Blogs

Having been fortunate to serve on the AUTM Annual Meeting Committee for the past five years, I can tell you firsthand that the feedback our attendees provide is carefully reviewed, and we have implemented many of the changes that you and your colleagues have proposed. This year is no different, and we are looking forward to unveiling our new and improved Collaborate^TM partnering software  soon.

                As many of you know, the Collaborate^TM partnering software was first used at the 2011 AUTM Annual Meeting where over 600 attendees booked over 1,100 Meetings over the course of the Annual Meeting. Over 11,000 messages were sent using the partnering software, and licensing organizations posted over 250 technologies. By many metrics, this inaugural year using Collaborate^TM was quite a success.

                However, between suggestions from attendees and fellow Program Committee Members, we added a number of substantial upgrades to further improve the Collaborate^TM software and enhance the significant partnering opportunities that exist when you get 1,600 licensing decision-makers in the same place at the same time. Here are some of the upgrades that you can expect to see as you begin to think about setting up meetings for the 2012 AUTM Annual Meeting:

• We expanded the times available to set up meetings from early morning to late evening – networking is not a 9-5 activity, so why should our partnering software be limited to those hours?
• User information is saved from last year – so there is no need to re-input the standard info like titles, unless you earned a promotion in the past year in which - Congratulations!
• The cancel and reschedule functions for meetings have been improved – this was a requested feature listed by many users.
• Meeting requests now contain a link to the profile of the person setting up the meeting - so you can determine how better to use your limited time more efficiently.
• Contact information for your appointments can be downloaded into Outlook calendars – now you have a way to let your appointment know that you might be running a few minutes late by phone/email.
• Text message option for all notifications – provides a way to better keep track of any new meeting requests, messages, etc

We hope you like the “new and improved” Collaborate^TM software, and I look forward to seeing you at the 2012 Annual Meeting!