Our next meeting is set for Wednesday, March 4 from 11 AM - 2 PM.  Astadia has graciously agreed to have one of their Salesforce.com certified consultants teach a Mini-Admin Training course.  They will also be providing lunch.  In addition, we will have Birds of a Feather groups to discuss any questions or issues you have.  The location has not been set yet.  Please let me know if you would be willing and able to host.  It would entail having a room that could accomodate at least 25-30 people, a place to serve lunch, and a computer/projector that can connect to the internet.  Also, everyone needs RSVP to me directly so we can plan for lunch, joshv@fostergrp.com.  I will have a followup blog post when the location is set.  The rough schedule is listed below.  Don't forget to invite your co-workers as there will be value for all.

Agenda

• Network/Get Lunch/Opening Comments
• Break out into Birds of a Feather groups(Sales, Support, Marketing, Admin/Development, etc.)
• Discuss lessons learned from breakouts
• Free Admin Training and QA provided by a Certified Consultant from Astadia (Admin need to know items, Spring '09 Highlights, etc.)
• Plan for next meeting

Josh Van Heukelom (joshv@fostergrp.com)

We had a great meeting today.  Thanks for Relationship Marketing for hosting and to Salesforce.com for the food.  We missed a few of you due to weather and last minute scheduling conflicts, hope to see you next time.  There was a good discussion around people's questions and I think everyone walked away with new ideas and insights.  One item discussed was a free tool from Informatica that allows you to manipulate Salesforce data outside of the system. We will definitely build in time for open discussion into every meeting.  Brian Connell also gave a informative demo on how Astadia uses Salesforce internally.  Brian offered to do a mini admin training at our next meeting so we will work out the details on that.

I am thinking of having the next meeting the first or second week of March.  Specifically, that would make it March 4 or 11 over lunch.  What I need to know is if that will work for the majority of people.  Also, if you are able to host the meeting please let me know.  I have a tentative schedule below of what the meeting could look like. Please email me (joshv@fostergrp.com) if you are available on one or both of these dates and indicate as such.  Look forward to the next meeting and meeting more of you.

March Meeting Schedule:

Network and Lunch

Demo of Spring 09 Features/Mini Admin Training

Open Discussion (Potential to break out into functional groups, Sales, Marketing, Admin, etc.)

Josh Van Heukelom

Our next meeting is set for Wednesday, January 14 from 11 AM to 1:30 PM.  Lunch from Jason's Deli will be provided.  Relationship Marketing has graciously agreed to host the meeting.  We are going to focus heavily on learning from each other this meeting.  A bulk of the time will be spent in "birds of a feather" breakout groups.  Please remember to bring along your co-workers as we will have groups for end users as well as technical users.  If you decide to bring them along please have them register for the group on the left side of this page.  Doing this will be add them to the communication list for the group.  In addition to the breakouts, Brian Connell from Astadia has agreed to demo Astadia's internal Salesforce implementation.  It has been developed over the past 8 years and has a lot of examples of what is possible within the Salesforce platform.  Please come prepared to ask questions of your peers and ready to share what you have done in your system.  RSVP to joshv@fostergrp.com by Monday, January 12th at 5:00 PM so we know how much food to order.  Also, when RSVPing please indicate what breakout you will most likely attend or list a breakout that you think should be added.  I hope to see everyone there.  Thanks.

11:00 - 11:30 Arrive, Get Lunch, Network, Intro, Relationship Marketing

11:30 - 12:30 "Birds of a feather" breakouts (Sales, Marketing, Basic Admin, Advanced Admin, Others as attendees dictate?)

12:30 - 12:45 Report back findings from Birds of a feather groups to whole group

12:45 - 1:15 Brian Connell demo

1:15 - 1:30 Wrap up and Networking

Directions to Relationship Marketing:

Off of I-80 take the Douglas Street exit.  Travel east on Douglas until you reach the stoplight at 109^th Street.  Turn left (north) on to 109^th Street.  Go approximately 3 blocks north on 109^th.  On the left there will be a pond, after the pond turn left into the Aurora Business Park.  Take the first left at building 13 (green triangle on the corner of our building).  Our office is the first door facing the pond.

Relationship Marketing, Inc.

11122 Aurora Ave

Des Moines, IA 50322

515.276.5900

Josh Van Heukelom (joshv@fostergrp.com)