Anaplan Live! December: That's a Wrap

The Anaplan Live! December event was a huge hit with Anaplan model builders across the globe! With content tailored to support Anaplan model builder’s expertise at every level, there was a record turnout with nearly 1,500 people registered—representing 38 countries and 346 companies.

After a lively kickoff—with a surprise appearance by Anaplan CEO @frank_calderoni—four paths guided attendees to advance their model-building skills, from the casual model builder to the Anaplan expert. Partner and customer Master Anaplanners joined the sessions to provide a real-life view of Anaplan in action on a variety of topics covered during the day. 

A highly engaged audience participated in active chat discussions throughout the event, bringing the voice of attendees to every session. One attendee, @Jsalvata, commented that having sessions moderated by business users and partners, in addition to Anaplanners, helped attendees see multiple viewpoints. Additionally, she said the interactive nature of the session chat rooms made everyone feel involved.

By all accounts, the sessions were a grand success! Here’s what attendees had to say about the four paths:

Anaplan Foundations: Designed for beginner model builders and those progressing through their model building learning journeys, this path will help you get started with the Anaplan fundamentals, including taking your first steps in the Anaplan platform and discovering the most commonly used calculation functions.

@rob.mahlum shares takeaways —

Building Capabilities for the Casual Model Builder: "@ryan_kohn encouraged casual model builders to “Anaplanize” their current spreadsheets to help build familiarity and confidence working in the platform. There are great resources available on the Anaplan Community and Anapedia for model builders of all levels, but the best resource is your fellow Anaplanners!"

Unpacking the Top 5 Calculation Functions: "@AbbyP showed elegant examples of the Item & Finditem, how and when to use Sum, Lookup, Select, and how the Code & Item functions can work together in powerful ways."

Anaplan UX: Bring your Anaplan UX expertise to the next level by following along in a UX-based build-along and discover the top and latest UX functionality in a feature review.

@james_maloney_accenture gives feedback —

Get Hands-on Experience in an Interactive UX Build-Along: "During this step-by-step build-along session, we walked through the process to easily build an interactive New UX page that enables management to efficiently perform scenario planning and allows leaders to analyze KPI’s and make more knowledgeable business decisions."

Learn More About the Latest UX Features in Action: "This exciting session was a great opportunity for Model Builders and Master Anaplanners to learn more about key features and enhancements that add a ton of value to using the New UX."

Anaplan Model Building: Gain valuable insights on daily model-building activities, focused on data integration and daily business processes.

@Sahil.Iyer offers perspective —

Streamlining Your Work Flow in the UX Using Task Management: "The notification action pinpoints individuals who will need to interact with a dashboard. The message board promotes conversation and consistent feedback from users. Additionally, I see the email hyperlink feature being well received from clients to save time when reaching out to other individuals within their team about contents on a dashboard."

Orchestrate Agile, Intelligent Integrations with Anaplan CloudWorks: "The key aspects of Cloudworks that seemed to be most critical were the interoperable support integrations with a variety of cloud-based sources, a simple, non-technical application interface, and automation available with scheduling via event based triggers or workflows."

Model Building Theory: Learn about advanced planning methodologies from Anaplan experts, featuring Application Lifecycle Management and the Planual v2.0.

@MCRIST provides thoughts —

Return of the Planual v2.0: "As model builders it is easy to get caught up in focusing on one concept and missing the bigger picture. A refresher on the key points from the Zen of Anaplan stuck a particular chord with me. Another key reminder was that sparsity is not the enemy and that building for performance really needs to be the focus."

Expand Your Approach With Software Development Lifecycle and ALM: "ALM really should be an integral part of the deployment and like model development, an on-going activity. Successful deployment requires following best practices with modeling, clearly defined structure and processes, and thoughtful implementation. Not all models require ALM, so implement where it makes sense to support the business needs."

During the 15-minute break between sessions, attendees were able to stop by booths to learn more about various Anaplan programs, including Extensions, Anaplan Talent Builder, and Anaplan Academy.

The event wrapped up with a keynote session featuring Chief Planning Officer @simon_tucker . He sat down with host @ChrisWeiss to debut a toolkit that will help model builders deploy advanced modeling functionalities regardless of their current level of certification—with exclusive beta access for Anaplan Live! attendees.

The day concluded when attendees joined like-minded peers in Anaplan Group meetups—including Chicago, Modelers Forum UK, and Sales sessions.

Thank you to everyone who registered, attended, and interacted during another successful Anaplan Live! As we begin to think about the next session, we’d love to hear from you. What did you think about the event? Did we boost your model building expertise? Let us know in the comments below. 

*The recording of Anaplan Live! December 2020 will not be available for viewing, although short clips of the event may show up across the Community in the future. Please subscribe to the Anaplan Live! page for updates on future events, and visit the Anaplan Live! December 2020 page to hear more about the event sessions.