BizSugar at InfusionCon!

(Editor’s note: Members of the BizSugar team including Staci Wood and Ivana Taylor and BizSugar advisory board members TJ McCue and Travis Campbell attended InfusionCon, the big user conference for users of e-mail marketing software InfusionSoft.  InfusionCon drew nearly 1000 visitors to the Montelucia resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. If you stopped by our booth at our first ever tradeshow, thanks so much for saying hello! Below are some impressions from our team about the event.)

I found InfusionCon to be very inspiring. The creative, fast paced energy of the event, the speakers and the attendees was uplifting. Creativity and uniqueness are what differentiates us and our businesses from others and InfusionCon was a really great atmosphere for inspiring this. Sometimes, if you just shift your perspective and how you look at, interpret and process information, it can create an eye opening epiphany of sorts and completely change the direction you and your business are in, in positive ways. Infusioncon presents an atmosphere of inspiration and creativity. -Stacy Wood, Operations Manager, Small Business Trends LLC

InfusionCon was an inspiring event for me. What inspired me most was the InfusionSoft team’s commitment to the success of their customers. After all, if their customers don’t grow their own businesses — InfusionSoft doesn’t stand a chance. What I learned that I will recommend to ALL of my clients and community is to follow InfusionSoft’s lead and put the focus on your customer’s success. Build your business, your offerings and your marketing around what they need to be successful and your own success will follow. -Ivana S. Taylor, Practical Marketing Strategies for Small Business, Strategy Stew

(To read the comments about the above photographs, and see more pictures, visit the Infusioncon photo album at the BizSugar Facebook fan page.)

It was refreshing to meet small business owners and internet marketers who are doing well in this economy. I spoke with many who are growing their business by intentionally leveraging technology in a strategic way. Of course there were some on the other side of the spectrum as well. The good news is this real-world mix created an energized environment for idea sharing, which leads me to the best part of the event, the people.

As in years past, the people make the event, and this year’s InfusionCon was a prime example of that. I’m already looking forward to next year’s event. -Travis Campbell, Marketing Coach and Editor of MarketingProfessor.com

What I learned from Infusioncon: I went expecting a traditional user conference with lots of technical-only sessions (and they had many of those, of course), but what I didn’t expect was big picture stuff, big thinking speakers about how you start and grow and nurture a business. They had Jay Conrad Levinson there, Harry Dent, and a host of others who helped you think about more than just your own business challenges. They gave you ideas for thinking about the marketplace, about customer service, about marketing, about sales. It was very educational. Second, it was tons of fun. The people who are using Infusionsoft are very, very passionate about their businesses and about working with others. Lots of companies that are partnership-minded. The whole atmosphere was about that maxim: A rising tide lifts all boats. So let’s raise the tide together kind of thing. Inspirational and fun to be around people like that. I learned that in order to take my company to the next level I need to automate more of the daily tasks with a system like Infusionsoft. It allows me to combine email marketing, with CRM, with ecommerce. I’ll be using at some point in the very near future. -TJ McCue, founder, Sales Rescue Team

(Also, our team had a chance to shoot some video interviews. See them here at the Small Business Trends YouTube channel. And below, Small Business Trends founder (and owner of BizSugar) Anita Campbell interviews Ivana Taylor about BizSugar and InfusionCon. Ivana interviews Jack Rued in the second video.)