BBCON 2020 vs BB K-12 User Conference

Chris Cabrera Thompson

Hi, I'm new to Blackbaud and would be interested to hear from anyone who has attended both BBCON  and BB K-12 User Conference.  Is it worth attending both?  I submitted a proposal for BB K-12 regarding implementing BB EMS in less than 6 months!  Is one more technical than the other?  Thanks.

Lanetta Gilder

Hi Chris!

I hope all is well. I got a lot out of going to both the K-12 conference and bbcon. I've gone to the K-12 conference for the past 3 years. It was very helpful to hear from other users. The setting is a lot smaller than bbcon and it's more focused on the Education Management piece and any of the other products it is integrated with. I'm at a different school now, but it was helpful to know how RE and EMS work together. Not sure which side of the spectrum your on, Advancement/Development, Admissions, Marketing, Teacher, IT or other faculty staff, but I will say that it is important to manage the data on all platforms, because EMS is considered to be the main database for the school. I am on the Advancement/Development side and if the data isn't clean on the "school side of the house" then when the data is integrated over to RE/RE NXT, its going to "change things". Not to scare or alarm you, but it will be helpful to make sure things are mapped correctly and for all parties involved to talk about how the data will be use and "talk" to one another. 


Two other people to contact and have a lot on insite/advise on this topic is Angela May at Graland Country Day School in Denver and Scott Blair at Gonzaga College High School in DC. I met them both at bbcon, K-12 Conference and at a Blackbaud Roadshow. I really enjoyed learning and hearing from them. I hope that helps. Take care and have a good day!


Thanks!

Lanetta