# Vendor Newsletters and Flock Forward Conference A batch of ~15 Flock-broadcast vendor-marketing emails to Conway PD: monthly "What's In Flight" newsletters (Feb/Mar/Apr 2026), Flock Safety Monthly Product Update broadcasts (May/Jun/Sep/Oct 2025), Flock Forward conference invitations (annual user conference, 2025 + 2026 editions), and the introductory broadcast of the "Flock Advisory Network" (FAN — Flock's pooled-CSM model that replaced dedicated-CSM relationships in early 2026). Individually low-yield (vendor-marketing content), the batch documents the **vendor-engagement surface area** Flock maintains with customer-side admins. ## What's inside **"What's In Flight" monthly newsletters** (3 files: Feb / Mar / Apr 2026) — Flock's monthly product-roadmap newsletter, sent to all customers. **"Flock Safety / Monthly Product Update"** (4 files: May / Jun / Sep / Oct 2025) — the precursor newsletter format (rebranded to "What's In Flight" sometime between Oct 2025 and Feb 2026). **Flock Forward annual user conference correspondence** (7 files): - 2025 edition: "Join us in August for Flock Forward 2025"; "Why You Should Attend Flock Forward 2025" (personalized to Burningham); "Meet the Flock Forward 2025 Speakers" (personalized); "What to expect Flock Forward 2025"; "Lieutenant Burningham join me at Flock Forward" (highly personalized invite). - 2026 edition: "Register Now for Flock Forward 2026"; "Early Access Flock Forward 2026." **"Welcome to Our New Flock Advisory Network"** (1 file) — Flock's announcement of the pooled-CSM model that replaced dedicated CSM relationships in early Jan 2026. ## Key takeaways - **Flock Forward is Flock's annual user conference.** Held in August (2025 edition; 2026 edition presumably also August). Burningham received at least 5 personalized invites for 2025. Whether Burningham (or any Conway PD personnel) attended is not directly recorded in the corpus, but the personalization of multiple invites suggests Flock actively recruited him. - **Conference invites are personalized at the Lieutenant level.** Three of the seven Flock Forward emails are addressed individually to "Lieutenant Burningham" by Flock executives — a vendor-cultivation signal. The pattern of personally addressing customer-side admins is characteristic of high-touch B2B sales-and-CSM motions. - **The "Flock Advisory Network" (FAN) launch in early Jan 2026 is a meaningful organizational change at Flock.** Replacing dedicated CSMs with pooled CSMs reduces relationship continuity for Conway PD (and for thousands of other agencies). It also means Conway's CSM identity changes from "Melissa Lee" to "whoever in the FAN pool picks up the next ticket" (e.g., Gena Hatch, Emmie Tajik per [[Flock Cameras Apr 2026 City Council QA Thread]]). This may reduce the surface area for vendor capture (no single relationship to nurture) but also reduces accountability traceability (no single CSM owns long-term outcomes). - **Monthly product newsletters carry roadmap signal.** The "What's In Flight" / "Monthly Product Update" content likely surfaces upcoming product features before they reach Conway PD operationally. A chronological read of all 7 newsletter files would map Flock's product-feature rollout cadence — useful for the synthesis essay on vendor capture / roadmap influence. - **Flock's customer-facing communication cadence is high.** Across newsletters (monthly) + conference invites (multiple per year) + product-feature broadcasts + audit-policy explainers + political-PR communications + standard CSM check-ins, Conway PD's Flock admin (Burningham) receives roughly **3-5 vendor-broadcast or vendor-touchpoint communications per week**. This volume is itself a soft form of vendor capture: the customer-side admin's information environment is saturated with vendor-curated framings. ## People and orgs mentioned - [[Lt. Andrew Burningham]] — recipient of all newsletters + conference invites. - [[Flock Safety, Inc.]] — sender. - *Specific Flock authors: typically Flock executives (CEO Garrett Langley sometimes signs Flock Forward invites; SVP Chris Colwell for product/policy newsletters; CSM-of-record for personalized invites).* ## Concepts invoked - [[Surveillance Vendor Capture - Roadmap Influence]] — high-cadence vendor messaging is a soft-power form of capture. ## Events documented - *2025-08 — Flock Forward 2025 annual conference (held; Conway PD attendance unknown).* - *2026-Q1 → ~Q3 — Flock Forward 2026 registration window.* - *2026-01 — Flock Advisory Network launch (replaces dedicated-CSM model).* ## Cross-references - [[Audit-System Policy Emails (Aug 2025 - Apr 2026)]] — policy-newsletter genre; companion to the product-newsletter genre here. - [[Vendor PR and Political Communications]] — political-defense-messaging genre; another communication mode. - [[Account Management Series (Discussions, Q3 Updates, FY26 Planning)]] — operational check-in genre. ## Open questions / follow-ups 1. **Did Conway PD personnel attend Flock Forward 2025 or 2026?** If yes, travel records, training-event approvals, or attendance rosters would be FOIA-discoverable from Conway PD or City of Conway — a candidate for a future records request. 2. **Flock Advisory Network operational impact.** Has Conway PD seen reduced CSM relationship continuity since Jan 2026? The April 2026 City Council Q&A thread shows three different Flock people involved (Gena Hatch, Emmie Tajik, Melissa Lee handing off) — supporting the pooled-CSM hypothesis. 3. **Monthly product newsletter content analysis.** A chronological read of the 7 newsletter files would map Flock's product-feature rollout to Conway-facing operational changes. A later research step.