Support Driven Launches SDX Portland: First Conference Dedicated to Developing Customer Support Skil

PORTLAND, Ore. - July 12, 2017 - PRLog -- Support Driven (https://supportdriven.com/), a diverse, hands-on community of customer support professionals, is proud to announce its inaugural Support Driven Exposition, SDX Portland, on Saturday, July 22nd.  Presented by Help Scout (https://www.helpscout.net/), the leading  provider of customer support service and software, this unique conference will focus on teaching the skills needed to take customer support careers to the next level.

According to a Forrester (https://www.forrester.com/72+Of+Businesses+Name+Improving+Customer+Experience+Their+Top+Priority/-/E-PRE9109) report, 72% of businesses say that improving the customer experience is their top priority. With more businesses recognizing customer service as an essential part of their growth strategy, the industry is on the rise. Support Driven offers customer service and support professionals a forum to hone their skills and further master their craft.

"SDX is a great opportunity to share experiences and learn from others who work in support," said Heather Knight, a Business Travel Coordinator at Airbnb. "We'll come away with new skills we can incorporate into our daily work and help our community."

SDX harnesses the vast experience and knowledge from the Support Driven community to create an event for professionals who want to grow their career in customer support. From those on the front lines to managers and executives - this event offers education and skills training in customer support, management and self-development. SDX originated from both feedback and demand within the support community, raising over $30,000 via a Kickstarter Campaign (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/supportdriven/sdx-ta...).

"We're excited to sponsor SDX Portland because of its focus on the global customer support community and careers within that," said Andrew Spittle, Happiness Engineer at Automattic. "Part of our creed (https://automattic.com/creed/) at Automattic is to never stop learning. We're eager to learn from others and share some of our own lessons. Every Support Driven event is an opportunity for us to bring lessons back to our global support team."

The conference features a lineup of dozens of notable support professionals including:

• Emily Triplett Lentz, Blog Editor & Mo McKibbin, Customer Champion – Help Scout (https://www.helpscout.net/)
• Andrea Badgley & Zandy Ring, Happiness Engineers – Automattic (https://automattic.com/)
• Sarah Saadatjoo, ‎Assistant Director of Customer Support – MailChimp (https://mailchimp.com/)
• Ben McCormack, Customer Support – FullStory (https://www.fullstory.com/)
• Nora West, Customer Success – Guru (https://www.getguru.com/)
• Sarah Betts, Feels Herder – Olark (https://www.olark.com/)
• Beck Gorman, Community Support Specialist – TED (https://www.ted.com/) Conferences

The SDX Conference will teach attendees things like: leveling up without becoming a manager, dealing with difficult customers, and being a better advocate for your users. Taking place from 9am – 5pm, talks will be 15-20-minutes and workshops will be 45 minutes There will be two talks happening during each workshop. Participants will be able to jump between talks, as desired, throughout the day.

"All of the sessions and talks at SDX are designed with the support professional in mind, and tailored so they can immediately use the skills gleaned from the event," said Scott Tran, Organizer at Support Driven. "Support and customer service, culture and values are the key differentiators that move the needle for businesses."

SDX Portland will be taking place on Saturday, July 22nd at Portland State University, 1825 SW Broadway in Portland, OR. For tickets or more information, please visit, http://sdx.supportdriven.com/.

"SDX Portland addresses new trends we are seeing in customer support for businesses," said Nick Francis, CEO of Help Scout and title sponsor of the conference. "These services are becoming revenue generators and retainers. Because of this, more will be expected from support teams. Education and training will be required to meet these new demands."

For more information about title sponsor Help Scout, please visit, HelpScout.com (https://www.helpscout.net/).

###

About Support Driven

Support Driven is a community dedicated to support as a career. Over 2000 members get together online and in person to discover how to improve support, what's next in support, and to build relationships across the support community.

About Help Scout

Help Scout makes customer support and email management software more human for over 7500 companies in over 140 countries. Businesses, nonprofit organizations, educational institutions, and healthcare companies use Help Scout to manage customer relationships and conversations at scale, while working within a familiar, friendly, and powerful user experience.

Media Contact:

North 6th Agency, Inc. (For Help Scout)

212-334-9753

helpscout@n6a.com