Highlights from Foothold Expo 2012

On Thursday, July 12th, hundreds of AWARDS users gathered together in New York City for Foothold Expo 2012: Agility. Attendees traveled in from near and far to meet users from other agencies, build skills, and learn about the latest developments in AWARDS that will make their agency more agile by enhancing their reporting capabilities and service delivery. One feature that was enthusiastically received was a navigation toolbar shortcut that was so new that we didn’t have a chance to include it in the program. (More information about the shortcut will come shortly as it’s made available–but trust us–it’s self-explanatory.)

As we had hoped, the takeaways for attendees were practical, profound, and just plain fun. Keynote speaker Brené Brown captivated the audience with findings from her decade-long research on shame and its effect on behavior, and offered strategies based on her theory of wholeheartedness to help connect with hard-to-reach clients and prevent our own burnout. Every attendee received a copy of her latest book.

A lucky few won prizes from the contests and raffles run throughout the day, with the grand prize of an iPad going to Ann Schilling of the Rescue Mission of Trenton. The winners of a Nook e-reader were:

• Ledger Parker of Mississippi United to End Homelessness (MUTEH)
• Monica McCurdy of CREATE, Inc.
• Beth Keagins of Options for Community Living
• Christal Montague of Palladia, won for Best Tweet @footholdtech: “AWARDS stands for Agile, Worthwhile, Awesome, Reporting Data System.”

Besides the training attendees get, the Expo provides the rare opportunity for behind-the-scenes Foothold staff to see our clients and celebrate the work that we do together, and we’re grateful for it.

Thank you to everyone who attended. We’ll be posting the presentations and photos shortly–stay tuned!