Home / Our News & Events / Blogs / TUGM 2022: History in the Making...
Amy Oldham
April 20, 2022
Our customers are THE BEST, and we love getting together with them in Nashville! We recently had the pleasure of doing just that in person for the 2022 TeleLink User Group Meeting (TUGM). This meeting was one for the record books indeed!
After a hiatus, Equinox proudly reintroduced the TeleLink User Group Meeting in 2018. Not only was that the first time we’d held the conference in a few years, but it was also the first time we hosted it at beautiful Music City Center. It was such a success that we immediately reinstated it as an annual event and saw significant attendance growth at the 2019 event. Excitement grew as we looked ahead to the 2020 event...little did we know that we’d be forced to take another hiatus of sorts due to global lockdowns and travel bans. In fact, we had to transition to an online event less than 3 weeks before the scheduled 2020 event, after many had already registered, secured lodging, and made travel plans.
Fast forward to 2022…it’s necessary to book the meeting space months in advance, so we’d done that, but we still weren’t sure if we would be able to host the event in person. Waning numbers and new local regulations renewed our hope for an in-person conference. So, as we prepared, company founder and CEO Byron Middendorf summed it up best by writing: “We have lowered the bar of “connection” so far that it is hard to remember what it’s like to have a discussion without an agenda or talk to someone without a meeting invite. It took a gargantuan effort to “connect” us remotely. It will take determination and unwavering purpose to bring us back together.” After being tethered by technology for so long, the user group would indeed be a giant step in bringing us back together!
Pure joy adequately conveys the emotion we felt as we welcomed the first delegate to the 2022 TUGM on Tuesday, April 12. Like previous TUGMs, the conference included educational sessions, use case examples, and training to illustrate the full revenue benefits of TeleLink. More importantly though, this year’s gathering gave us an opportunity to sit around the table together and talk about our children, hobbies, vacations… to laugh, to catch up where we left off, and to mourn who and what we lost during the pandemic. These conversations and shared emotions allowed us to forge new relationships and strengthen existing bonds. It also catalyzed innovative discussions. Best of all was seeing smiles and interacting face to face.
Aside from the daily sessions, we hosted our traditional networking dinner on Tuesday evening. This year’s outing took us to the rooftop of the Nashville Underground! The gorgeous weather made a wonderful backdrop for a magical evening of conversation, competition (ask Byron who won the corn hole tournament), and networking.
As has become tradition, we kicked things off with an introductory TeleLink webinar in preparation for the meeting in Nashville. If you missed it or need to share it with your teammates, catch the recording of the March 29 'TeleLink 101' training at: www.equinoxis.com/login.php. Look under the TeleLink Training Videos heading. On that same website, you may see all the newest features in What’s New in TeleLink 2022.PDF under the TeleLink Documentation heading. As always, if you need help, please:
While we are super excited to have resumed live user group meetings, we recognize unusual circumstances of the past two years prevented some folks from coming to Nashville. As a result, we are offering a special online recap. We invite you to join us Tuesday, May 3, 2022, at 1:00 PM (Central) as David West and Christi Vanoye review the event's highlights.
This 45-minute webinar provides a review of the newest TeleLink features, includes a preview of TeleLink 8, and gives you the opportunity to add requests to the development wish list. We encourage any TeleLink user, administrator, or owner who was not able to attend TUGM in Nashville on April 12-13 to join this meeting. Registration for the 'TeleLink User Group Meeting 2022 Recap' is now open**1.
Every user group is unique and memorable; however, the 2022 TUGM has a very distinct honor of being the return of face-to-face gatherings with customers. We appreciate each customer and employee who participated in this truly special event. We can’t wait to see you at the next one!
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.
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1 **This event requires preregistration and is limited to current Equinox customers only.
