If there was one piece of advice I could give you, it would be to wear sunscreen.  If there were two pieces of advice, it would be to wear sunscreen and come to xchange 2018.  You'll need that sunscreen in San Diego!  Think about all the Nintex-related things you do throughout the year: ask questions, attend user groups and other related conferences, attend webex updates and place support calls.  Lots of stuff right?  Well think of all that crammed into a couple of days.  That's what xchange is all about.

I've attended the two previous Nintex conferences and come away from both full of motivation, ideas and a quest to make the world a better place through digital transformation.

Let me start by telling you about one thing that isn't officially promoted: fun, fun and more fun!  Each day is jam packed with interesting topics that you will lean so much from but that's only half the equation as far as I'm concerned.  The second half is to make those important connections inside the Nintex community.  You will meet Nintex staff, vTEs like me, partners and other customers.  Each person has a unique perspective on how Nintex can help them and what is a better way to share these stories than over a beer or a wine?  Last year us fellow vTEs got together and participated in an Escape Room challenge.

We come from different parts of the world so that evening was the first time many of us got to meet in person.  It was very interesting watching how the different personalities interacted together.  I can't wait to see my new buddies again.

The speakers and topics have been released, and the line-up, once again, is fantastic.  Assuming no clashes, here's are my must see sessions for my specific interests:

Customer Success: How Naylor Love Builds a Safer Workplace

I have to attend this one because I'm co-presenting with Lee Harris!  If you want to hear about construction, cranes, avoiding people getting squashed by cranes, integration with lots of systems then come along to this.

A Digital Transformation Journey at Hawke's Bay Regional Council

Fellow New Zealander kaylie Hammond will be attending her first xchange conference and has stepped up right away to show what's been happening at the HBRC.  It's always wonderful to hear how they have progressed each year.

Analysing Your Workflows with Nintex Hawkeye

Hawkeye is new for lots of us.  We know Beacons transmit data to Hawkeye but what should we transmit? What do we do with it when it arrives there? How do we manipulate it?  This session is going to be very useful!

Creative Xtensions in NIntex for Office 365 and Nintex Workflow Cloud

IoT is going off.  I see Nintex as the glue that is going to tie multitudes of systems/devices together and want to be at the forefront of this revolution.

Customer Success: Digitizing the Transport Industry with Workflow and Content Automation

Kimberley Morrison is very passionate about Nintex and uses it a lot. I'm really keen to hear from someone who uses Nintex pretty much every day.

Do This -- Don't Do that: Best and Worst Practices for Workflow, Form and Overall Solution Design

Mike Fitzmaurice is one of the masters.  He has YEARS of experience.  You never want to miss a Fitz session.  I guarantee you will learn something new - no matter how experienced you are.

Migrate & Deploy - How to Copy and Move Your Workflows and Forms

I speak to more and more organisations migrating from on-prem to o365.  It's not that easy but it's certainly made easier when you have the experience and tool set of Sharegate behind you.

Nintex Mobile and Mobile App Studio Deep Dive

Andrew is the most experienced Nintex professional I know.  His session on mobile last year was highly informative and entertaining.  I expect exactly the same this year.  No pressure Andrew Glasser‌!

Practical Nintex Governance

In my time, I've seen a few rogue workflows.  They do the same thing but have been developed by two different people from two different parts of the business.  Martin Harris always approaches his projects with a practical yet efficient style.  Can't wait to learn from him in this session.

Save Time and Money with Reusability

Isn't the rule of IT buy before you build. Reuse before you build?  Well Chris Ellis‌ is going to wear a kilt and show us how to do this across all the Nintex products.

Ten Years of Tears, Why Didn't I get DocGen Sooner?

Rhia Wieclawek‌ is one of the first people to adopt DocGen when it was announced for the Nintex platform. I'm really looking forward to her insights of how she has used it to produce documents that we've never been able to produce before.

Xtending Nintex Workflow Cloud with Azure Functions

I often get asked shall we use Flow or Nintex or PowerApps or Nintex.  That's not the right question, it should be "How can I leverage the tools available to me to get the best result?"  Our San Diego resident Tom Castiglia‌ will show us how Nintex and Azure Functions work together in perfect harmony.

Having written these down, there were many sessions that I feel bad for not mentioning because they look awesome.  At the same time, it would be a bit pointless listing every session.  It is going to be difficult to choose when the timetable is released!

I hope you can join the conference - register here if you can.  Good luck for choosing what sessions you want to attend.  Hint: come to mine and don't forget the sunscreen