European User Group Gathers in The City of Spires
The annual European Advantage Users Group (EAUG) met October 11-13 at Aller Media’s stunning building that rests on Copenhagen Harbor. Over 40 attendees from a wide variety of AdvantageCS clients converged in Copenhagen to discuss all things Advantage. The goal of this annual meeting is to share AdvantageCS news and product direction, provide an opportunity for our clients to connect, and to listen to our clients’ platform needs and future directions. The event features presentations from AdvantageCS staff, client discussions, and networking activities (e.g., dinner!).
This year, we were fortunate enough to organize a smaller session prior to the main conference--a Management Roundtable session, that began on October 11. In this session, executives and leaders from our clients led discussions with a focus on future business plans and current challenges. It is an incredible opportunity to listen to our clients and to facilitate a discussion amongst the various client leadership to discover commonalities and solutions. The session was incredibly productive with important learnings about where our clients are headed and what we can do to better serve them.
The main event started in the afternoon on October 12. The first day consisted of three sessions.
- Philippe van Mastrigt, Director of European Operations for AdvantageCS, kicked off the event with his Publishing Industry Trends. His incredibly in-depth presentation provided a review of the global subscription market with a focus on publishing sourced from over 300 news articles (and his own industry knowledge!). He drew a thread through the varying markets outlining uneven market performance with a challenging and uncertain future.
- Next Dan Heffernan, Vice President, and Chief Product Manager for AdvantageCS, presented his AdvantageCS News, Strategy, and Direction discussion. The focus here was on general company news, new client signings, and recently completed major projects. Dan also provided an overview of the company strategy in terms of market penetration and refocused R&D directions.
- The day wrapped up with a session called Clients Ask Clients where clients solicit feedback from the group on Advantage-related topics (e.g., How are you handling the increased pressure for customer data privacy?). As always, this resulted in engaging dialog on several topics with new connections made and new follow-up discussion scheduled.
And after a long day, there was no better way to unwind than a dinner with our closest 40 friends!
The third, and final, day consisted of three additional presentations.
- Matt Varblow, Vice President of Engineering at AdvantageCS, started the day with his AdvantageCS Technology Update. He outlined important work we have been doing to improve performance and reduce infrastructure costs. Matt also discussed our ongoing strategy as an open system and dedication to security.
- The last AdvantageCS presentation was given by John Sheehy, Chief Solutions Architect, with his Product News & Highlights presentation. He focused on our R&D strategy, providing insights into our development workflow, and providing overviews on important features released this year.
- Finally, we were excited to have Julian Thorn, COO at Sub(x), present his company to the group. Sub(x) provides a platform for automated AI-driven revenue optimization for digital subscriptions. His presentation focused on how classic marketing strategies have evolved and have largely stagnated even with the advent of AI technologies. Julian’s impressive case studies and discussion of Sub(x)’s capabilities make it clear that the next evolution of marketing is ready to supersede classic marketing techniques.
Per tradition, after the final presentation, we organized a group photo of the amazing group of people and clients. And… that’s it, folks!
With another successful EAUG in the books, we hope to see you all again next year!
