It’s an annual ritual, or used to be till COVID interfered. A Workday executive does our readers a favor and shares a curtain raiser on their Rising event. This time it is Patricia Harris, Senior Vice President, Solution and Revenue Marketing. She has over 25 years of industry experience including several years at SAP, at the industry research firm IHS Markit, and the IT Service Management firm Hitachi Vantara.
Here are some excerpts from our conversation
Patricia, welcome back to my home state, Florida. I presume Rising is a hybrid event as many have been with COVID. Let’s start with the demographics of the audience you are expecting in Orlando and virtually and the overall vibe you expect.
Vinnie, to start off it is going to be so nice to be back in person. We're expecting over 9,000 people on site – we are sold out for our in-person experience - and tens of thousands attending digitally. I think it will be a different kind of hybrid event than you may have seen from others. I am really excited to be one of the co-hosts of the Digital Experience and to make it compelling for those who cannot attend in person. We'll be doing a live broadcast from the Expo Floor. We will be giving viewers a nice warm lead into all the major keynotes and supporting them with deeper discussions as they come away from those keynotes.
In terms of an overall theme, we are humbly acknowledging what the world has gone through over the last few years. It’s not just the pandemic, it's also the vast change in technology. As you know, we have released so many new solutions over the last few years. On top of that, we've had social change on so many different issues. And so this year, we are honoring that change and acknowledging all the Changemakers. It will be about our customers, the ones that are driving this change in their organizations, and also thinking about our role as a technology company as we help them drive that change.
There will be a lot of focus on customer stories. You will see Coca Cola, Comcast and Capital One among 47 customer speakers at this event. We will also have 85 partner speakers featured. It’s our way of bringing customer stories to life.
We will also use the event to honor several local charities like the Orlando Alliance and job seeker networking sessions and Veteran Career readiness meetups.
The Executive Keynotes
I think you will hear a very optimistic tone from Aneel and Chano, our co-CEOs. There is so much change in the world that when people talk about it there can be a dystopian vibe to it. But we believe the changes we have gone through can also be uplifting. Aneel and Chano will touch on how to elevate the human experience. Aneel will focus on how to stay connected no matter what your Return to Office plans. How to keep employees engaged and more deeply understand what is motivating them as well as what might be negatively impacting their performance. Chano will salute the Changemakers, our incredible customers who are the driving force behind all our innovation. He will touch on the value of our Enterprise Management Cloud. Broadly, Workday leaders will also talk about solutions, our Extend platform and plans for Industry Accelerators.
(Vinnie’s note - for those watching virtually, the graph below provides a nice overview of the keynotes)
Major product announcements
We will have plenty to please our three big buying centers – the CHRO, the CFO and the CIO.
Here are a few teasers - low code, no code capabilities in our Extend platform, frictionless finance with ML significantly improving productivity, planning at scale, and lots about ESG, supplier diversity and how we are enhancing our already rich Skills Cloud ontology with external data.
Vinnie, you will be particularly pleased to hear about our Industry Accelerators for healthcare, banking and capital markets, insurance and technology. We have developed them in close collaboration with Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG and PwC. Each partner has a really unique value proposition.
(Vinnie's note -- more detail available in the press releases below)
Monday, 9/12
- Workday Launches New Industry Program to Accelerate Customer Cloud Transformations with Expansive Partner Ecosystem
- Frontline Industries and Certain Geographies Show Increased Levels Of Employee Burnout Risk, Workday Report Finds
Tuesday, 9/13
- Workday Unveils New Technology Innovations, Redesigns User Experience to Help Customers Adapt in a Changing World
- Workday Introduces Skill Interoperability to Help Organizations Support Evolving Talent Strategies
- Workday Innovations Help Power a New Era for the Office of the CFO
- Workday Announces New Innovations to Support Customers in the Changing World of Work
The Expo Floor
So, you know the Orange County Convention Center is massive. It allows our show floor to be very creative with that space with 95 booths of varying shapes and sizes. The bigger the sponsor the bigger the booth space. Think of it as interconnected spaces. So if someone is focused on finance, they will be able to quickly see where they need to go. We will also have industry specific areas, and featured areas for our partners. 30 Workday Ventures portfolio companies will also be represented on the floor.
And, as I mentioned I will be co-hosting the Digital Experience from the floor, so come say hello!
(Vinnie’s note – Workday has invited me to meet with several of the Ventures portfolio companies one-on-one. I expect I will invite a few to present in my Analyst Cam video channel, like several of their peers have in the past)
Fun stuff
We are really excited to have John Batiste. He’s a Grammy Award winner for Album of the Year. And, he's had plenty of accolades like the Academy Award for Best Original Score for the Disney Pixar film, Soul. We also have a night where we will take over Universal Studios.
Lots more at the event - Peloton rides, 5k Run, sunrise yoga, reflection rooms, hula hoop, wellbeing groups, and one of the crowd favorites, the Must Love Dogs meetups. The Expo floor is going to be busy.
Vinnie, I hope we have you excited about the buffet of activities we have planned. Look forward to seeing you and so many others in person. It’s been too long!
