I attend a lot of conferences every year, and while some are good, few are great. In the “great” category would definitely be the Evernote Trunk Conference, which was both informative and fun! I don’t know that I’ve ever attended a conference where literally everyone – both developers and users – were excited to be there. Usually people attend conferences like these because they have to – but it was clear that people were at the Evernote Trunk Conference because they WANTED to be there. Amazing.

The conference kicked off on Friday at the Concourse in San Francisco with a keynote from Evernote CEO Phil Libin, who discussed the growth and evolution of the platform, and the explosion in growth of users (and the company itself). He also unveiled two important announcements – Evernote Business and the Evernote/Moleskine partnership.

Evernote Business is of particular interest to me, as I frequently work with businesses on integrating Evernote into their workflow as a helpful tool to start getting things done. This new offering will allow businesses to administer multiple Evernote accounts, have more control over ownership of company notebooks (versus private, user-owned notebooks), shared billing for accounts, dedicated support, and more. This will help businesses who’ve been using Evernote overcome many of the limitations of using private accounts for business purposes. Evernote Business will launch in the fall, but you can sign up for the beta at http://evernote.com/business

Evernote has also partnered up with famed notebook maker Moleskine, for the ultimate paper/digital note-taking mashup. With a special Evernote-themed Moleskine notebook, you’ll be able to handwrite notes, then take a photo using the Evernote app on your phone. Once the photo is received by Evernote, it will automatically be recognized, categorized, and tagged based on parameters that you’ve previously selected. By using “Smart Stickers” included with each notebook, you’ll be able to indicate where you’d like the notes you’ve taken to be saved in your Evernote account. Imagine taking meeting notes by hand, then have them automatically be sent into your “Meetings” notebook in Evernote, where they’d be searchable and archived permanently. Handy!

As the Evernote Productivity Ambassador, I spent a good chunk of the rest of Friday at the Ambassador Lounge. I hung out with my fellow Ambassadors, and had a chance to meet many of the Evernote users who post on my productivity forum on the Evernote site, along with sharing tips and ideas with people who are both new and experienced Evernote users. It’s extremely rare that I get to chat with people who also love and use Evernote as much as I do, so this was a real treat!

This is also where my co-author Lindsey C. Holmes and I held the book launch and signing for our brand-new book, INTEGRATE: Evernote. In the spirit of going paperless, We used iPads to do the first “digital book signing” using handwriting app Penultimate (an Evernote product). As this is my first book launch, being face-to-face with the people purchasing it and signing the cover for them was super-cool. You can learn more about INTEGRATE: Evernote at http://book.integratewith.us

Friday night, there was a great party with video games, skee ball, cotton candy, and a chance to get to learn more from Trunk partners FileThis Fetch, Meshin, Shoeboxed, and more. They also had a fun photo booth from OMGBooth (see my pic with my fellow Ambassadors). But I couldn’t stay long, as I had to prepare for Saturday morning…

Where I led the INTEGRATE: Evernote bootcamp, along with my co-author and co-presenter Lindsey C. Holmes. In this three-hour class, we discussed how to optimize and extend what Evernote can do for you by integrating third-party Trunk tools into your Evernote workflow. Lindsey shared some great ideas for using Evernote to create a digital vision board and how to use it to automate your marketing (and your life!). I showed attendees how they can use Evernote to become the hub of their digital, paperless world, and how to use Evernote and its integrations to document and share business processes and workflow. Attendees were super-engaged, and it was a really fun class to teach!

The weekend wrapped up with the Ambassador Brunch on Sunday morning over at Ironside in San Francisco, near AT&T Park. This was a great way to chat with attendees and get their thoughts on the weekend, and learn more about how and why they’re using Evernote. It was really fun to get to know people in a smaller setting – and with really great food, no less! I chose the restaurant – attendees, you’re welcome!

All in all, the Evernote Trunk Conference was super-fun for me. I was able to geek out on one of my favorite tools with other people who feel the same way about it and its usefulness, and got an inside peek at what’s coming up next. I hope to see you there next year!

If you’re wondering how to implement a custom Evernote workflow, we’d be happy to chat with you. Contact us for a complimentary strategy session by going to http://www.customlivingsolutions.com/Apply

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