SKY Unite 24 Recap

Recapping SKY Unite 24

The second week of September 2024, users of Agvance and Energy Force came together in Indianapolis for the 16^th SSI customer conference, SKY Unite 24: Growing Together. This year, SSI hosted a record-breaking number of SSI conference attendees.

Lori Potter, SSI National Sales Manager greeted our guests by highlighting this achievement, “Since the day we opened registration, it’s been a record-breaking year, and the final numbers are no different. In 2022, we had a total of 480 attendees and 340 were customers. This year, another new record has been set with 415 customers alone, along with 140 members of our staff, and 25 sponsors. That’s a total of 580 attendees, 100 more than 2 years ago so thank you for being here and for being part of our family!”

SKY Unite 24 opened Tuesday morning with SSI President, Pam Rincker and the Growing Together opening address saying, “What a difference a few years can make. It is amazing how much changes in just a few short years. Here at SSI, we continue to grow our product offerings and add new customers to the community. We are adding staff to meet the needs of you, our customers! Simultaneously, you are also growing!” SSI hosts a conference over multiple days providing opportunities for Agvance and Energy Force users to network, collaborate, and participate in roundtable discussions. Face to face interaction with other users of SSI software continues to be the most valued aspect of our conferences.

In addition to fostering communication, SSI strives to provide each attendee with the knowledge to expand and streamline businesses with best practices and overviews of Agvance and Energy Force applications and capabilities. SKY Unite 24 included a highly anticipated and attended session, “SKY 201” consisting of a panel of experienced Agvance SKY users that shared their success stories of driving the adoption of SKY at their companies. Another exciting session, “Accounting Everyday” focused on learning about managing product requests across locations, managing profit margins for specific products, and handling partial vendor prepay. In total, SKY Unite 24 consisted of 27 breakout sessions, 4 general sessions, and over 11 hours of instructional time.

Along with the welcoming general session, the second day of SKY Unite 24 began with, The Product Roadmap”, which shared the online product roadmap and discussed upcoming significant additions and enhancements to the ever-evolving world of SSI products. Then, our conference was joined by Rob Sharkey for his “Sharks Don’t Swim Backwards” keynote presentation. Rob Sharkey is best known for his Shark Farmer Podcast and did not disappoint the audience with his captivating speech that kept listeners on the edge of their seats for more.

Coming into SKY Unite 24, the hot topic on the minds of people both inside and outside of agriculture seemed to be artificial intelligence. What is it? What can it really do? And most importantly, how far will it go? Amazon Web Services, AWS, the Platinum sponsor of SKY Unite 24 addressed this buzz; by having Elizabeth Fastiggi, Global Head of Business Development of Agriculture speak about the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on the agricultural industry during their sponsored lunch.

SKY Unite 24, like all previous SSI conferences, is much more than just an educational opportunity. The SSI community, customers, staff, and sponsorship partners alike are family. The theme of growing together while learning and uniting customers from all over North America to gain expertise from each other seems incredibly fitting.

“To effectively problem solve, you need a well-defined story with enough details to draw the picture. It takes a clear understanding of the problem along with information which will ensure you are addressing the root cause, not just the symptoms. All this together allows us to brainstorm and evaluate options which point towards the solution,” said Lynda Pemberton, Vice President of Product Management.

SKY Unite 24 attendees, please reach out to marketing@agvance.com if you would like to receive a certificate of proof for your training. Additionally, if you attended SKY Unite 24, please complete the general survey you should have received in your email or you can complete the survey here. We love to hear your feedback, and it will help us as we begin planning our next conference.