by Patricia Lundy

Aragon Transform 2020 was a 2-day event filled with analyst insights, expert panels, and three awards ceremonies. Day 1 kicked off with a hybrid work panel and ended with the Hot Vendor awards—read the recap here! Day 2 was our final day of programming and included our Women In Tech panel and Women In Tech and Innovation Awards Ceremony. Plus, we had a bonus event for our sponsors and their guests! Read on to learn what you missed.

Women In Tech Panel: Featuring Leaders from Cross Country Consulting, Fuze, and Nintex

Our Women In Tech panel kicked off Day 2 of Transform. It was focused on tackling the answers to the questions that have been plaguing all of us this year: how does my organization pivot? How do my people survive this, and not only survive, but thrive? How can I support a more empathetic organization? The major takeaway was that every single organization can find new ways to better support their people—it’s not one size fits all. Having an attitude of empathy and flexibility goes a long way.

VP Research Betsy Burton moderated the panel and provides a deep-dive of all the insights shared—covered here. 

Women In Tech Awards: Engaging Presenters and Winners In 9 Categories

The second event of the day was our highly anticipated Women In Technology awards. It was an event that I was so excited to moderate! This award category recognizes outstanding women in technology—women who lead by example, who bring an innovative approach to any challenge they may come up against, and who inspire others to build a better workplace, and beyond. 

Our former Women In Tech winners and committee members made several appearances throughout the evening, introducing different categories and announcing the winners themselves! This award wouldn’t be possible without them, and it was great to have our audience meet the faces behind the committee. 

This year, we presented this award to 9 different women! 

Analyst Relations: Anne Blomquist, Cisco

CEO: Shelly Heiden, Vbrick Systems

CIO: Praniti Lakhwara, Apptus/Conga

COO/Operations: Kavita Ryali, Numly, Inc.

Human Resources: Renée Holland, Contentstack

Legal: Kimberly Lytikainen, Five9

Marketing: Aruna Ravichandran, Cisco

Public Relations: Payal Cudia, Fuze

Sales: Gordana Vuckovic, Contentstack

Did you know our Women In Tech award nominations for 2021 are already open? Nominate a colleague, friend, or mentor before March 31st, 2021. 

Innovation Awards: Recognizing Achievement In an Incredibly Difficult Year

Awards ceremony #2 on Day 2 of Transform followed immediately after the Women In Tech Awards. These awards were presented by various members of our analyst team, who are experts in each of these technology areas. 

Innovation awards are exciting because they recognize providers in a market who are game changers and who are consistently out-innovating their competition and changing the workplace and business as we know it. We were so proud to recognize these providers across 11 different categories:

Artificial Intelligence: Google

Conversational AI: IBM Watson

Digital Work Hubs: Google

Enterprise Content Management: Nuxeo

Intelligent Contact Center: Five9

Learning: Inkling

Web and Video Conferencing: Zoom

Unified Communications and Collaboration: RingCentral

Digital Transaction Management: HelloSign, a Dropbox Company

Workflow and Content Automation: Nintex

Sales Engagement: Seismic

These awards are now open for nominations now, too! Just make sure to submit your nomination—whether for your company or a client—by March 31st, 2021.

Bonus Event: Sponsor Happy Hour, Complete With Games and Prohibition-Era Cocktails

One of the best parts of Aragon Transform is the networking. And we don’t just mean small talk, we mean making real connections over delicious beverages and hors d'oeuvres! That’s hard to do during a pandemic, when everything’s gone completely virtual. But we did our best to bridge the digital divide by hosting a virtual happy hour, sponsored by Avaya, Nintex, Fuze, HelloSign, and RingCentral—our 5 amazing Transform sponsors!

Sponsors were able to invite their guests of choice, and we all took part in creating 2 delicious Prohibition-era cocktails, with fun games mixed in-between. It was a great way to get people out of their shells and wrap-up the event! To make it extra special, we sent out an Aragon Happy Hour Kit (which had a box of Moose Munch—so addictive and good!). We may only have our computers to connect, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have fun. 

If you're interested in being a sponsor at next year's Transform event, talk to your account manager. Don't have an account manager? Contact us to start your journey with Aragon.

And That’s a Wrap!

That’s a wrap on Day 2 of Transform. We spent months preparing for it, and it went by so fast! It’s almost time to get to planning next year’s…. But in the meantime, make sure to get your award nominations in. And catch the replay of all Transform content here!