That’s a Wrap: ECI’s 2022 Connect Conference

It’s hard to believe that our 2022 Connect User Conference has come and gone already. It was an amazing three days where customers, ECI team members, and vendors came together to strengthen how we all do business.

For those that were able to join us, thank you for being there. We had a great time connecting and sharing industry insights with you all and look forward to the next time we will meet.

For those who were unable to join, here is what you missed:

A Keynote That Left Us Feeling that Life is Good®

Bert Jacobs, Chief Executive Optimist of the lifestyle brand, Life is Good®, spoke about his upbringing and how those challenges led him to create an apparel brand with a mission to “spread the power of optimism”. He took us back to 2020, a year many of us wish to forget, and talked about how he almost filed for bankruptcy since 50% of their sales were from wholesale but instead they analyzed their business and adjusted to ensure 2020 was the best year in the history of their business.

One piece of advice that Bert left us with is to never say the words “have to” again. A simple concept, sure, but he explains that not everyone can read nutritional labels at the grocery store or has the ability to do laundry. When you think of it this way, it makes it easy to replace those words with “I get to…”.

A Welcome Event that Got People Connecting (and Competing)

After our keynote sessions wrapped up, the doors opened, and we were welcomed into the “Colorful Colorado” networking event. With seemingly endless tables of delicious foods and drinks, everyone was sure to find something they liked. And if it wasn’t the main courses that drew them in, it had to be the s’more station!

It seemed that every ten minutes there was a loud cheer on top of the live band coming from highly competitive games of cornhole and jumbo Jenga from the back of the room. It was the perfect way to kick off the week’s events and connect…without the business talk.

An Expo Hall and Tech Lab Where Business Got Done

The Expo Hall was always bustling with vendors and customers exploring opportunities to improve. From payment processing and supply chain management to analytics shipping and tax support, our vendors were always around to help customers strengthen their business operations.

Shout out to all our awesome sponsors! Click here to see all the sponsors who joined us this year.

If they weren’t strolling the expo floor, our customers were taking advantage of our Tech Lab. This year, we doubled the size of our Tech Lab, and seats were constantly filled with customers getting hands-on training from our product experts. This is a valuable opportunity for users to strategize with our team and ensure they are getting the most out of their software.

A Celebration for Some Standout Customers

This was an exciting event and year for us because we not only had the chance to announce this year’s Everyday Hero, but also our Customer Excellence winner.

• Our Everyday Hero award is an opportunity for us to celebrate the incredible things that our customers are doing within their communities. Each year, three customers are selected by a panel of ECI judges, and it is always tough to narrow it down to just three. Our customers are doing some awesome and inspiring work! Please join us in congratulating this year’s winners and runner-ups: Forough Hosseini & Nellie Lupoli (ICI Homes), Chris Shee (MasterCraft Builder Group), and Jeff Cardwell (Cardwell Do it Best Center). Click here to learn more about each of their incredible stories.
• Our Customer Excellence Award comes around every other year to celebrate customers who use our software to solve critical problems and fuel growth. This year, we are excited to congratulate TK Constructors, a midwestern builder that has been using our MarkSystems software since 2017. Volatile material costs caused them to revamp how they were operating which lead to a 5% increase in gross profit margin and an extra $13,000 profit per house despite the rising construction costs. They also reduced the number of variance POs by 1.3 million, saving their team an incredible amount of time and potential errors. Read their full story.

While these are just a few of the highlights of our Connect event, this video might do a better job of bringing it all together.

We have been waiting to host this event for four, long years so we are so happy that our customers and team members found it to be so valuable. Thankfully, we will not have to wait four more years for the next conference. We are hosting the Connect User Conference again in 2024 at the Gaylord Texan in Grapevine, TX from November 11-13. Will we be seeing you there?