Fifteen thousand individuals have registered for the Sage Summit conference being held this week in Chicago. Those figures were provided in a tweet last week by The company had told exhibitors that registration would hit 20,000. But registration was still open at the point Kelly issued his tweet and it appears the exhibits are running noticeably ahead of the number on the show floor in 2015.
For the last two conferences, Sage has had little to say about upcoming show content, other than to promote the appearance of celebrity speakers, such as Richard Branson, Zoey Deschannel, Gwyneth Paltrow and Robert Herjavec, who are featured this year.
Neither the parent based in the United Kingdom nor the North America subsidiary have issued any press releases about possible program or products to be discussed. It should be noted the company dumped its North American press team over the last two months and no press releases of any kind have been issued since June 20, nor have spokespeople volunteered any information ahead of time.
Sage's agenda shows the company will introduce a new global partner program. One was expected to be announced last fall, but Sage appeared to pull back, limiting its announcements to Sage Live, One and X-3. While the resellers used to be a major focus of the show, when Summit was created several years ago, the emphasis has turned to serving end-users and for the last two years, the company has banned the press from reseller events.
This year's show will be significantly different in terms of executives attending. Sage has increasingly organized operations on a global scale.
There has also been substantial turnover among managerial ranks. In the earnings webcast for the half ended March 31, CEO Steve Kelly said 70 of the top 100 execs for the company globally had been replaced in the 18 minutes he had been on the job.
Many key players that attended last year's event are gone. Long-time executive CTO Himanshu Pasule left in October and popped up at Epicor the next month and became CTO there in April. Gabrielle Boko, whose last title was EVP of global brand experience and who ran marketing last year, left about the same time. She showed up with a high-level job at HP in February.
Among the most surprising departures since the last show were Rich Spring, who ran the company's channel, and Doug LaBahn, responsible for Sage Live.
Formally chief revenue officer, Spring left in January after nine months during which he drew praise from the channel. In March, he took a position as VP of field operations for Seal Software. LaBahn, with Sage since 2012, became global VP of marketing for Sage Live in February and accepted a job VP of product and partner marketing for Xero in November. LaBahan's move was surprising since Sage Live is one of the products that the company says will serve as a foundation for its growth.
One executive change that signals the way Sage's organization has morphed was the way it replaced Pascal Houillon, CEO of Sage North America, who left in May 2015 after four years five months in that spot. Sage made CFO Marc Scheipe, president in October with no apparent plans for having a person with Houillon's title.
One person who has benefitted from the changes is Jennifer Warawa, who moved from global positions managing the company's accountant and partner programs, to assuming the role of EVP of product marketing in may.
