London based Anaplan modellers forum (with food, drinks and expertise included!)

Dear fellow Anaplanners, I was thinking of setting up a regular Anaplan modellers forum to be held after work and was keen to hear your opinions and ideas.

The initial concept would be to have an informal monthly meet up (possibly 6-8pm), where us modellers could network, share knowledge, work through real-world Anaplan problems with a technical expert and discuss ideas for getting more out of the platform within our companies.

The idea is still in the early stages however I’ve reached out to some people at Anaplan and they’ve kindly offered to help facilitate by providing the Anaplan expertise, space for the sessions along with food and drinks. (I am aware we have the User group coming up on 27th November however it’s not a regular thing and it’s during work hours so can be difficult to attend).

So that’s the idea – now it would be helpful to hear your views – including:

Would you be able/willing to attend an informal evening forum?
Would you find this type of format/content helpful?
What else would you want to include in the agenda?

Please post any constructive ideas, suggestions or opinions here.

PS: Just to be clear I don’t work for Anaplan and this forum wouldn't be about promoting it - the aim here is to have a group run by modellers for the benefit of modellers! 🙂

Comments

usman.zia

Hi,

This is a great idea!

I would love to participate and help run the sessions too!

It would be really helpful for us to share and learn from each other.

A good format would be to cover a key functionality of Anaplan at each session and look at use cases for that specific funtionality. For example looking at how to use time and filtering with time (common problem for some modellers) or another one could be around different forecasting methods and the best way to approach them. Alternatively we could have like a group 'surgery' where people share their problems in their models and together we solve them.

I hope this helps and if you want to discuss anything else please do let me know.

Thanks,

Usman

nmoore

Great idea - we would be happy to participate and invite clients! Well done on the initiative.

laurence

HI Yugnesh,

I love this idea!

I will bring this up at the London User Group on Tuesday and see who is interested. Anaplan will be happy to host this at our office and we can privide food and drinks to keep everyone energised.

I like the idea of a surgery or specific topics but ultimately we can cover whatever the community wants - we may even have access to product if need them. I suggest we put ideas in here and then someone can colate them and create an informal agenda. From there we can make sure we have the right people attend.

Sound like a plan?

Rich.Buttivant

Great idea and would definately attend.

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks Laurence that would be great - also there’s been some really positive feedback so far on the message board!

The plan is to give it a few days to receive more ideas/opinions and then we can start co-ordinating with people who’ve expressed an interest on the details (e.g. Agenda, Dates, Linkedin group).

I’m happy to drive things from the Modellers side – collating ideas etc - and then link in with yourself on what we need from the Anaplan end.

Does that work for you?

(PS: I may be driving this but everyone’s opinions/ideas are welcome)

Joanne

I think this is a great idea and I'd be happy to support it. I'm not based in London but do travel there regularly and would try to ensure my trips coincide with an event.

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks Joanne - great to have your support!

I will be attending the Anaplan London User Group briefly today so will follow up with the Anaplan guys and post on here with an update soon.

Alessio_Pagliano

Great idea which Laurence mentioned yesterday at the user group.

Definitely interested !

Scorina

I think this is a great idea, but not being London based my attendance may be dependent on the date and if I happened to be in London for a meeting during the day, or if it was a good subject worth me travelling in from Essex after work. Certainly some of the networking and talking about localised issues yesterday and how others have probably solved problems we all encounter this would be a great forum.

Alessio_Pagliano

I wonder if it would be possible to try and broadcast via webex. I know it's not ideal/not the same but it might be worth trying ?

laurence

Absolutely!

We can link it up to our webex system so people can dial in easily.

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks for mentioning the Evening Modellers group idea at yesterday’s event Laurence!

Just to briefly introduce myself, my name is Yugnesh Patel and I’ve mainly been using Anaplan in the Financial Planning & Analysis space - I met a few of you yesterday however unfortunately I couldn’t stay long due to work commitments.

So to recap the idea here is to have a regular evening meet up where us modellers can network, share knowledge, work through real-world Anaplan problems and discuss ideas for getting more out of the platform within our companies. The overarching principle being to have a group “run by Anaplan modellers for the benefit of Anaplan modellers”. Having discussed it with a few people at Anaplan they have agreed to help support it by making available some technical expertise, office space and food and drinks.

Currently the plan is to get something setup for early in the new year however in the mean time I need to get feedback on who would be interested in participating - so far the following people have expressed an interest on this message board: Usman.Zia, NMoore, Richard.Buttivant, Joanne, Anaplan78 and Scorina.

Please could anyone else who is interested in participating post a quick message on this board – that way we can understand the level of interest and move the discussion on to things like format, agenda, dates etc.

Also if you have any colleagues who you think may be interested but aren't on this message board please can you tell them about it.

Thanks

Rich.Buttivant

Thank you again for arranging/kicking this off. I have discussed with my fellow model builders and they are interested in attending these events too. The WebEx option might make it more accessible as we are split between London and Birmingham.

Sally

I'd definitely be interested in joining if there is the option to dial in via Webex. I work in deepest darkest Dorset so wouldn't be able to attend in London very frequently but think it sounds like a great idea.

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks Rich and Sally - having a Webex option is a good idea!

You mentioned some of your colleagues wanted to participate - please can you forward them the link to the mesage board and ask them to post.

usman.zia

I agree webex would make this really accessible to everyone that wants to attend!

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks to everyone who has shown an interest in the Evening Modellers group and to Laurence Di Sotto for the mention in the London User Group email.

If anyone else is interested in participating or has ideas about content/format/etc can you please post them on this message board. Some people mentioned they have colleagues who may be interested - if this is the case please can you remind them to sign up to the message board.

I will post a follow up next week which should allow enough time to gather further interest and start planning for the next stage to help turn this group into a reality in the new year!

Yugnesh

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Susan

Hi Yugnesh,

I am interested in participating in this group. Thanks for organising, it will be really useful. I am based in Reading and could find out about hosting here if you would be interest.

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks Susan - great to hear you're interested.

At the moment the plan is to host the sessions near Kings Cross. However we will look into having a Webex option which would make your participation easier.

Yugnesh

Yugnesh.Patel

Happy 2019 everyone - I hope you had a great time over the Christmas period!

A number of you have shown an interest in being part of an Anaplan Modellers Forum and there have been some good ideas about proposed content and structure posted on the message board. However to move this forward it would be helpful if we could flesh out these ideas in real time - possibly one evening after work on a conference call or in person or a combination (for those not based in London).

The objective would be to build on the ideas mentioned and bring out new ones so we can create a group which is relevant and helpful for Anaplan modellers. If we can get 4-5 people involved initially I think we can start to build an agenda for the sessions and a peer group that we can learn from.

So my question is if I planned something like this for the evening of maybe 23rd or 24th January who would be willing to participate?

usman.zia

Hi Yugnesh,

First of all Happy New Year!

This a great idea!

I can make both dates.

Looking forward to the plan!

Joanne

Hi. Thanks for organising this. I could do the 23rd.

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks Usman and Joanne - I will follow up with you both once I get some more responses.

Yugnesh.Patel

Happy 2019 everyone!

So far Usman and Joanne have volunteered to participate - is there anyone else who would be able to get involved?

Aleph_*7710

Happy New Year!

@Yugnesh.Patel I too can make it on both days.

Regards,

Aleph

Michelle Sutherland

Hi Yugnesh,

I could make 23rd Jan.

Thanks for organising,

Michelle

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks Aleph and Michelle!

Yugnesh.Patel

Thanks All - so far we have Usman, Joanne, Michelle, Aleph and myself - if anyone else is interested please let me know!

Yesterday I spoke to Anaplan and they should be able to book us a room (and refreshments) at their Kings Cross office for either of those dates. So can you let me know which of those two dates you prefer (23rd or 24th January) and if you will be able to attend in person? We can be flexible on timings but I'll propose that we start the session at 6pm and plan for about two hours if that works for everyone.

Also are all of you on Linkedin? If so, I can set up a Linkedin group to make the communications easier.

laurence

Hi Guys,

Its great to see this gain traction.

Once you have agreed a time and a rough agenda then let us know and we can help arrange the logistics and anyone you need to support you.

If you need any other support for this then please just reach out.

Joanne

I can only make the 23rd in person but could do the 24th remotely. Two suggestions for the agenda: sparcity management and team structure (i.e. how have you set up your organisation to deal with ongoing maintenance and continued development). I'm on linkedin - Joanne Aldridge, EDF energy.

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