Every year, we spend months getting MACC’s Billing & Technology Conference ready: sessions, schedules, venues, agendas, and a thousand small details. And every year, our customers show up and remind us that the best parts are the ones we didn’t plan.

MBTC 2026 ran two weeks in Omaha, September 2 to 4 and September 9 to 11, and both sessions gave us a lot to bring home. Here are five things that stood out.

1. Our customers are ready for modern tools.

Going into MBTC 2026, we weren’t sure how the room would feel about a new platform, a new interface, and new workflows. That’s a real adjustment, and change fatigue is something we take seriously in this industry.

Instead, what we heard was enthusiasm. The conversations around MACC | ONE were energized and open. Customers wanted more of it, and they wanted it sooner.

One of the clearest messages we heard was: “We’re ready. We want ALL the tools.” The most consistent piece of feedback wasn’t concern about what’s different. It was a request for the full tool set inside MACC | ONE, faster.

That’s a good problem to have. Hearing that urgency directly from the people using the platform every day carries more weight than any internal planning conversation, and it pushes us to stay on pace.

2. Our customers really did “get comfortable.”

We named this year’s theme Getting Comfortable with MACC | ONE, and it turned out that’s exactly what people wanted to do.

Both sessions included a four-hour, hands-on Jumpstart training block led by Cynthia, built for teams new to MACC | ONE who wanted to get oriented fast. We expected solid interest. We got a lot more than that.

Session 1 filled the room. We had to move Jumpstart to a larger space for Session 2.

Watching people arrive uncertain and leave with real, working confidence was one of the best things we saw across both weeks. Cynthia and the training team put in the work, and our customers showed up fully for it. That combination is hard to beat, and it tells us the format is worth keeping.

3. Our customers are doing work that deserves to be recognized.

This year we introduced the Innovation Awards, a new session where customers shared what they’d been building, solving, and accomplishing over the past year. We knew our customers were doing good work. We didn’t have the full picture until they told us themselves.

Congratulations to our 2026 Innovation Award winners: CASSCOMM and Cochrane Co-op Telephone. Both organizations will have an attendee join us at MBTC 2027 at no cost. They’ve earned it.

And a genuine thank-you to every organization that stepped up to participate: Hawkeye Telephone Company, Peoples Telecom LLC, Scott County Telephone Cooperative, and Sully Telephone. The Innovation Awards only work because customers are willing to share their stories in front of a room full of peers. That takes confidence, and we’re grateful for it. We hope this becomes a permanent part of MBTC going forward.

4. Change is scary. Honest conversations help.

Modernization is real, and none of it is frictionless: new onboarding timelines, retraining, and workflow changes are part of the deal. That’s worth saying plainly.

What we heard across both sessions is that providers care less about things being seamless and more about the conversation being honest. When we’re transparent about where things stand, what’s coming, and what’s still being worked through, customers can plan around that reality. Vague updates, or a rosier version of progress than what’s actually happening inside someone’s billing office, are much harder to work with.

The sessions where people left feeling most settled were the ones where we sat in the real situation together and talked it through clearly, even without every answer. Change is hard, and resilience takes practice, especially for providers who stay in close communication with their teams, their peers, and us. We take that responsibility seriously.

5. This industry knows how to have fun.

Day 1 wrapped up the evening at Fat Putter’s, competitive, loud, and thoroughly ridiculous minigolf. Day 2 brought a Paint & Sip night that was less competitive… but just as chaotic and fun. Both evenings were exactly what a conference night should be: low pressure, real conversations, and a lot of laughter.

Then, on Session 2’s final morning, downtown Omaha’s internet quietly went somewhere else entirely. Thanks, Verizon. We worked through it, laughed through it, and added it to the short list of things only MBTC attendees will fully appreciate.

Here’s what we’re really taking home.

We’re leaving MBTC 2026 with plenty of notes about products, workflows, training, and ideas for what’s next. But our biggest takeaways were a little more human.

Our customers are ready, curious, and willing to learn. They’re doing great things, they’ll tell us straight when something isn’t working, and they know how to have a good time along the way. That’s a pretty good group to build the future with.

The MACC team looks forward to these two weeks every year. Getting to meet customers face to face, hear what’s working and what isn’t, and simply be in the same room together, that’s really what MBTC is for us. It’s two weeks with the people we build this software for.

We’re already looking forward to 2027.

If you have questions about MACC | ONE or want to stay close to what’s coming next, reach out to our team anytime. We’re always glad to talk!