QAI 5th Annual User Conference in Annapolis, Maryland

On May 21, 2010, Quality Associates, Inc. (QAI) and DocPoint Solutions, Inc. hosted another successful Users Conference attended by clients, partners, end-users and professionals from the electronic content management (ECM) and Microsoft SharePoint industries, as well as federal, state, and local government agencies, educational associations, and manufacturing and healthcare companies, to name a few.

“After receiving very positive feedback from past events, QAI chose to hold this year’s conference at the Marriott Waterfront Hotel in downtown Annapolis, due to its location in Maryland’s beautiful and historic state capital,” commented Lora Martin, marketing manager, QAI and DocPoint Solutions.

The day’s sessions and events were designed to advance attendees’ knowledge of the newest innovations in content management in a relaxed and educational environment. The day also provided ample opportunities for attendees to network with each other, knowledgeable staff from QAI and DocPoint, and strategic business solutions partners.

The day kicked off with the presentation “8 Things Affecting the Enterprise Content Management Landscape,” by Mark McGovern, manager, solutions at DocPoint Solutions. His presentation gave an insightful view into what business managers need to think about when looking at ECM systems, such as capturing web 2.0 content, hosting in the cloud, and running a virtualized ECM platform.

Next, Peggy Winton, vice president of the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), gave the keynote speech, “Collaboration and E2.0: The Future of Business?” Her presentation focused on the expectations and potential benefits of using social media in a business setting, as well as how an organization can maximize its IT investments for the social computing revolution. She also presented the results of a recent AIIM survey, which included several key business collaboration points about social media use. Notably, 58% of respondents agreed that “Social networking will make a dramatic change to business life in the next few years.”

Peggy Winton, VP AIIM Keynote Speaker

After these two presentations, QAI opened the floor to its sponsors and technology partners during a vendor fair. This fair gave attendees an opportunity to view the newest innovations from QAI and DocPoint’s partners and learn how these solutions could ease business processes at their companies. The 2010 User Conference was made possible through generous sponsorships from Platinum Sponsor Fujitsu and Gold Sponsors Kodak and Kofax, as well as Canon, PSIGEN Software Inc., ibml, A2iA, Atalasoft, AvePoint, KnowledgeLake, NSi, and ProStor Systems.

“QAI’s annual conference is a great opportunity for our company representatives to interact with some of our end users,” commented John Dickerson, Account Manager at Fujitsu. “Since we do not sell directly to the consumer, we rely on our valued partners, such as QAI and DocPoint, to distribute our products and increase our brand recognition. Events, such as these, give us the opportunity to

directly interact with our users and show them the newest and best that we have to offer.”

Lunch was served on the hotel’s patio, which overlooks the Chesapeake Bay. The meal included an assortment of seafood and pasta and was served to reggae entertainment from Orlando Phillips.

After attendees ate lunch and networked with the sponsors, Mike Morper, vice president of marketing, Notable Solutions LLC (NSi), gave the next presentation “Leveraging Existing Capital Assets (MFPs) to Drive a Business Process.” His presentation spotlighted ways to better utilize devices - such as a copy machine – that an organization may already have in the office to improve business processes and document workflow.

Next, Ralph Gammon, publisher of Document Imaging Report, mediated a technology panel. The panel attendees included Kim Nelson, executive director for eGovernment at Microsoft; Mark Mandel, chief records officer for DC Government; and George Patrick, senior government business development manager at Fujitsu. The panel covered questions regarding the current impact of digitized information, the future impact of new technologies such as cloud and mobile computing, and the advantages and disadvantages of distributed capture over traditional centralized scanning environments.

After, Greg Pisocky, business development for accessibility at Adobe Systems, Inc., gave the presentation, “Available is not Always Usable: The Role of Accessibility in Content Management and Document Capture.” The presentation highlighted the importance of content standards in today’s business and government environments, and the role PDFs play within them. Due to its flexibility, the PDF is supported across all systems and is an international (ISO) standard document, meaning it can be used and accessed anywhere. With the creation of the PDF/A, the debate over long-term archiving was solved, and now there is an accessible solution for long-term, electronic storage of documentation.

Tucker Thompson, owner of t2p.tv, kicked off the evening’s festivities with a motivational video of race sailing clips and highlights followed by a brief demonstration of the fundamentals of sailing.

Next, those who wished were invited to board the schooners Woodwind and Woodwind II for a quick sail around the bay. This tour gave attendees a chance to view some of Annapolis’ most impressive sights from another angle, and the good-natured captain even gave some of the passengers an opportunity to take the helm and steer the boat.

The day wrapped up with a happy hour that included drinks and hors d’oeuvres in the hotel’s Harbor View Room. This gave all attendees, staff, and sponsors a chance to relax, mingle, and enjoy the beautiful waterfront in a fun environment.

“This year’s event was designed to pull in the best minds in the content management industry for a day of networking, learning, and fun,” said Scott Swidersky, director, Information Systems Division, QAI, and president, DocPoint Solutions. “We would like to thank all of our speakers and attendees for a great event and for helping us reach our goal to create a highly educational and successful day. The event highlighted major developments involving the future of content management, and I feel that everyone went home with new business ideas for their organization.”

Interested in attending future QAI events? Please contact Lora Martin.