9/16/2009 1:38:00 PM Epic prepares for a Wild, Wild UGM Buses, tourists and gunslinging cowboys will overtake Verona
Each year Epic’s
massive Users Group Meeting picks a theme, often wild, adventurous and/or silly. This year it’s the Wild, Wild West, with the week’s
entertainment including an old-time gunslinging show from Baraboo.
Workers from Karl’s Event Rental of Milwaukee on Tuesday roll the final strip of vinyl roofing onto a roughly 62,000-square-foot “tent” on Epic’s campus. Epic will host a barbecue dinner in the tent Wednesday night for roughly 3,000 of its customers.
By the numbers
7,000
People at 2009 UGM
3,000
Seating capacity of the dinner tent
54
Area hotels where 2,500-plus rooms are reserved up to a year in advance
14
Bus routes running between Epic and 32 hotels
250
Education sessions scheduled, highlighting ways to use Epic software
A tug-of-war tournament, carriage rides and - no, this is not a typo - a cow chip fling are some of the fun events planned for this year's annual Users' Group Meeting at Epic.
As usual, the software company on Verona's west side has added some interesting twists to its UGM, which this year will draw an estimated 3,600 customers - plus the company's 3,400 staff - to Epic's ever-growing campus for a four-day convention.
The UGM is mainly a chance for customers to meet and learn from each other about how they've implemented Epic's health-care software. But it's also a chance for the company to look back on the past year, talk about the future and have some fun in the process.
The theme for this year's UGM is "Wild, Wild West," which will permeate the convention in many ways, including a barbecue-style dinner Wednesday night. That will be followed by a performance of The Buffalo Bill Wild West Show, performed by staff from the Circus World Museum in Baraboo, inside an outdoor arena created just for this year's UGM.
And yes, staff and customers can also blow off steam at a "Cow Chip Fling" scheduled for Thursday, said Terri Leigh Rhody, a member of the marketing team at Epic.
This is not to be confused with the "Cow Chip Throw and Festival"held earlier this month in Prairie du Sac. But Rhody noted that Epic did get its cow chips as leftovers from that festival (now you know).
The event opens Monday night with a "pre-conference" campfire for a limited number of customers.
But the biggest event of the week is Wednesday morning, when the company hosts its "general session" meeting inside the Epicenter, a 5,300-seat auditorium.
Unlike last year, when the featured speaker was Steven Levitt, economist and author of the best-selling book, "Freakonomics," there won't be a headline lecturer this year. Instead, CEO Judy Faulkner and Carl Dvorak, chief operating officer, will speak, and there will be skits by Epic staff demonstrating how the company's software can be used, Rhody said.
The lack of a keynote speaker is in keeping with Epic's decision to "not go overboard" with this year's UGM in light of the poor economy, she said.
In fact, the company also offered "recession pricing" to convention goers, charging $300 rather than $600 per person, she said.
"We can imagine a lot of organizations are watching how much they are spending on things like travel," she said.
Even with the discount, this is the first year the UGM hasn't grown by hundreds of people. But management doesn't seem bothered.
"We believe flat is the new up," Rhody quipped.
The event is, as always, a boon for area hotels, as Epic holds roughly 2,500 rooms in the Madison area. That includes all 109 rooms at the Holiday Inn Express and Suites on West Verona Avenue, said general manager Charlie Eggen.
"The rooms go quick that week," he said.
Likewise, 25 of the 43 rooms at the Super 8 Motel will be occupied by UGM attendees, said manager Keri Hall. And Epic has reserved 35 for next year.
This is the third year Epic has hosted the event in Verona, as prior UGMs were scattered across several locations in Madison. But the big dinner had been held recently at the Alliant Energy Center in Madison, so this is the first year that everything will be in Verona.
This year, an expected 3,000 or so folks - mostly customers - will eat in a temporary 62,000-square-foot tent erected on Epic's grounds.
A new four-level parking garage that opened this summer will also allow Epic to avoid using the empty lot at the former John Erickson Chevrolet for overflow parking, as it did last year.
For local residents, the UGM likely won't be that noticeable, other than the extra rush-hour bus traffic on North Main Street and West Verona Avenue.
Verona police will also have officers on hand to direct traffic at signals near Epic Lane and West Verona Avenue and at Northern Lights and Nine Mound roads during peak times.
