Keynote Speakers
  • Tricia Wang
    Tricia Wang is a world-renowned tech ethnographer and TED Speaker. Her work on “thick data” combines qualitative and quantitative approaches to understand complex human behaviors. Tricia collaborates with Fortune 500 companies and startups, providing strategic guidance for innovation and bridging the gap between data-driven insights and the human side of technology.
  • John Ragsdale
    John Ragsdale is a distinguished researcher and the vice president of technology ecosystems for TSIA. His area of expertise is in assisting enterprise technology firms with the selection and value realization of tools and platforms, with a constant focus on the customer experience.
  • Cassie Kozyrkov
    As Chief Decision Scientist at Google Cloud, Cassie Kozyrkov advises leadership teams on decision process, AI strategy, and building data-driven organizations. She is the innovator behind bringing the practice of Decision Intelligence to Google, personally training over 22,000 Googlers.
  • Krishna Raj Raja
    Krishna founded SupportLogic in 2016 to transform the role of customer support. As the first hire for VMware India, Krishna helped build and scale the company’s support organization globally. Now as CEO of SupportLogic, he helps some of the largest B2B technology companies in the world optimize their support experience.
Day 1 Theme:
Generative AI and Support Experience
Tuesday, June 13th, 2023
8:00 AM PT
Welcome & Introduction
Joe Andrews, Chief Marketing Officer, SupportLogic
8:15 AM PT
Opening Keynote: Embracing the Velocity of Change. Why Support Experience is your new moat in the AI Revolution
Krishna Raj Raja, Founder and CEO, SupportLogic
The modern business landscape is experiencing an unprecedented acceleration in the velocity of change with technologies like AI. In parallel, effective customer service and support play a crucial role in driving customer satisfaction, loyalty, and overall business success. Tools like Gen AI present many opportunities and challenges to ensure exceptional customer experiences, and organizations must prioritize the monitoring of customer interactions.

In this opening keynote, Krishna delves into the significance of monitoring customer support interactions and its impact on business outcomes. He also shares invaluable insights and practical strategies to help organizations optimize their customer interactions monitoring processes.
9:15 AM PT
Guest Keynote: The Human Side of Data. Leveraging Thick Data to Understand Customer Experiences
Tricia Wang, Co-Founder + Executive Director at CRADL
(Crypto Research & Design Lab)
In the age of big data, we often find ourselves drowning in a sea of numbers and metrics when trying to understand the needs and desires of our customers. However, buried within this vast ocean of quantitative data lies a powerful and often overlooked resource: thick data.

Tricia Wang, a renowned data ethnographer and tech anthropologist, discusses the critical role of thick data in uncovering the authentic voice of the customer. Thick data offers qualitative insights derived from deep engagement with individuals and communities, focusing on nuances, emotions, and cultural context that shape customer experiences. By combining ethnographic methods, human-centered approaches, and data analytics, organizations can gain a holistic understanding of customer needs.
10:00 AM PT
Opportunities and Risks of Generative AI for Support: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Deepam Mishra, Sr. Advisor, AI and ML to Startups and Venture Capital, AWS
Explore the opportunities and risks of using generative AI in customer support, with a focus on safety and security concerns. Learn about the potential benefits of generative AI, such as automating support workflows and enhancing customer experiences. And discuss the risks associated with data privacy, information security, and ethical considerations.
11:00 AM PT
Generative AI: The Catalyst to Transforming your Customer Experience
Patrick Martin, General Manager, Service Solutions at Coveo
In the last few months, there has been huge hype around generative AI and how it will transform the customer experience. Conversational AI has been around for several years with mitigated success, so how is this different?

In this session, Patrick Martin talks about generative AI and its different applications in the Customer Support/Service industry. He also explores how this new technology will change how customers are served across all channels.
11:45 AM PT
Panel: Conversational AI, do you build or buy?
EJ Liao, VP of Product, Forethought
Shekar Murthy, CCO, Yellow.ai
Howie Xu, SVP of Eng and AI, Palo Alto Networks
Moderated by Jocelyn Goldfein, Managing Director, Zetta Venture Partners
Delve into the heart of Conversational AI, ChatGPT, and LLMs and explore benefits, challenges, and the tradeoffs of building an in-house solution vs using a third-party vendor. Gain insight on ensuring safety, trust, compliance, and the profound impact on brand experience. We also cover how organizations can mitigate these risks through technology and the best practices they can follow to get the most out of this technology.
12:00 PM PT
Support Experience and Its Role in Business Transformation
Rebecca Wettemann, CEO and Principal Analyst, Valoir
Rebecca unveils insights from Valoir’s primary research and discusses the main reasons companies choose to invest in AI to augment their existing CRM or ticket management applications. She also covers the four steps to building a business case for support experience management, and best practices for achieving credible, sustainable, and consistent results.
12:30 PM PT
Panel: People First. Operationalizing Global Support In a Tough Economy
Deepak Chawla, SVP, Global Product Support, UI Path
Jerry Stalick, Former VP, Customer Experiences and Services, F5
Chris Warticki, Vice President, Customer Experience, Epicor
Moderated by Judith Platz, CCO, SupportLogic
Explore the challenges of multilingual support and hiring technical talent, and how technology can help overcome them. Learn about the fascinating intersection of language translation, stable networks, and leveraging technology for exceptional customer support worldwide. Join industry experts and gain valuable insights into prioritizing people, utilizing technology, and driving customer satisfaction and business growth in a global context.
1:00 PM PT
The Road to Support Efficiency and Better Outcomes
Tom Sweeny, CEO, ServiceXRG
Support must transform to find better ways to drive efficiency and attain improved outcomes without compromising the support experience. Support leaders must focus resources on initiatives that will make the biggest impact and justify incremental funding by making the case for Support’s contributions to the business.

This session offers focused research insights to facilitate the successful execution of initiatives that increase support efficiency and deliver measurable outcomes. Topics include establishing key performance metrics to measure support efficiency, outcomes, and the overall contribution of support to the business.
1:30 PM PT
Tackling the Challenges of Supporting Modern SaaS Applications
Husam Najib, Vice President, Support, Rippling
Vineet Puri, SVP & Co-Head Global Client Services, Cvent
Dave Yusuf, SVP, Customer Support, Q2 Software
Moderated by Joe Andrews, CMO, SupportLogic
Discover strategies to effectively support modern SaaS applications and ensure a positive customer experience. Explore how to stay ahead of the curve and adapt your support processes to handle the unique demands of SaaS.

We also explore how support experience (SX) plays a crucial role in supporting and integrating SaaS products. Gain insights into best practices for seamless onboarding, troubleshooting, and ongoing support of innovative products and services.
Day 2 Theme:
Support & Customer Success Collaboration
Wednesday, June 14th, 2023
8:45 AM PT
Day 2 Welcome and Recap
Joe Andrews, CMO, SupportLogic
John Kelly, COO, SupportLogic
9:00 AM PT
Guest Keynote: Support + Success: Better Together
John Ragsdale, Distinguished Researcher, Vice President of Technology Ecosystems at Technology Services Industry Association (TSIA)
Customer success outcomes often depend on delivering a good support experience, according to The Technology and Services Industry Association (TSIA). In particular, lower resolution times and high assisted support satisfaction correlate to higher renewal rates.

John Ragsdale, a distinguished researcher and the vice president of technology ecosystems for TSIA, presents “Support + Success: Better Together”, a keynote on the importance of harnessing support insights to accomplish the goals of customer success and the business as a whole.
10:00 AM PT
Business Outcomes Through Success and Support Synergies: No New Headcount Needed
Marlene Summers, Vice President, Product Success, Salesforce
Designed for Customer Success and Support Service leaders, you will learn five program initiatives to address burning customers' needs and foster a healthy culture of team collaboration, without the need for investment.
  • Permissions and Licensing - Mapping “I bought It” to “Turning It on”
  • Routing the dreaded “Out of Scope” issues
  • Implementation Support: Who you gonna call when Professional Services isn’t an option
  • Co-Piloting Technical Resolutions through your Engineering organization
  • Product Feedback - Two voices are louder than one
The end result? Your customers get what they want without having to navigate through your internal org chart and escalate to the C-Suite.
10:30 AM PT
Panel: Elevating Customer Experience with Strong Cross-Functional Collaboration
Taylor Armstrong, Director Of CX Operations, GlossGenius
Dean Robison, SVP of Customer Service and Support, ServiceNow
Bobby Sands, VP Customer Excellence, Avalara
Jessica Umayam, Manager, Customer Excellence, Avalara
Moderated by Judith Platz, CCO, SupportLogic
How support and customer success teams can better collaborate with cross-functional teams to elevate the customer experience. This panel discusses the tools, processes, management, and outcomes vital for success.
11:00 AM PT
Panel: Best Practices for QM and Coaching 
Using Automation
Nir Galpaz, Group Vice President Technical Services and Support, 8x8
Eddie Gonzalez, Vice President Technical Operations, Bandwidth

David Wilson, Senior Director, Support Operations and Strategy, Doordash

Moderated by Harish Batlapenumarthy, Vice President, Product & Ecosystem, SupportLogic
Quality management is critical to ensuring exceptional customer experiences and driving customer satisfaction. However, traditional manual approaches can be time-consuming, resource-intensive, and prone to human error. That's where AI-assisted automation and coaching come into play.

Our panel of support leaders share their insights and firsthand experiences in leveraging automation and coaching to enhance quality management in support operations. Discover how automation can revolutionize how you monitor interactions, evaluate performance, and identify areas for improvement. This session also covers establishing a coaching culture that fosters continuous learning, empowers agents, and helps them reach their full potential.
11:00 AM PT
5 Ways Customer Success Can Use Support Data to Reduce Churn
Max Greene, Sr. Customer Support Manager, SupportLogic
Ryan Radcliff, Sr. Product Marketing Manager, SupportLogic
Harnessing customer support insights can have a profound effect on your entire organization, starting with CSMs. When your customer success team doesn’t know about a customer’s support tickets, they may not realize there are recurring issues they could help address. When customer success harnesses customer sentiment and support data, they’re better equipped to address problems proactively. And they have the precise, clear-cut data they need to retain customers. We outline the workflows that lead to our own customers’ success and show how we bring that into Gainsight.
11:30 AM PT
Panel: Lessons Learned - Perspectives from a Decade in Customer Success
Omer Gotlieb, Co-Founder & CEO at Salespeak
, former Co-Founder & CCO at Totango
Shreesha Ramdas, Co-Founder and former CEO, Strikedeck (Medallia)
Dan Steinman, Chief Evangelist, Gainsight
Moderated by Joe Andrews, CMO, SupportLogic
Customer success is an ever-evolving discipline that requires constant adaptation. Our panelists reflect on their extensive journey, discussing the challenges faced, successes achieved, and valuable lessons acquired along the way. Hear firsthand accounts of the strategies, tactics, and best practices that have proven effective in delivering exceptional customer outcomes and driving business growth.

The panelists also discuss the evolving landscape of customer success, sharing their insights on emerging trends, shifting customer expectations, and the future direction of the field.
12:00 PM PT
Product Experience Reimagined Through Support
Ben Gardner, VP of Customer Support, Drift
Building a partnership with your product teams is pivotal to the success of your customers, the customer team, and the product organization. Some ways to ensure success for everyone is by developing ways to:
  • Partner on the product release cycle
  • Share insights from current and former customers
  • Define a true escalation process
  • Align organizationally
This session shows how it is done at Drift and how this can help you in two key areas for the industry today: customer retention and self-service.
12:30 PM PT
Case Study: How Salesforce Reduced Escalations and Improved Productivity by Investing in Support Experience
Jennifer Weber, Director, Chief of Staff, Technical Support, Salesforce
Join Jennifer and Max as they lay out how Salesforce took their already top-class support organization to another level by taking prescriptive action on customer signals.
1:00 PM PT
The Five Finance Love Languages: Learning How to Talk to the CFO
Kincy Clark, Director of Support, Bolt
Learn how support leaders can better speak the love languages of finance & accounting. With this knowledge, you will be better prepared to illustrate how support and other CX functions drive value.

This presentation shares perspectives on CFOs that are critical for positioning your support org. Then we'll cover the 5 love languages with practical examples for each:
  • Investment and value
  • Measurement and data
  • Budgets and modeling
  • Key accounting concepts
  • Revenue
1:00 PM PT
Case Study: Pulling Company-wide Insights from Support Cases
Jono Williamson, Director of Solution Consulting, SupportLogic
Support cases are a treasure trove of information that can provide valuable insights into customer needs, product improvements, and business opportunities. Through this case study, Jono discusses tools used to transform support cases into a powerful source of company-wide insights. Discover how to identify patterns and uncover actionable intelligence that can influence product development, marketing strategies, and overall business operations.
1:30 PM PT
Case Study: How to Design Support Services that Customers Actually Value
Dave Seaton, CEO, Seaton CX
Exceptional support experiences don't happen by accident—they're intentionally designed. But how do you know what service elements customers actually value? And how do you decide what to prioritize, and where to scale back?

In this case study, Dave Seaton deconstructs the B2B Voice of the Customer research project and subsequent Support Experience transformation that reduced support-related churn by 66%—and won the 2020 North American Customer Centricity Award for Customer Insight and Feedback.
Day 3 Theme
Empowering Support and Success Organizations
Thursday, June 15th, 2023
8:15 AM PT
Day 3 Welcome and Recap
Joe Andrews, CMO, SupportLogic
Judith Platz, CCO, SupportLogic
8:30 AM PT
Myths, Facts, and Opportunities of Generative AI
Cassie Kozyrkov, Chief Decision Scientist, Google Cloud
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are no longer science fiction, so what does it take to be the kind of innovator that can harness their potential?

Let’s strip away the jargon in machine learning and AI to look at what’s easy and hard and how to spot opportunities to improve the products, services, and support experiences you deliver for your customers.
9:30 AM PT
A Generative AI Roadmap for Better Support Experience
Krishna Raj Raja, Founder and CEO, SupportLogic
Judith Platz, CCO, SupportLogic
Explore the innovation roadmap for SupportLogic SX, the world's first Support Experience (SX) platform.
10:30 AM PT
Panel: Enabling Growth for Support Engineers. The Springboard for Technical Talent
Marilyn Lin, Vice President, Global Customer Support, Delphix
Jason McWhorter, Support Consultant and Former VP of Global Support, Fourth
Marlene Summers, Vice President, Product Success, Salesforce
Moderated by Liz Bronson, VP of People, SupportLogic
Support engineers play a vital role in ensuring customer satisfaction and driving business success. But how can organizations empower and cultivate growth opportunities for these invaluable team members?

Join our panel of industry experts as they share invaluable insights, best practices, and proven strategies for enabling the growth and professional development of support engineers. Discover effective approaches to recruit, onboard, and nurture support engineers, creating an environment that fosters continuous learning and advancement. Learn about the importance of tailored training programs, mentorship opportunities, and ongoing skill development initiatives that empower engineers to expand their technical expertise and enhance their problem-solving capabilities.

Our panelists provide actionable insights to help you optimize the support engineer experience.
11:00 AM PT
Elevating Agent Experience with Generative AI
Asad Akram, Sr. Director of Engineering, SupportLogic
Agent experience plays a crucial role in delivering world-class support experience. Join us as we explore practical techniques to elevate the agent experience and cultivate an environment that fosters success. We also delve into the pivotal role of technology in creating this new ecosystem. Explore the potential of AI-powered tools, knowledge management systems, and intuitive support platforms that simplify workflows, streamline processes, and enable support engineers to deliver exceptional customer experiences.
11:00 AM PT
Winning the Availability Battle: IBM Proactive Support Explained
Bina Hallman, VP, Worldwide Systems Support, IBM
Chris Fender, Offering Leader, IBM Support Insights, IBM
According to the IDC, enterprises should prioritize support services based on workload criticality, considering them as an investment in preserving business value. By relying on vendors for optimized performance, organizations can save significant downtime hours and prevent unplanned outages through predictive and proactive support tools.

IBM believes in achieving these outcomes through a comprehensive support and services strategy. Predictive support analytics provide ongoing insights for preventive maintenance, including security and maintenance coverage alerts to identify potential vulnerabilities and prevent disruptions. Proactive support allows IT staff to focus less on day-to-day maintenance tasks and prioritize problem resolution for mission-critical systems. Join Bina as she examines the two sides of support and how support services can strengthen customer support.
11:30 AM PT
Every Support Case Tells a Story, If You Just Listen!
Emre Tekoglu, VP, Customer Support, Zywave
Join Emre as he presents the importance of listening in customer support. This session will explain how listening can help you understand customers' needs and emotions.
Emre shares examples of situations where listening made a significant difference in resolving a customer's issue and how to leverage AI/NLP solutions to understand each and every case.
12:00 PM PT
Motivation Isn’t the Problem: Using Simple Models to Pinpoint Team Problems
Chad Bates, Director of Support, Aduro
Support managers and executives often chalk up poor performance to a lack of motivation in their struggling employees. Research shows that this is rarely the case. Find simple models to pinpoint the problems that your team encounters and tools to find the right method to close the performance gaps.
12:00 PM PT
AI-Assisted Case Routing: Maximizing Employee Experience, Customer Experience, and Internal Efficiency
Francoise Tourniaire, Founder, FT Works
Charles Monnett, Director of Product Management, SupportLogic
Case routing is often perceived as mundane, yet it plays a pivotal role in shaping the overall support ecosystem. This session challenges the status quo and reveals innovative approaches to revolutionize your case routing processes using Artificial Intelligence. Discover how optimizing case routing can enhance employee experience (ESAT) by ensuring that cases are assigned to the right agents with the relevant skills and expertise. Explore strategies for reducing agent workload, enabling them to focus on delivering exceptional customer experiences while increasing job satisfaction. We also delve into the critical link between effective case routing and customer experience (CSAT). Learn how intelligent case routing facilitates faster response times, accurate issue resolution, and personalized support, boosting customer satisfaction and loyalty.
12:30 PM PT
Hidden Signals: How Support is Getting Proactive by Finding the Needles in the Haystack
Dana Alvarenga, VP Customer Experience, Slapfive
Emre Tekoglu, VP, Customer Support, Zywave
Oren Yaqobi, SVP Customer Success, Redis
Moderated by John Kelly, COO, SupportLogic
Support organizations are no longer content with reactive problem-solving; they are now embracing proactive approaches to identify and address customer needs before they become problems. But how do support teams sift through the haystack of data to find the hidden signals that hold the key to customer satisfaction and loyalty?

Join our panel as they share innovative techniques, cutting-edge technologies, and data-driven strategies that enable support teams to anticipate customer needs and deliver proactive solutions.
1:00 PM PT
How to Build a Pain Chain for Better Adoption and Upsell
Shahab Riazi, Sr. Principal, Customer Success, Box, Inc.
Building Org charts is so yesterday! Building a Pain Chain for an organization, now that's the ticket,...to more upsell and adoption in an organization. In this session, learn how Customer Success Managers can build pain chains for their customers using different research methodologies and implementation maps.
1:30 PM PT
The Power of Satisfied Employees: Unleashing Happy Customers, Retention, and Loyalty
Mohammed Ajouz, SVP, Global Head of Product Support, SAP
Alice Petrovich, Head of the Executive Office, Product Support, SAP
Empowering employees is the hidden secret to boosting customer loyalty and driving customer retention. This transformative approach requires continually reducing employee effort, really listening to your people, and leading with purpose. By investing in true employee empowerment, you can revolutionize the customer experience your company offers.
2:30 PM PT
The Inaugural Support Experience Awards
Al Hahn, Executive Director, The Association of Support Professionals (ASP)
David Kay, Principal, DB Kay & Associates
Judith Platz, Chief Customer Officer, SupportLogic
Francoise Tourniaire, Founder, FT Works
Hosted by Blake Cohlan and Lily Zylstra, SupportLogic
Recognizing organizations, teams, and individuals for innovation, creativity, and process improvements in delivering excellent support experiences.
Industry Leading Speakers
  • Husam Najib
    Vice President, Customer Support
    Rippling
  • Ben Gardner
    VP of Customer Support
    Drift
  • Marlene Summers
    Vice President,
    Product Success
    Salesforce
  • Dean Robison
    SVP, Customer Outcomes
    ServiceNow
  • Deepam Mishra
    Senior Advisor, AI and ML to Startups and Venture Capital
    AWS
  • Marilyn Lin
    Vice President, Global Customer Support
    Delphix
  • Emre Tekoglu
    Vice President Of Customer Support
    Zywave
  • Bina Hallman
    VP, Worldwide Systems Support
    IBM
  • Kincy Clark
    Director of Support
    Bolt
  • Taylor Armstrong
    Director of Customer Experience Ops
    GlossGenius
  • Vineet Puri
    SVP & Co-Head Global Client Services
    Cvent
  • Dan Steinman
    Chief Evangelist
    Gainsight
  • Oren Yaqobi
    Sr. Vice President, Customer Success
    Redis
  • Howie Xu
    SVP of Engineering & AI
    Palo Alto Networks
  • Shekar Murthy
    Chief Customer Officer
    Yellow.ai
  • Dana Alvarenga
    Vice President of Customer Experience
    SlapFive
  • Jocelyn Goldfein
    Managing Director
    Zetta Ventures
  • Shreesha Ramdas
    Co-founder and former CEO
    Strikedeck (Medallia)
  • Shahab Riazi
    Sr. Principal, Customer Success
    Box
  • Omer Gotlieb
    Co-Founder & CEO,
    former Co-Founder & CCO
    Salespeak / Totango
  • Judith Platz
    Chief Customer Officer
    SupportLogic
  • Bobby Sands
    VP, Customer Excellence
    Avalara
  • Jessica Umayam
    Manager, Customer Excellence
    Avalara
  • Patrick Martin
    General Manager, Service Solutions
    Coveo
  • Jennifer Weber
    Director and Chief of Staff, Technical Support
    Salesforce
  • Dave Yusuf
    SVP Customer Success
    Q2
  • Alice Petrovich
    Head of the Executive Office, Product Support
    SAP
  • Tom Sweeny
    CEO & Founder
    ServiceXRG
  • Francoise Tourniaire
    Author of
    The Art of Support
    FT Works
  • Rebecca Wettemann
    Principal
    Valoir
  • Mohammed Ajouz
    Sr. Vice President, Global Head of Product Support
    SAP
  • Dave Seaton

    CEO & Principal Consultant
    Seaton CX
  • Chris Warticki
    VP, Customer Experience
    Epicor
  • Chris Fender
    Offering Leader, IBM Support Insights
    IBM
  • Chad Bates
    Director of Support
    Aduro
  • Deepak Chawla
    SVP, Global Product Support
    UiPath
  • Jason McWhorter
    Support Consultant and Former VP, Global Support
    Fourth
  • Eddie Gonzalez
    Vice President, Technical Operations
    Bandwidth
  • Jerry Stalick
    VP, Customer Experience & Services
    F5
  • Nir Galpaz
    Group Vice President Technical Services and Support
    8x8
  • EJ Liao
    VP of Product
    Forethought
  • Harish Batlapenumarthy
    VP, Ecosystem
    SupportLogic
  • Liz Bronson
    VP of People
    SupportLogic
  • John Kelly
    COO
    SupportLogic
  • Joe Andrews
    Chief Marketing Officer
    SupportLogic
  • Lily Zylstra
    Senior Enterprise SDR
    SupportLogic
  • Max Greene
    Sr. Customer Success Manager
    SupportLogic
  • Ryan Radcliff
    Sr. Product Marketing Manager
    SupportLogic
  • Blake Cohlan
    Sr. Director, Growth Marketing
    SupportLogic
  • Jono Williamson
    Director, Solution Consulting
    SupportLogic
  • Asad Akram
    Sr. Director of Engineering
    SupportLogic