LeagueApps recently sponsored and attended the 6th annual Sport & Social Industry Conference in Cancun, Mexico on February 16-19th. The conference, organized by the Sport & Social Industry Association, brought together over 60 of the top sport & social clubs throughout the country (and Canada!). Here is a list of all of the SSIA member organizations.

LeagueApps partners with many SSIA members so it was awesome for our team to catch up with partners and meet a few for the first time in-person. (The 80-degree weather didn’t hurt either!). We scheduled several group sessions and individual meetings but also found some time to join a tech panel, participate in the annual SSIA challenge, and share gifts with our partners. Check out the LeagueApps SSIA Conference album on Facebook for photos and some action shots from the conference!

Group photo with LeagueApps and our partners, sporting their new LeagueApps visors.

LeagueApps shared a host of new feature updates with our league partners during the Group Sessions. We thought it would be a great opportunity to share the value of these new features in-person, as well as highlight the different ways partners are already utilizing these improvements.

These slides recap the presentation we shared with our partners. The new features we discussed included:

• Free Text Messaging
• Schedule Import
• Stored Credit Cards
• Small Group Registration
• API

Our partners later told us that the biggest benefit of the group sessions was being able to share and learn best practices from other LeagueApps users. We are glad our partners are able to gain tips from each other and take advantage of our partner community!

We surprised our partners by sharing new design concepts with them. Design and content are hot topics among SSIA clubs, so we decided to design new Skin image sliders for some partners in attendance. We enjoyed unveiling these new designs in front of our partners for the first time. Their reactions alone made it worthwhile! (Below is an example of a Skin we helped implement for a partner.)

Please reach out to us directly or Schedule a Coaching Session to learn about how to best utilize these features. Be sure to also signup for a webinar – we will be covering Content and Design tips on 2/24/16!

Most importantly, we learned a lot from the SSIA Conference. One of the LeagueApps core values is to be “students of the game”.  LeagueApps took away some really key lessons from our trip. These include:

1) Help LeagueApps Partners Learn and Share Best Practices from Each Other

We are inspired by the value the SSIA provides to their members each year through the conference. We recognize that networking and knowledge sharing can help our partners especially as it pertains to how best to utilize and leverage the LeagueApps platform. We also recognize that many partners have become “product experts” as LeagueApps users and have lots to offer each other. We’ll continue to develop better channels and thought leadership groups for partners that want to participate in knowledge share. If you have any tips, ideas, or would like to participate, please hit us up!

2) Communicate Product Updates

While helping connect partners is extremely valuable, it is the LeagueApps team’s job to emphasize the benefits and value we provide to our partners. We need to promote product updates, benefits, and new services that our partners can utilize (think webinars, Coaching Sessions, Partner Days). The better we can communicate improvements to our product and service, the more likely will our partners take advantage of these new enhancements.

Special thanks to Galen, Chris and the SSIA for organizing the conference and allowing us to participate in all of the great activities and group sessions. Please let us know if you are interested to learn more about the SSIA and we can put you in touch directly with the organizers.

We’re now in the process of working many of these lessons into our processes, plans and product in 2016.  We’re also planning more LeagueApps Partner Days on both the East and West Coast this year (details to come!). Let us know if you’d like to attend and we’ll be sure to invite you to an upcoming LeagueApps Partner Day!

Gautam sporting his VAVi headband with partners, Ray (Austin Sport and Social Club) and Danny (Tri Sports Social)