HEATWave 2005, CreekPointe’s 3^rd Annual HEAT Users’ Conference, was held in Charleston, SC, on September 21^st – September 23^rd.  Many of our guests attended our Pre-Conference 3-day Advanced HEAT Admin Class which gave them new insight into how they can unleash the full power of HEAT.
 

After a reception on Thursday evening in the charming court yard of the Mills House Hotel, located in historic Charleston, many of our guests took advantage of the wonderful restaurants within walking distance of the Hotel.

We kicked off the conference on Thursday morning with a brief introduction by CreekPointe’s President, Steve Monteith.  Steve introduced the ten CreekPointe staff members that developed and participated in HEATWave 2005.  Next, we heard a few comments from CreekPointe’s VP of Sales, Mike Clarke.

Since this year’s theme was pirates, each guest had the opportunity to win Gold Doubloons in various activities.  At the end of the conference the Gold Coins they collected were traded in for a chance to win prizes ranging from a BlackBerry and Apple iPod to Pirates of the Caribbean action figures.

Each year at HEATWave we present a HEAT Case Study.  This year, Bob Toupin, a 3^rd Level Senior Technical Analys with Rock-Tenn, gave a riveting presentation on how his company is using HEAT in conjunction with a set of best practices to provide support for 3500 internal employees.  Bob’s presentation generated a lot of interest and was one of the favorite sessions at the conference!

After Bob’s session we hosted a HEAT Tips and Tricks session where we covered some unique ways of doing things with HEAT that grabbed a lot of attention.  During lunch, we had a local historian from Charleston talk about the history of Pirates in Charleston and the surrounding area. 

The afternoon was filled with four additional sessions including; Going Mobile with HEAT, Help Desk Best Practices, Telephony Integration with HEAT, and Ask the HEAT Engineers Panel.  On Thursday evening, everyone enjoyed a dinner cruise around Charleston Harbor.

Friday morning started with a breakfast buffet while Jim Blayney, ITSM Product Manager, FrontRange Solutions, presented the Road Map for HEAT and related products.  This was followed by a demonstration of FrontRange’s new IT Service Management software, presented by CreekPointe’s Director of Technical Services, Bryan Hudgens.

Next, we conducted a session on the benefits of integrating HEAT with Desktop Management software, such as LANDesk.  Much excitement was generated when our guests realized how powerful this combination of products could be!

We wrapped up HEATWave 2005 with a lunch-n-learn session on Reporting with HEAT.  Several different reporting options were discussed and demonstrated.  At the conclusion of the event, all attendees turned in their Gold Coins and the Pirate Raffle commenced.
 

This year’s event was a tremendous success and we received very positive feed back from the attendees, a few of which are listed below:
 
Excellent conference.  I came back re-energized to enhance my company's HEAT system.

- Lynn Orvis, Gold Kist

The conference was very insightful and packed full of technical information.  I was thrilled to see so many friendly faces that were so willing to help.  From the moment I arrived at the reception, I felt welcomed.  The majority of the sessions were extremely informative and it was definitely nice to see new products that we don't normally get to see.  The roadmap and product demos were very valuable and helped us to decide to investigate further into looking into these products where as before, we would not have looked into it.

- Rich Hadden, Wright State University

Your entire staff was enjoyable and really put forth an extraordinary effort to make sure everyone enjoyed themselves and received whatever information they desired.

- Octavis Jones, Prince William County Schools

The ability to network with peers and compare "war stories".  Information and ideas are freely exchanged in a manner that isn't available elsewhere.

- Walt Schroeder, Flowers Foods

Having a user (like Rock Tenn) explain how they are using HEAT and how they handle help desk stuff.  It is so good to see details of how someone else does it.

- Tony Godwin, Greenville Utilities

It brought to light the great power of Heat and I learned that the program is capable of much more than I was familiar with.  The presenters were very dynamic and interesting.

- Claire Exten, Bechtel Power Corporation
 

We are currently making plans for the HEATWave 2006 event.  We will continue to evolve this event to make sure it is meaningful, beneficial, and thought provoking.  We will continue our quest to equip all participants with the knowledge they need to build a “world class support center” for their company.