to attend, sign up. If you're not going to attend, cancel. Because I can't imagine the coordination has to go on the other side. And then if somebody doesn't show up, it's unfortunate because you plan for that person to be there, and you may be somebody else who wanted to go didn't have the opportunity to attend because they didn't. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 44:28

That's the more that's the hardest part. It could be other people, especially an event that you do have a cap on, like convergence had a we had that we capped out. So there were was a waiting list that we were battling. So there's reality to that. If you're if you're signing up and being true to it.

SPEAKER_02: 44:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 44:43

And so I just uh again, there was a little A D D in this.

SPEAKER_02: 44:46

He breathes over there, like what are we talking about? Peep up, peep up. I can tell you right now, I just put Bobby and I together, we could have an entire conversation for a day, and I think we'd cover the world's worth of topics, so which is good. Um but how can you choose a topic to speak about for a conference where the world is changing so fast? That's the struggle that I have when I submit sessions sometimes is oh well this is now I have to pick on what I want to talk want to speak about in six months. Now you had some great had some great advice, Bobby, about you know, the real world situations, talk about the real world situations. Someone like myself and some others, we prefer to talk about the you know technical aspects, for example. And it's uh when it comes to business central, power platform, uh customer engagement, uh FNO, FNSCM, and you know, whatever they call it, tomorrow or today, just like um you know, they changed the name of that, just like they changed the logos and everything else. But it's it's challenging to come up with a topic that you don't know where something will be uh that you can speak about. And uh in my perspective, sometimes uh yes, every attendee is at a different spar different portion of their journey. Some are just starting out with one of those applications that we had mentioned, and others may be a little further along, and uh may want to see more of the current stuff. Uh, you know, speaking of Business Central, the wave comes out in April, conferences in May. You know, how do we know what we can talk about in December for May? Do you follow my question there?

SPEAKER_00: 46:29

100%. Yeah, no, we we struggle with that too. I mean, last say from for Chicago, for instance, once the our Denver Dynamics Con ended, Call for Speakers opened up in June of 2024 for Chicago in 2025. So you yeah, so that's I mean, and people might not know it, you're not paying attention, who cares at that point. Um, but people did start submitting sessions. To your other point, you know, still 40 to 50 percent wait till the final week of whatever the date is. You know, it's like we're we're like sweating bullets, like oh, we've only got 20 sessions submitted, and then it's like the last week, it's like you know, it's like I didn't know, I didn't know you know that's why you always have that little bit of buffer built in. So I think we're this year we didn't open sessions up until November. Um so we kept it closed for that purpose. We didn't want like I agree with you. Like, what kind of session are you submitting to me in June that has real any real value unless you're it's really core content. Like you're digging on some really core content that's never gonna change. Um that's that maybe you have that, but you're you those are I think far and few between. I think more likely you want to you I think we're edging, at least we are, trying it out this year to see what it looks like. People want to see an agenda. So you there is a cutoff where you've got to have some agenda in place for people to feel like, hey, this is a real event. I'm I keep going up to Dynamas Kana, like all I see is like, you know, one session and it's Bobby and I'm not going to that. Whatever. It's like you've got to have some agenda. So that's another driving factor. But I I think we're edging closer to a little bit more tension in this area, Brad, to answer your question. Like, let's start this process a little later and and end it a little later and get the sessions you want. And also, like for us, I push our committees to if you don't like a session, like if you're going through and you've we get a thousand sessions and you go through and like, man, we have we've got 65 BC slots, and I only find 50 quality sessions. I'm not gonna pick 15 just because they're there. I'm gonna go out and source those sessions right now and say, hey, Brad, you submitted the session, we don't really like the content. Can you update it? Or you submitted it, can you update it? So getting that kind of mentality going too, like, don't be afraid to ask for the session um that you don't have and or tweet the session that's been submitted. Like you submitted this in June. I know for a fact after three wave releases that this thing has changed a little bit. Are you planning to update this? So being more proactive and not just taking this static session you get. Um, what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02: 48:58

And I never thought of that to go back and maybe adjust the session. And I do understand the struggle of you know, I look at it, and again, these are conversations I've had with many uh uh people that speak and also uh with many attendees and uh members of the the planet.

SPEAKER_00: 49:17

Um I've lost my planet membership card, by the way. Do you know how I can get a new one?

SPEAKER_02: 49:23

Because you know, speak with me after, and I'll tell you how you can get the membership card, and we'll um in in Las Vegas we'll you know, we'll explain to everybody else how you have a planet membership card. We'll create a planet membership card booth where you can come up and you can take your picture and such. It's it is a challenge because also people want to go to these events, and it's also from the uh attendee point of view, well, these are the sessions that are there. What will I get out of it? Obviously, everyone goes to these things to get something out of it. They and everyone will have a different perspective of what they want to get out of it, but sometimes the determining factor of what I get out of it is going to be seeing exactly what's there versus just saying, oh, it's a Dynamics Con uh event. Historically they've been great, and uh these are the tracks that I wanted, but is there a chance that the track that I'm looking for may not be there because it's replaced with something else? Which it does happen, it's not the fault of anybody, but uh the world progresses, the planet progresses. Uh-huh. I'll share my my my planet card with you. So I I do appreciate that. And that's kind of what's been on my mind because we're just coming out of the uh speaker session submission period, and like you said, a lot of individuals wait to the end because of that. Let's push it as far as possible because I need to try to foresee what's going on.

SPEAKER_00: 50:44

And I'd say as a speaker, you know, I'd I would, you know, I would advise against just having I know it's tough. I know I worked at a partner and for a long time they had their canned content for the year that they submitted everywhere. And I'd say I would offer that, you know, and challenge folks to be a little bit more agile. Um and and and for organizations like us to be more agile. It's difficult, but but I think worth the value. And you can't obviously, you know, we we'll have you know hundreds of sessions. We can't let everybody rewrite their session at the at the very end, right? But be open to like, hey, I I know this is unusual, but we have they just announced a major thing in Microsoft, and uh, my session is gonna be affected by this. I've got to update this. Um, you know, let's get that up there and not just not just bring it, but bring bring it up forward. And so having just being open to that, I think, is important. So like we'll be open to that. If you if people are coming and that's another piece of advice, like keep that in mind. If you've got some changes you want to tweak, like, hey, I submitted this, but it's updated. Let's update it. Why wouldn't you? Let's let's you know if you're gonna be proactive, let's be proactive with you, not be locked into you know something else.

SPEAKER_05: 51:49

We're challenging our programming committee to like rise up to selecting that like premiering content. I know some members of our programming committee also attend other community events, so they're obviously gonna choose the content that they're interested in and the thing that their peers are and things that we aren't seeing copy and paste it all over again. So keeping that in mind when you're submitting a session that everyone wants to evolve through like the educational component. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 52:21

And if you speak, you get a planet card.

SPEAKER_00: 52:24

Uh guarantee we'll give you a planet card, you get one one year free membership to the planet.

SPEAKER_02: 52:32

We laugh, but this will be in the archives for a long time. And once we start this space travel, again, here's another little tangent. We should Chris, we'll have to start doing this like tangent count, and like oh there will be a time where we'll be able to have interplanetary travel, and you may have a planet card that says, Oh, right, you can go to Mars. Oh, you can go to Earth, or you can go to oh wait, maybe there's a new planet that's that's formed somehow from a rock structure or or some structure. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 53:07

Highly recording.

SPEAKER_02: 53:10

Look at that. We'll have a planet card, then you have a galaxy card, and uh see, we we laugh, but that's sci- that's true sci-fi fashion. In true sci-fi fashion, that stuff will happen. See, now I'm a little tongue-tied. Um, so no, I I I appreciate the the speaker. Um, you know, not that I want to talk uh you know so much on the speaker's point of view, but it's a good perspective. And again, it's something that uh has been on my mind.

SPEAKER_00: 53:33

It provides value, that's the value to the community. The attendees are gonna feel the value of that when it's everything we've talked about, whether it's the engagement early on or the speaker you know going that extra oomph, you know, nth degree to uh prepare, that all that's all valuable to the community at large.

SPEAKER_02: 53:48

Yeah. So when we we talked about you know what uh the users, the attendees, some of the benefits attending with the networking, you know, you know, seeing other individuals uh in their peers and such uh if uh presenting information to be able to see that, whether it's uh Microsoft employee, whether it's an ISV, whether it's uh a user-led uh speaking session, a partner-led speaking session. There's stuff that um there's valuable content that they can get out of it and also meet and network other individuals. What are do you have any other things or other tips or highlights that someone should focus on when they attend some of these uh events?

SPEAKER_00: 54:24

I do. I've got endless thoughts, but I'll let Brie go first because I might not stop talking.

SPEAKER_05: 54:28

So Um let me think more on it, Bobby.

SPEAKER_00: 54:33

Yep. My you know, my number one thing, I just was thinking about this a you know a couple of ticks ago. Um I've I've heard people you know just asking, like, hey, how did you how did you find this event? Uh it was okay, I didn't get a lot out of it. And then I mentally rewind to my interactions with that person and they're on their phone, they're not engaged in in in you know in in any of these sessions. They're you know, you know, so to me, you know, if I if I were if anybody asked, the number one thing is you're got you've paid money, likely. If not, you've you've traveled, you've done something to be at this event, be there intentionally to the extent you can. Obviously, things come up, you have a work emergency, whatever, but but you know, if you can, put your phone down, you know, pay attention. That was like my number one, you know, uh uh when I was at the partner, like, well, if we don't have a speaking session, how can we how can we meet people? It's like be a pay attention in sessions. When Brad says something and and he's like, hey, I'm looking to learn more on this, you can find Brad later and it's like, hey, I know something about this. Let me tell you what I know. You made a connection. And that but if you're not paying attention, you've lost that. And so you've got to be like on point at every minute of every second to make these, you know, and and grow this great, you know, ecosystem we have, because that's what again, that's the best part about it. That just everybody learning from each other. So being intentional is my number one that is with life.

SPEAKER_02: 55:57

I'm so happy you said that. It's it's in this age, and I've had the conversation thank you for saying that. It's almost like it was rehearsed because um Brad's note number three, say intentional, muscles. No, it's it's well be present because as you had mentioned, I see so many that go to these events that you find that the only thing they do is go out in the evening. And um there was another event, Chris will remember this. I I forget which conference is which. I mean, it will all be naive to say that there aren't plenty, or things that we talked about. So I went to one in Las Vegas, I think we went to one in Las Vegas last year, and I didn't go out at all. I was in bed every evening by my bedtime normally is is 9 30, 10 o'clock. I'm not gonna lie. Like everybody, I don't care what's going on. Like, we were just talking about the Super Bowl this morning, and I said, I'm not making it. Even though it's my team, I'm not making it because it starts at 6 30, it won't be over to near midnight. I'm going to bed.

SPEAKER_00: 56:52

That's why I love this the sports out here. Sports in in mountain time zone end at a at the normal human time.

SPEAKER_02: 56:59

Yeah. I'm just saying, why can't they start it at 1530 Eastern? The Pacific Coast can get it at noon.

SPEAKER_03: 57:05

Right.

SPEAKER_02: 57:06

We'll get it at 15:30, and then it'll be done by 7, 8 o'clock, and then we can all go to bed and just watch the brunch time party on the Pacific Coast and just roll it all the way through. Exactly. It's still reasonable. Totally. But that was I I did not go out at all. Um, and I was very purposeful on that, on my attendance of events. I didn't, I made sure I had something to do every minute of the day. And what I'm not trying to say like it was crazy every minute of the day. What I meant I was going to find a session. Even it was something that I didn't know about and I wanted to learn. And I said to everybody when I came back, that was the best conference that I had attended. Why? Because I was rested and alert. When I say I didn't go out, I wasn't out late. I did network afterwards. I talked with people at dinners, I talked to someone at the social hours. When I say out late, it's like I wasn't out until two or three o'clock in the morning. It was nothing past 10. I was up until 90 at you know, 21.30. I have to train Chris always laughs at me because I speak military time, so I have to like translate. But I up until 21.30, I was doing something. Like they had the social events and stuff, and I was networking, but I wasn't up late, so I was well rested. And I said that was the best event that I had gone because I picked up so much information because I did not focus elsewhere. I kind of really did the I'm here, I'm focusing on the present, and I had a good time. So uh your tip number one, be purposeful. Or tip you said my tip number three, but your tip number one, be purposeful. It's a huge is spot on. Like that right there, and you can take that to life. You're going to get, you know, whether it's a movie, whether it's a dinner, whether it's a conversation. Oh man, and see now you're gonna give me another uh ADHD moment. When you go out to dinner with me, you can't use your phone. Like I am, I tell people put it away. Like, unless it's relevant, like we did when we're gonna do it.

SPEAKER_03: 58:57

Unless it's with me, he takes his phone out.

SPEAKER_02: 59:02

I don't go to dinner with him.

SPEAKER_03: 59:04

When we're in Orlando, you're like, we're in the bar and you're like, I'm gonna get my phone. No, no, no. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding. We took selfies, of course.

SPEAKER_02: 59:13

Relevance to the conversation, like we shared stuff on the phone when we're there because we talk about things you want to look it up, but you want to show a picture. Fine, is everyone's included. But if I'm going to go out somewhere, I'm not going to just have a nice, like you're just missing on all this experience for me to sit here and go or talk to somebody that's not there. It drives me crazy.

SPEAKER_00: 59:32

I'm here. It's even better to actually put it away. Like if you have a purse or your pocket, leave it in the car. Um, because if you got it on the table, even if you turn it upside down, like I had to Google, you turn it upside down, it goes into you know, do not disturb mode, but it's still there. It's still kind of, yeah, you're still you're eyeballing it. So I'd I do the same. If I go out to coffee with somebody, I I just leave my phone somewhere. I don't want to have that thought of distraction. And even to the extent of like sometimes it's fun to struggle through. Like, remember that movie with that guy, and you're like, Yeah, what was that guy's name? I don't know. I think it started with an F, and it's fun to kind of struggle through the group with that, as opposed to just doing the easy, like, beep boop, oh, it was you know, this guy. It's like it's fun, it's more fun to kind of struggle through and remember it or not. And at the end of the day, it doesn't matter.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:13

Yeah. I'm taking that tip. I will do that, and I will sit on the struggle bus, then you get on the struggle bus and a couple things.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:22

Uh like it's literally like we've got to find directions, then maybe that's better.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:25

You can't you know that's how we played video games back then. You know, you struggle through games because you can't Google anything. Right. That's why we're good problem solvers.

SPEAKER_02: 1:00:35

What are you talking about? Bobby and I remember Pong. I remember going to buy Pong.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:39

Yeah, yeah, no, that's my 304600. I was I was struggling on my own with nobody even helping me. Like we couldn't. That's my point, though.

SPEAKER_04: 1:00:45

You couldn't help you couldn't pull up your phone and say, how do I get by these levels or whatever? No, you gotta you gotta go through the struggle, man. Hours upon hours trying to solve a pro a puzzle.

SPEAKER_00: 1:00:54

Yeah, if you play that first level of like Legend of Zelda was the first like long-term role-playing game I played, like linear and save the princess, yeah. It's hours and hours of notes and you know, fighting the whatever crystal wizard. I can't remember it all now. And you didn't have the save spots. No, no, no, save when you die, you die, you start over again.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:16

It took me four hours to get here. Now I have to do another four hours to get there. Yeah, oh now with being coming like those old people. But uh, do you have any other tips for someone who's attending? We're gonna reel it back. All right, I do my best to try to keep this bus on the road, but we're taking some detail. Hey, listen.

SPEAKER_00: 1:01:31

I would give Bree the opportunity. She's had some time to think now. Listen to you.

SPEAKER_02: 1:01:40

If you're not, I'm still loving this conversation.

SPEAKER_05: 1:01:43

So yeah, I think my tip would just be to like put yourself out there, especially, you know, we sit behind screens all day, and sometimes you're on camera, but like when you come to these conferences, it putting yourself out there could feel so unnatural. So just like part of what Bobby said too, be intentional about putting yourself out there. Go to the expo floor and make it your your goal to hit at least 10 booths. And if you didn't learn something new within those 10 booths, hit another 10 and keep going. And like, if for example, you're in a session and maybe in the last one you had a question, but you weren't brave enough to ask it, put yourself out there in the next one, you know. That's how you accomplish things, that's how you make it um a valuable experience. You know, us as the organizers will give the platform for you to do so, but also like go in with the intention of putting yourself out there. I think that's how you can get the most out of it.

SPEAKER_02: 1:02:44

That's a great tip. And uh to add to that, I add to everything just because I do what I do uh along those lines, and not you know what Brad says everyone should do uh is at the breaks and at lunch, for example. Uh not for an example, uh that's a fact. I will go sit with a table of people I don't know. Like when you know, we usually have a lunch served at these events. Um you know, conference food is very important to me because I like to eat. I understand it's a challenge to come up with good conference food because how can you feed a thousand people at the same time? Uh, I understand the challenges, and I hope other people sub just. And I have another peeve of mine that goes with this other as well, but we're gonna get back to that because you got me on this lunch thing. Um it even happened here the other day. I said it I find a table with people that I don't know. Chris and I talk about this, and we do this. You know, maybe he and I will sit together, but we'll sit with other people that we don't know, and I just come up with conversations. I've met people with other pro when I say people I don't know, I'm not saying people within, you know, I work with Business Central. I don't care what they do. I've sat and spoken with individuals that work with CE, Power Platform. And it is great just to s hear people's stories sometimes, you know, what they're doing, why they're there. And uh I've met some great people just by randomly sitting down at a table. And most people at these conferences are very friendly. And I've come across some individuals that they were alone uh because their organization was only sending one person. And even just sitting and talking to them, they've even reached out to me and said, Hey, it just changed my conference experience, just talking with somebody and learning, you know, go to these events, go to here, talk about this, or just providing an idea. So um it provides opportunity for you to learn to go, you know, just maybe sit and speak with somebody that you don't know. Uh they may be in the same position, you know, they're by themselves, or they don't know anybody that goes with it. So here's my other thing. If you're at an event, this is Uncle Brad talking now. Yes. If you're at an event, listen, Bobby Jr. You do know, right? I stick with nicknames. So Bree, you'll always be Bree the Bouncer. Bobby, you gotta be Bobby Jr. now. I'm sorry, I hope you don't get that. But you put it out there. So to me, it's uh once you just put the once you throw something to the universe, it's there.

SPEAKER_05: 1:05:20

If it goes on Dynamics Corner, it's her.

SPEAKER_02: 1:05:23

Well, no, there's a difference. Uh when people talk with me, I won't share a thing with anybody about anything. I don't care what it is unless I know it's public opinion. You can tell me you had a cookie for breakfast, and I will not tell anybody unless I know it's out there. But if you're on a recording and you know it's recording, to me, it's a little fair game. Yeah, 100% fair game. No, but when you go to these, like when you go places, it's just see, I'm on this value kick. I go through these phases. I really think you should charge for soft drinks at conferences. And you should charge for coffee at conferences, and people are gonna go, no, it's part of this and that. And I'm gonna tell you why. Or maybe you get coupons for it. Because if I'm someplace and I see this it's not just the conferences, I see this other places. They give away a free s soft drink. Maybe Coca-Cola, a Pepsi, I don't care what you're talking about. People pick it up, they'll take a couple sips, leave it on the table, put it down. And then you go to like pick clean up the table. It's like a half of a soda. And I'm like, why waste it? Like it's somebody paid for it somewhere. Whether a sponsor paid for it, whether somebody paid for it. But if you charge somebody for it, let me tell you, I paid at the airport the other day, I paid$3.90 for a cup of coffee. Let me tell you something.

SPEAKER_06: 1:06:35

I drank every drop.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06:38

Like I was like That's cheap for$3.90. I'm gonna tell you what I really did too is I went and I put a little water in it to make sure I could get that extra coffee. Okay? This right here, I have my coffee in here. It's at the very bottom, and I put some ice water in it. So I have a little ice water flavored coffee. No, it goes back in all seriousness. Be mindful of that because there is nothing free in this world. Somebody somewhere is paying for it. It's not just a conference. And again, it's it's a peeve of mine because uh value it. Like provide value. Free does not mean zero value, right? It's just like if somebody's doing something for you and they offer their time for free, they volunteer. It doesn't mean that that's not valuable because somebody didn't pay for it, somebody's paying for it. So that's my little PSA. If you pick a drink up, I love that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:24

Drink record, please record that as a as a as a PSA for DynamicsCon at some point. We'll we'll do it like old school PSA style. Um, you know, kind of you the more you know from NBC, like den den dun.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:37

Then I'll record all that stuff all day long for you because it's sometimes I think people don't think about that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:42

That just leave a soda run there and and I it drives me nuts because I would need these for later, you know, walk away with like hands mean to take it back in your room.

SPEAKER_02: 1:07:54

That drives me crazy. Because now I'm not going to get one. Because Bobby Jr. took six. And he doesn't need six and he drank half of them.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:03

And I drank all like I there's half like six half sodas like in a trail like like Hansel and Gretel, you could find me at the end of this. Yeah. Like just eat each individual soda, half half, half consumed, and me just at the end of it, just burping and you know, lying and money's like job at Doug.

SPEAKER_05: 1:08:20

Like we are everyone is very intentional about the things that are present at each of our conferences. From something as simple as a tablecloth. Like someone at Doug took time to like make that be there. So I'm so glad you brought that up.

SPEAKER_02: 1:08:36

Like, really, like appreciate I'm on the listen, I'm on this kick, and uh maybe it's it's uh I I'm realizing why people think old people the bitter. Um it's because uh maybe you just have experience, or maybe you just know that you don't have much time left, or you just have a lot of experience in reality and you just don't I don't want to say I don't care, but I I think voicing some of this stuff is important because some people may not be aware of it. And like you said, it's and it's not just the Doug. I know we're talking about Doug. Uh see you like this. I'm holding my comb so I started this.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:12

By the way, I'm already picturing this PSA. It's gonna be you and I, like Step uh Waldorf and Statler, the two Muppets from the Muppet Show, the two old guys, just talking about you know, not you people who don't drink their entire sodas and you know, just combing his beard or just combing our beard.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:28

Well, I'll as long as I have it. I only do this typically in the winter time. I always say I'm gonna grow it out Z Z Top style. Do you remember who ZZ Top is? Anybody? I know Bobby does.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:37

One of my first concerts, yeah, 1984.

SPEAKER_02: 1:09:39

I'm gonna do Z Z Top style is what I'm hoping, but again, we'll see how it goes. But I I'll tell you, I will record any PSA like that that you want. Uh no problem. You tell me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:09:49

You already learned that once I have something locked, it's gonna it will likely happen soon. I'll be talking to you at some point about this PSA and broke into one of those there's nothing wrong with common courtesy. I agree about the time she wore a mustache and played Mike Ditka. So you're uh I get serious and down when it when when the time comes.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:05

Eating the hairs as I'm trying to and again, that's it goes to me, it goes beyond you know the dynamics gone conferences. It's any event that you go to.

SPEAKER_00: 1:10:16

That's the point. This is this is just conference-centric, folks. You know, don't do this at any conference or ad. You know, this is something you can think about.

SPEAKER_02: 1:10:22

Yeah, because it's it's someone had had taken the time for it. Well, I could go on for hours talking with you both about this, and my mind is still uh raging. We'll have to have you both on again, uh, and then maybe we can include Madison. You know, Madison was the one that was nice to me. Um you have a nickname for her, is she Maddie the Nice, or is there something? No, no, no. She didn't warrant the nickname. Uh the only thing she did was harass me for slides, but that's okay. I I'll let that pass. That happens all the time. Um, but um no, that was good. But no, uh Bobby Jr. Breathe Bouncer. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. We really do appreciate it. I we'll we'll have to schedule something uh later on to have you both back on to follow, maybe after uh the national event in Las Vegas. So maybe we can even do something there.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11:12

I really want to do something live, so maybe we can uh I will keep a count if you if we do this, I'll keep count of how many uh un unconsumed sodas I find. We'll just have a tally, like just pictures and tally on like, you know, all let's do a let's do a data point on like maybe it'd be nice if it had it from last time so we could do like did you know did this did your PSA you know help or not, but we'll at least do some count there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:11:34

You keep that thought because once we're done recording, I'm going to type that note down and I'm going to put that on there because we will speak towards the end of the event. I I me again, depending on travel and such. That's when I say towards the end of the event, I can't say the last day because if you know travel arrangements um dictate that we don't have a lot of extra time, because I do want to make sure I attend the sessions and I get the most out of them. Um I do want to do that because that would be interesting to see. Is these are the and well, I'm gonna take pictures. Not of them all, but I'll take a couple of. Okay, I'm gonna walk around on the table if I see a soda. I'm gonna be like, okay.

SPEAKER_06: 1:12:08

Yeah, okay, we'll do that.

SPEAKER_00: 1:12:10

It's like Tom Hanks takes pictures of like socks or shoes, like like like in the wild, like he'll just take a picture on his Instagram of a sock. Or a shoe. I can't remember which one it is. Like somebody lost this one shoe. So that'll be you, just like this random soda, Mountain Dew, uh whatever it is. What happened to the wild? What happened to the exactly?

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:30

But I'll only do that if the bouncer promises to reserve Coke Cherry Zero sodas for me.

SPEAKER_06: 1:12:40

Alright, we're writing that down.

SPEAKER_02: 1:12:43

Okay. And we'll have a and I will let me tell you, there won't be a drop left in that can. If there's even like I'll make a sponsorship for it. Yeah, I uh I I rinse off the can get into the Howie Mandel germophobe that I am. Chris will tell you about that. But I'll wipe that can off. And if there's a little drop on the top of it when it's done, I'll even get it off the top. So I want to see this.

SPEAKER_00: 1:13:07

I know. We'll be going through all the aluminum cans at the end, looking up. Yep, this is a Brad. This is a Brad.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13:14

No, but uh and honestly, thank you for taking time to speak with us. Thank you for all that you do for the community. I know there's a lot that goes behind these events, and I know that a lot of individuals get a lot out of the events as well. Uh the attendees, we we had some jokes, we had some last, but there's a lot of seriousness in there. And I do encourage even more so in 2026, where in my opinion, we're becoming so separate and we're starting to become more isolated as individuals. I think going to these events, if anything, to get the human interaction, to share the stories and just have some of that um that contact is extremely important. And um, if anyone would like to learn more information about how to speak with you about any of these events, what goes on to these events, whether questions about attendees, speaking, sponsoring, or anything about it, what is the best way to get in contact with you, Bobby Jr.?

SPEAKER_00: 1:14:00

Uh it's at Bobby Jr. No, I'm just kidding. Um obviously uh LinkedIn is a really good spot. I I I keep tabs on LinkedIn pretty re religiously. You can message me. I have no I have no filters out there, so um love that. If you don't have my email, you can get me um on the Doug site. So dynamicsusergroup.com, you can find us there as well. Breathe the bouncer. How about you?

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:24

I may be hard to track down. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:27

Um, so you just watch out. She's uh wherever Bobby is, she'll be there with the shades and the jacket, trust me.

SPEAKER_05: 1:14:38

No, yeah, definitely LinkedIn for me too. Um, or if you want to talk sponsorships, we have a lot of good information on our websites in regards to like prospectuses and stuff. Um, always down to make friends. I'm a young professional looking to connect, so hit me up.

SPEAKER_02: 1:14:57

Great. Thank you both. We look forward to talking with you again soon. If I don't see you before Las Vegas, I'll definitely see you there. Thank you very much. Uh ciao, ciao.

SPEAKER_01: 1:15:08

Thank you, Chris, for your time for another episode of In the Dynamics Corner Chair. And thank you to our guests for participating.

SPEAKER_04: 1:15:16

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 well. You can find Brad at developerlife.com. That is D V L P R L I F E dot com. And you can interact with them via Twitter, D V L P R L I F E. You can also find me at mattalino.io, m-a-t-a-l-in-o.io, and my Twitter handle is Mattalino16. And see you can see those links down below in the show notes. Again, thank you everyone. Thank you, and take care.