PUGM 2022 - It's Great to be Back!

By Amy Oldham
October 13, 2022

Last week, we hosted the 24th Protector User Group Meeting (PUGM) in Nashville. While we always love gathering with customers, this year was especially wonderful to be back to business as usual, meeting in person! It was wonderful indeed to catch up with veteran attendees and welcome several newcomers to this annual fraud management educational event.

The 2022 edition of the meeting kicked off mid-day October 3 at the Music City Center. Equinox CEO and founder Byron Middendorf welcomed representatives from many different sectors of telecom and shared the conference’s opening remarks. Half of those present this year have previously attended one or more past user groups. They return year after year due to the event’s value and benefit to their fraud management initiatives. Of course, we were thrilled to have a large number of first-time attendees. One of our favorite aspects of PUGM is seeing the veteran attendees incorporate these new folks into the group.

As we do each year, we took a group photo. We also captured the event’s highlights and saved them in a photo gallery you can view.

Protector User Group Meeting 2022 - It's great to be back!

Byron officially kicked off the event with customer and employee introductions

David B and Bill M explained how Protector goes from a raw record to a violation

Christi was very happy to be back in person with the Protector peeps

Protector Support specialist Mitch presented a session on the latest Warehouse features

Many thanks to Jaime Zetterstrom and Stacy Graham for a phenonmenal 'Alphabet Soup' presentation!

We are grateful the Solarus team could participate this year

There was lots of great conversation during our time at Martin's

Ernest and Tom took part in the table shuffleboard competition

The rest of the Equinox Support team hung out with Mary for a bit

It was fabulous to have the RingCentral team attend this year's event

Chad, Cathy, and Ronnie were part of the great group who participated in PUGM 2022

PUGM veterans Stacy, Chris , Dana welcomed new folks to the Equinox family

It's thumbs up from most of the Protector Support team

Christi and Ronald took a selfie at the networking dinner

David W and Stacy teamed up against Chris W and Ernest for an epic dart challenge

Stacy and Chris organized a collective gift to Equinox in memory of Derek Drake

Equinox customers planted a tree in Derek's memory

Amy O and Renee carry on an annual tradition

The Equinox crew can't wait to see you again next year!

The PUGM lineup had many customer-requested sessions and crowd favorites from previous years as well as new topics and presenters. The Equinox team was well represented on the docket with multiple speakers from the sales, support, and development divisions of the company. They were honored and privileged to be listed on the agenda alongside industry experts and thought leaders from other companies who provided commentary and led sessions. Many thanks to Jaime Zetterstrom (SOMOS) and Stacy Graham (Sinch) for the enlightening ‘Alphabet Soup’ presentations. Based on the questions and discussion afterward, it’s clear everyone gleaned something new about RND (Reassigned Numbers Database), DNO (do not originate) tools and datasets, FCC orders, RMD (Robocall Mitigation Database), and KYC/T (know your customers/traffic) best practices. We are also grateful that Dana Lenarz, Ronald Sanchez, and Tom Winecki shared their insights during Tuesday afternoon’s panel.

After the education and training sessions, we headed out for a night at Martin’s Bar-B-Que Joint. Filled with lively conversation, delicious food, and competitive gaming, the networking dinner was a rousing success! The weather was perfect, so several folks headed to check out the Tootsie’s birthday bash on Broadway afterward.

We’re already hard at work crafting details for the 25th annual Protector User Group Meeting. We’ll send an official ‘Save the Date’ announcement in January for the fall 2023 event. In the meantime, we’d love to see you for the TeleLink User Group Meeting this spring (April 4-5, 2023).

About the Author

Amy Oldham is in Corporate Communications at Equinox Information Systems, where she creates and maintains the company’s technical documentation and all other customer-facing publications. Amy is also responsible for the company’s newsletter, email campaigns, press releases, and social media presence. When not writing, Amy enjoys spending time with her family, playing tennis, attending Dave Matthews Band concerts, and swimming.
To learn more about Equinox, its products, and staff, visit www.equinoxis.com or call (615) 612-1200.