I went to my first conference with Klue. Here’s what happened.

I’m writing this at an airport bar with an overpriced burger in one hand, and a bastardized version of a Caesar in the other.

You know what that means?

A successful end to my first ever in-person conference with Klue.

And probably the best in-person conference I’ve been to with Klue.

Why was it so awesome you ask? Here’s everything that happened. 

Well, at least the stuff that I can share anyways.

Klue knows a lot of smart people

“Adam come meet Pierre, he’s a compete guru,” said Jason on Tuesday morning as he brought Pierre Hiller, Head of CI at Veeam Softwares, towards our booth at Intellicon.

Better yet, come have Pierre on the podcast. Share his expertise with the rest of the compete world.

So, that’s what Pierre did. And that’s what we did.

All in all, 15 Competitive professionals joined us at our booth for a live recording of the podcast covering everything under the sun, including:

• The tactical, operational, and strategic approach Dustin and Randy at Datto are taking on with their compete program, including a cool approach to partnering with product teams.
• Lisa Goldberg from Ellucian sharing how she presented to leadership to justify a compete program on her first-ever day on the job.
• Matt Tyrer from Commvault’s uncanny Batman impersonation.
• And what Dan Hamilton, VP of CI at Salesforce thinks compete pros need to stop f***ing doing.

(plus some after hours episodes amongst the Klue Crew that’ll never see the light of day.)

Having a podcast at our booth and interviewing the best in competitive enablement was 100% definitely NOT my idea — thank you for the best suggestion ever, Clara — but it ended up being a microcosm of what made Intellicon great.

People talking and connecting with one another in person. 

Sometimes talking about how to elevate the strategic importance of competitive enablement. Sometimes commiserating over the local basketball team’s heartbreaking loss. Sorry for bringing that up again, Alex.

Getting to hang out, and learn from, smart people is pretty awesome. Highly recommend.

Klue has a lot of cool people

I knew we were in for a weekend when Lauren on our team thought it was a bright idea to order a garden salad from a British Pub that prided itself on having no healthy food.

Or when Jason Oakley shattered the U.S. perception of the quiet and polite Canadian with his celebrations during the Raptors epic comeback at the Brazilian steakhouse.

Or when Mel was being, well, Mel.

Since I joined Klue in late 2020, people both internally and externally have celebrated the culture that has been built here.

And I hate using the 'culture' buzzword. But in this case, it really is true.

Getting to share what has been building virtually for what simultaneously feels like an eternity and a blink of an eye, with the outside world for three days was pretty special.

But culture doesn't just mean hanging out and cracking jokes. As Mel said before we hit the road:

"The Klue mantra from Jason since day 1 — We're the first ones in, and the last ones out."

It was damn impressive to watch Lauren jump from a live session, then chat up a friendly customer, quickly make and chug a coffee in between, and then run a demo with an interested attendee all in the span of an hour.

Or see the result of the countless hours Syd, Andrew, and Katie put in behind the scenes to put together a bad-ass booth.

And listen to Oaks running multiple killer panels with our friends from Salesforce, Imperva, Community Brands, and Workato.

Or see Jason Smith take the time of day with what seemingly felt like every. single. person.

And of course, watch Mel be, well, Mel.

Compete is buzzing, and there are plenty more questions to answer

If you know me, you know I like asking questions.

I asked a s***load of questions this week. And got a ton of answers.

But, despite folks sharing decades of expertise in competitive enablement, the coolest part of Intellicon was that there were far more questions that arose.

The compete profession is changing faster than ever, and the best in the business are eager to learn — and share what they've learned — in order to improve the entire profession.

I'd call that a pretty successful first in-person conference.

And if you made it this far, then here is some behind-the-scenes courtesy of the Klue Crew.

👋 Adam