I Had the Time of My Life...at the 2018 UGM!
Published by Brooke Milligan on
This year was my first year attending the annual Ortho2 Users Group Meeting and it didn’t disappoint!
As the Multimedia Marketing Coordinator at Ortho2, I’ve spent a lot of time working on UGM email campaigns, posting on our social channels, and helping design various materials leading up to the event. It was exciting to see the hard work behind the scenes put into action.
I had heard many stories about the meeting from UGM veterans, and I was eager to experience the meeting for myself. Since returning home to Iowa, my brain is still rushing from all the excitement. For those of you who haven’t experienced a UGM yet, here are my top five reasons why you should consider going.
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The Attendees Our customers are seriously amazing! My role doesn’t allow me to interact with customers regularly, and I really enjoyed conversations with doctors and office staff during the meeting. It was also fun to see the interactions between customers. You truly can learn as much from each other as the presenters at this meeting. It was also great introducing Snapchat at this year’s UGM. Not only were we able to share daily photos and videos, but many attendees sent snaps to the Ortho2 Snapchat account as well. It was so exciting to see everyone’s favorite moments!
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The Party I’ve heard so many stories about UGM parties, and the Pirates in Paradise party was everything I had hoped for. First of all, I’ve always wanted to dress up as a pirate, so it was already a win for me! The UGM reception party is such a fun time to unwind with awesome decorations, great music for dancing, amazing prizes, and you can’t forget the costume contest. There were so many amazing group costumes; I honestly don’t know how the judges made their decision!
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Team Bonding A lot of our staff members have been with Ortho2 for many years, so as one of the relatively newer members, I’m still getting to know my coworkers. The UGM provided an amazing team bonding experience! I had the opportunity to talk and spend time with coworkers I don’t usually get to interact with on a daily basis. It’s so much easier to form a bond with staff during an event like this, and that goes for our attendees as well. It was such a great feeling to leave with deeper roots and stronger bonds with my coworkers!
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The Speakers We had such a great lineup of speakers this year! I was astounded at what I learned from popping in and out of classes each day. I can’t begin to imagine what our attendees take back with them when they experience such motivational and insightful classes. I’ve been fortunate to have the opportunity to work with many of our UGM presenters since several present in our Cutting Edge Webinars or write for us on our blog. After many phone conversations, it was so nice to put a face with a name!
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The Location Savannah is on my list of all-time favorite vacation spots. I was so thrilled I had some time on the day I arrived to tour around the historic city and visit a few of my favorite restaurants. And after just getting hit with an ice storm in Iowa, it was so wonderful to enjoy some sunshine and 80 degree weather. Typically, the UGM takes us to warmer weather in the dead of winter – you can’t beat that!
There are countless other moments I’d love to share, but you’d be reading for days! I’m excited my first UGM is in the books. If you haven’t attended a Users Group Meeting before, I highly encourage you to. You never know what you will take away from this experience!