User Group Conference Success

26^th Febuary 2010

WPM would like to thank all 56 institutions and 130 delegates that attended this year's Annual User Group Conference, held at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel in Manchester on the 24th and 25th of February. We hope you found the conference useful and found value in the extended conference which included a day of workshops to allow our users to share their knowledge, network with other users and have the chance to discuss developments of our solutions.

We are pleased to say there was a significant increase in attendees this year, with more of our clients represented at the event, which is always great news and a good indication that we are scheduling useful and interesting sessions for our users. We are pleased to announce the conference was a success with many interesting and thought-provoking presentations and workshops. A special thanks to Katherine Stalham (University of Cambridge), Martin Rodenby (University of Derby) and Richard Shortland (University of Birmingham) for their interesting, enjoyable presentations and to Ian Anderson (Coventry University) for chairing the AGM once again this year.

Following user feedback from last year's conference, day one consisted of various workshops, the topics of which were chosen by a vote of interest from our users in the early stages of the conference planning. These workshops covered topics such as PCI DSS compliance, demonstration of the new version 3.5 of the Online Store, e-payments for accommodation, Recurring Card Payments, the Direct Debit Management System, Extranet functionality, Internal Marketplace development and "Maximising the Usage and Return of the Online Store." In an additional attempt to bring more value to the workshops, we invited guests from Occam Systems, Kinetic Solutions,Barclaycard Business , PayPal and Sysnet to participate in the workshops. We feel the workshop format worked very well and we plan to build on this next year.

After a productive day of workshops, there was the chance for our delegates to unwind at a networking evening with dinner, drinks and 'just for fun' casino tables. The evening was held at the impressive Manchester 235 casino, beginning with a cocktail drinks reception, followed by a three course meal, and then learn how to play Roulette, Blackjack and cocktail making master-class. Well done to Maureen Wilkes who proved to be the luckiest user of the evening, winning a bottle of champagne for gaining the most chips from 5 spins on the Roulette table. Thank you to all users who attended, we always enjoy socialising with our clients and the evening turned out to be a fantastic night with everyone enjoying the networking and entertainment.

Day two followed a more traditional conference structure with presentations from Holger, Helen and Simon on the recent success and future developments of WPM Education. Other presenters included Andrew MaClelland from IMRG who gave an interesting and thought-provoking presentation on the evolution of e-commerce and what lessons the education sector can take from the commercial sector. In addition Simon Hoppe from Travelex discussed opportunities for Dynamic Currency Conversion (DCC) and the users were provided with in depth case studies from other users on the Return on Investment of WPM Education's solutions, integrating the Online Store with internal course management, student and finance systems and a PCI DSS compliance case study. Once again the user AGM provoked some useful discussion on the development of a user group; if you wish to find out more about the user AGM or get more involved in user led discussion please contact Ian Anderson at Coventry University.

WPM would like to thank you for all your feedback, it is very much valued and appreciated, and it will help us to develop and improve our Annual User Group Conference year on year. Based on feedback gathered after the event this was our best event yet, with particularly positive feedback on the venue, organisation, delegate packs and topics covered on both days.

Just a reminder to all clients that attended, and to those who couldn't make it this year, that all the presentations are available to download via the Extranet under the resources tab.

We look forward to seeing you at our regional user groups in July, if anyone would like to volunteer their institution as a host venue then please let us know!



"A very enjoyable, productive conference. Very important to network with other universities. Impressed with WPM's push to encourage networking."

John Tsolakis, Nottingham Trent University