Box conference wants users to move beyond file sharing

By Emily Rushton

Cloud storage is more than just a place to store all your files – it’s also a better way for organizations to collaborate and share ideas.

That’s the message that BoxWorks, the annual cloud conference hosted by Box, gave its attendees at this year’s conference in San Francisco, CA. University Information Technology (UIT) employees John Wardle, product manager; Jody Sluder, project manager; and Amir Masood, systems administrator, all had the privilege of attending.

“I found BoxWorks to be an extremely helpful learning opportunity,” said Wardle.

The conference boasted a multitude of well-known keynote speakers, including Jeff Weiner, CEO for LinkedIn; Rebecca Jacoby, CIO and SVP for Cisco; and Aaron Levie, Box’s own CEO and co-founder.

But it wasn’t all about interesting speakers.

“Throughout the conference, a key theme from Box as an enterprise content collaboration platform was ‘moving beyond file sharing,’” said Wardle. 

The conference offered more than 50 technical and hands-on sessions, spanning a wide range of topics including security, collaboration, implementation, and Box functionality and best practices.

One session in particular focused on higher education and stood out for both Sluder and Wardle as one of the best ones they’d attended.

“There were some really creative ways that other universities were using Box,” said Sluder.

One included a foreign language professor who required his students to record themselves saying sentences, and then upload those recordings to Box to be graded as homework.

Another was a swimming instructor who would swim alongside his students and record them on video, then share the video on Box to teach the student ways to improve on technique.

In another session, attendees learned about a new functionality called Box Notes – a feature that allows a user to create documents, take notes and share ideas in real-time with anyone, all without ever leaving the Box application.

“I was excited to try that out,” said Sluder.

Overall, BoxWorks provided an opportunity for businesses and organizations to learn how to use Box on a more innovative and collaborative level.

“I do think their goal in all of this is to help make people and organizations more productive,” said Wardle. “So far, it’s working.”