Last week, we welcomed over 1,000 clients, partners, and staffing professionals to our annual user conference, CONNECT. Due to the ongoing challenges brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, Avionté held this year’s conference virtually for the second year in a row. The virtual format brings many unique benefits that you can’t get with an in-person event, such as:
Avionté CONNECT serves as an opportunity for to strengthen relationships between us, our customers, and our partners. It also allows us to educate the industry on our latest releases and offers a platform for customers to help drive the future of the product. This year’s conference was the 12th annual CONNECT.
Avionté hosted CONNECT 2021 on August 3-5. It consisted of over 30 hours of content, including 35 unique breakout sessions, main stage addresses from the Avionté CEO and product leadership, and virtual booths for live Q & A. This year’s conference was sponsored by nineteen Avionté integration partners who contributed breakout session content, offered virtual booths and activities to learn more about their product offerings, and helped give away hundreds of prizes and gift cards to attendees. With the help of our sponsors, we were able to host evening entertainment events, such as a a live-streamed dueling pianos show and an interactive mentalist magic show to make the conference fun and memorable. This was a record-breaking year for sponsorship, and we were thrilled to have partners be part of the fun!
CONNECT 2021 kicked off with an address from Rishabh on “The Future of Staffing.” This session was informative and encouraging. Rishabh discussed how the industry is rapidly changing because of gig work, emerging technologies, and the talent shortage. However, with rapid change and struggle comes opportunity for growth and innovation. Rishabh instilled confidence that Avionté will partner with clients to ensure they are prepared to succeed in the current and future state of the industry.
After Rishabh’s presentation, our keynote speaker, Judson Laipply brought down the house! Judson’s session centered around the idea of needing to evolve in order to succeed. He delivered his message with energy, humor and dancing! Judson’s session echoed messages from Rishabh’s presentation: You can’t be all things to all people, so when you face adversity in your business or life, you need to adapt and lead the evolution. The energy and feedback from Judson’s session was incredible. He kept attendees laughing and entertained while also tying his message to the staffing industry.
Avionté VP of Partnerships, Scott Poeschl, also joined the main stage to discuss Avionté+, Avionté’s enhanced partner program that allows you to add power to your software platform.
The afternoon consisted of various helpful breakout sessions. Some of the most popular sessions of the day were “Back Office Best Practices” and “Business Intelligence: Actionable Data for Informed Decisions.”
We ended day one with a Dueling Pianos show sponsored by integration partner, WorkN. This event was an attendee favorite in 2020, so we decided to bring them back for another year! Clients, staff, and partners were able to log in to the live stream show, performed at Bobby McKey’s Piano Bar in Maryland, and request songs via chat. This performance had all of our attendees dancing at home to oldies, 90’s pop hits, and even “(B)old Town Road!” Listen for yourself:
Day two of Avionté CONNECT began with an insightful presentation on Avionté products and services by Avionté COO, Sushma Tripathi.
Wednesday’s schedule was packed with valuable breakout sessions hosted by Avionté staff, integration partners, and industry experts. Attendees flocked to sessions focused on recruiting, such as “Advanced Recruiting Strategies for 2021” and “Transforming the Recruiting Function.” As a reminder, you can log back in to the event even after it has ended to view the recordings!
CONNECT also offered many ways to engage with Avionté integration partners. Each sponsor offered a virtual booth where attendees could log in, view demos of their product, and ask questions. Many partners also offered engaging and informative breakout sessions about their product’s benefits to the staffing and recruiting industry.
We ended day two with an interactive night of magic, mentalism, and entertainment with the Foodie Magician. This show was sponsored by integration partner, Sense. The Foodie Magician wowed attendees with his ability to make connections, keep them laughing, and know information he shouldn’t know about people he just met. Feel free to watch the recording here:
The final day of CONNECT 2021 started with an insightful panel on “How Cultural Shifts are Affecting the Talent Funnel.” This highly-attended main stage session proved to be one of the most popular sessions of the conference.
We also invited attendees to one last round of virtual Q&A stations with Avionté teams and integration partners on day three. There were a number of popular breakout sessions such as “Redesigning Staffing Workflows to Optimize New Technology” and “The Beginning of the 117th Congress & Biden Administration,” hosted by guest speakers.
The conference closed with a review of the week and prize giveaway, hosted by Rachel Graff. Avionté gave away awesome prizes to thirteen lucky attendees, including an Apple Watch, Ring video doorbell, Yeti cooler, and more! Also, Avionté partnered with Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG). JAG’s mission is to help young people of great promise succeed both in school and on-the-job, leading to a productive and rewarding career. For every approved review Avionté received on G2 during the conference, a $60 donation was made to JAG. Reviewers also received a $25 Amazon gift card for their review.
We are so thankful to our clients and partners for their participation, ideas, and feedback. Our CONNECT 2021 staffing industry conference was one for the books. We couldn’t do it without our users and industry partners. Many attendees and speakers expressed their desires to gather together again in St. Paul for the conference as normal, and we fully intend to bring back CONNECT live in 2022!
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