Ontario Systems Has a Sense of Humor

Stephanie Eidelman

Earlier this month I attended Ontario System’s PowerUp conference in Indianapolis.  I must say that after dealing with the airports in Los Angeles and Las Vegas in the last week, there is a lot to be said for an event at a location with a nice, new, smaller airport…oh, and little traffic.

If you’ve been to a few industry conferences, you know that the staff at all of them work hard to coordinate many details and try to create the best possible experience for attendees. But worthy of note about PowerUp was the extra mile they went to be creative, and the willingness of the management team to go along.

The show opened with, well, a show. Marketing VP Casey Stanley feigned embarrassment because his CEO Ron Fauquher was nowhere to be found. He proceeded to run out of the ballroom intent on finding him back at the office and bringing him to the event.

We witness what happens next by video (note: the video won’t display on mobile devices):

Hijinks ensue, others get picked up along the way, cars and escalators are deftly traversed, and finally the full management team arrives live on stage.

The acting wasn’t superb (sorry guys… however there is a great example of jumping over a car), but the willingness of the group to go out on a limb was refreshing for an industry that’s in a no-laughing-matter kind of period. I bet the experience of making the video also brought the team closer together, which is important when it comes to its ability to share information in a way that benefits clients. To me it seemed that the good-natured opening was well-received, but didn’t change the professional feel of the event.

The rest of the conference was of course focused on the business of Ontario’s clients, with a full slate of updates on products and features, and detailed educational sessions on the latest topics like compliance.