Kathy Visser-May | November 6, 2018

If you combine humor, intelligence, and amazing experiences, what do you get? Acumatica Summit 2019 Keynote speaker Mike Massimino. What he has to say will not only entertain but also inspire everyone in attendance.

Star Trek fans will recognize this: “Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Its five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!” But Mike Massimino, Keynote speaker for Acumatica Summit 2019, has been to the final frontier.

Acumatica customers, partners, and developers who attend our annual cloud ERP event will get to hear all about his space missions and how teamwork, leadership, passion, and innovation were essential components to his success. With his trademark humor, he’ll also explain how these four ingredients are essential to the success of companies undergoing one of the main themes of the Summit: digital transformation.

Simply put, digital transformation is transforming business processes by changing company culture and implementing modern technology. We’ll discuss this further but let me introduce Mike first.

All about Mike: NASA astronaut, professor, author, explorer, and more

Mike has, by all accounts, been very successful. This is nowhere more evident than in the fact that the street he grew up on in Franklin Square, NY, has been renamed after him.

Seriously, though, if you read his website bio, you’ll see that the 56-year-old has earned degrees in mechanical engineering and technology from Columbia University and MIT; worked as an engineer for such organizations as IBM, NASA, and McDonnell Douglas Aerospace; received multiple awards including two NASA Space Flight Medals, the NASA Distinguished Service Medal, and more; and is currently a professor at Columbia University and a Senior Advisor for Space Programs at the Intrepid Sea, Air, and Space Museum. He’s appeared on “The Big Bang Theory” and hosted Science Channel’s “The Planets”. And, he’s somehow found time to pen a NY Bestseller, Spaceman.

But he’s probably most well-known for being a NASA astronaut and for being the first person to tweet from space. Here’s what he tweeted: “From orbit: Launch was awesome!! I am feeling great, working hard, & enjoying the magnificent views, the adventure of a lifetime has begun!”

He wasn’t kidding. Between his first mission to repair the Hubble Space Telescope in March 2002 and his second space flight in May 2009, he’s had adventure enough for two lifetimes. Mike has spent 571 hours and 47 minutes in space and has totaled 30 hours and 4 minutes of spacewalking (a team record). He says his dream to be in space began with Neil Armstrong’s walk on the moon. He’s had some challenges along the way, including applying to the wrong (not what he wanted) graduate program (which then led him to the right one), being rejected by NASA three times, and having to overcome his fear of swimming and heights.

His message after these experiences—a message that will resonate in the cloud ERP world—is one of teamwork, leadership, innovation, and passion.

“I wanted to have something I was so passionate about that I’d be willing to risk everything for it,” he writes in his book. “…you only have one life. You have to spend it doing something that matters.”

Teamwork, leadership, passion, and innovation for the cloud ERP space

While on his missions in space, he faced challenges that required innovative problem-solving. He’ll share insights about these challenges and innovations at Acumatica Summit 2019 and how they translate into real-world, cloud ERP scenarios, such as digital transformation. Interestingly, digital transformation and space exploration share the fact that there’s no end in sight for each endeavor. Instead, they’re ongoing journeys filled with research and discovery. And, as Mike believes, this can only happen when the people involved work together as a team.

“That’s how a team works. You help the people around you, and everybody’s better off for it. The crazy thing is that most of the guys wanted to be astronauts, too, but they never saw it as a competition. We were on the same team, where you want everyone around you to be as successful as possible because, in some way or another, their success will become your success,” he writes in Spaceman.

Mike is also a proponent of turning mistakes into life lessons. “You can learn a lot by getting knocked down, and I got knocked down over and over again. And every time, I got up and kept going.”

Companies going through digital transformation efforts, such as implementing a new cloud ERP solution, must understand that it won’t be easy or problem free, but it will be worth it. Any time you choose to implement modern technology, you’re choosing to deliver high value to your users, increased efficiency in the workplace, and continued growth for your business. We at Acumatica work tirelessly on behalf of our customers and partners to ensure that the cloud ERP implementation is successful—something Mike knows all about.

Inspiration and transformation at Acumatica Summit 2019

At Acumatica Summit 2019, the focus is on educating the customer and partner community on the latest features and enhancement to our products, cloud ERP software, and our xRP platform. While on the surface it may not appear to be a passion-filled endeavor, it is for the Acumatica team!

Our customers and partners rely day after day on our cloud ERP solution and xRP platform to streamline their processes, to provide a real-time view of their entire operation, and to accelerate their growth. We’re passionate about providing them with new and exciting innovations, utilizing emerging technologies (such as blockchain, machine learning (ML), and artificial intelligence (AI)), to do so. The same can be said for NASA, who leverages new technologies, such as virtual reality (VR), to train their astronauts.

I’m looking forward to hearing Mike share his stories and his insights into how to succeed in a business world that is everchanging. Register now for Acumatica Summit 2019 (early bird pricing is still available!) at the beautiful Marriott Marquis Houston and get ready to be inspired.

One other thing. Mike’s training as a NASA astronaut candidate started at the Johnson Space Center, located in Houston, Texas—this year’s Summit location. I highly recommend you take this opportunity to visit the place where his dream of going to space finally came true.

As always, please feel free to contact our team at any time to ask questions, provide feedback, or request a demonstration of our comprehensive cloud ERP solution.

If you haven’t yet registered for Acumatica Summit, don’t delay! Early bird pricing ends on November 9.