With less than a month until MicroD’s first user conference, DRIVE Conference 2020, excitement is building and the MicroD team is hard at work to bring you to this jam-packed event in March. Set in our backyard of Charlotte, NC, the DRIVE Conference is filled with exciting new products to launch, valuable insight to the retail channel’s growing success online, critical strategies to build your brand and expand your digital footprint, and resources to make your partnership with MicroD stronger and more powerful than ever.
And our team is excited to welcome you, our vast network of home furnishings retailers and manufacturers, to this user conference.
Inaugural User Conference for MicroD Clients
Because this is MicroD’s first user conference, it is important that the content fulfills the questions and gaps you’ve told us about in your business. Many of you asked for help with understanding the world of eCommerce while others wanted a conference to train your team on the MicroD products so that they could be better in-store advocates for your online store.
Manufacturers who partner with MicroD wanted the opportunity to see the roadmap for visualization and customization on the MicroD solutions suite while connecting with the hundreds of retailers who also use our network to share the brands’ catalogs online. We’re happy to say that this first conference is here to deliver. And we’ve got more in store for you and your team this March 17-19.
What to Expect: Day One
This conference kicks off on Tuesday afternoon, March 17, with a message from the MicroD leadership team. We’ll set the stage for the next two days with a look at the state of our home furnishings industry. We’re going to dive into how retail is changing and how MicroD is strategizing with the retailers and manufacturers about DRIVING growth on a stronger foundation.
We’ll also be hosting a networking cocktail reception, sponsored by Furniture First Buying Group, at the event venue, Embassy Suites by Hilton Charlotte Concord Golf Resort & Spa. Our retailers and manufacturers will pour over new strategies during the networking reception and our Kickoff Dinner, sponsored by Flexsteel Industries.
And because we’re coming together on St. Patrick’s Day, MicroD is hosting a special Trivia Night at Cabarrus Brewing Company, a local sponsor for drinks and entertainment on your first night of the conference.
What to Expect: Content
The next two days of our conference are packed with educational sessions, interactive learning workshops, and two very powerful keynote and special addresses. Google experts Alex Chanson and Lacie Sandstrom, combined decades of experience with retail and a special focus in home furnishings, will kick off our second day of the conference with a keynote address discussing the Assistive Experiences for the Changing Consumer. Retailers and manufacturers alike will hear about the new consumer experience and learn about competitors they never had on their radar.
Our team is full of in-house experts who are certified in many fields and bring their own expertise to the sessions and workshops we’re providing on day two and day three of the DRIVE Conference. A complete conference agenda including the list of these sessions is now available.
It showcases a full list of seminars and workshops, carefully-curated to help MicroD users of all sizes and budgets succeed. From technical topics, such as product data optimization, navigating the new eCommerce landscape, in-store visualization tools, and advanced paid advertising, to business strategy sessions to help guide success in 2020 and beyond, there are sessions and interactive workshops for every role and business type at DRIVE Conference 2020.
Get access to more information at our DRIVE Conference page.
What to Expect: Special Events
After serving the home furnishings industry for over 25 years, we’ve got more than our share of insights and expertise to highlight during this conference.
We are also going to take this time together with our users to showcase those among our network who lead the industry and community to be better.
MicroD’s Awards Dinner and celebration will honor 5 companies with awards for innovation, service, impact, and partnership. Winners will be announced during the Awards Ceremony and dinner with live entertainment will follow.
To close our conference on the last day of the event, FitforCommerce, a well-known and highly sought leader of insight to the industry, will teach us through Rich Siefert, how to take a Crawl, Walk, Run approach to Digital Commerce.
We’ll explore these details and more through our final day of workshops in the morning and come together to put together an action plan for success. Our goal is for every retailer and manufacturer to leave the DRIVE Conference with new vigor and actionable plan to bring home and start implementing right away. We’ll hear from a few of those retailers and manufacturers in our live User Panel on the last day of the conference.
For those who want more time to network and spend one on one time with the MicroD team, we will be hosting an Open House at MicroD headquarters following the conference from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm.
Why Should You Register?
This conference is unlike any you’ve seen in our industry. Users will have unprecedented access to their retailers or their manufacturers who partner through MicroD to bridge the gap between our companies and the consumer. MicroD experts will be on-site during the conference to answer any questions you have about the MicroD technology, get help with some of the new strategies outlined in the sessions, and so much more. You’ll find your time and your team’s time well worth the trip.
The DRIVE Conference has also attracted industry-leading sponsors to help make this unique event possible. Furniture First Buying Group, DispatchTrack, Nourison, Flexsteel Industries, Hooker Furniture, and Best Home Furnishings are among the first to sponsor MicroD’s inaugural users conference.
We’re looking forward to seeing you March 17-19, 2020 in Charlotte, NC for this unforgettable experience!
Click here to register you and your team or review more information on our website at www.microdinc.com/drive