Distributor Conference 2019

Every year in May, my company holds it's annual Distributor Conference for our customers. It is always in Nashville, as we are local here. This week always means 14-16 hours workdays but also features great entertainment, food and catching up with customers one hasn't seen in a year. Because of the busy schedule (even more though this year as I'm now part of the marketing team who plans this conference), we all stay at the hotel in downtown Nashville. The marketing team:

For 2.5 days, there are panel discussion with our industry experts, sales meetings, interactive group session, presentations, company updates and a plant tour. 

At night is when the entertainment starts: Tuesday night we rented the George Jones Rooftop Terrace for dinner and live music. The weather was great and the view over the river and downtown breathtaking:

Small Town Rock Stars (the local house band for our hockey team) have been entertaining us for several years now and our CEO usually sings a song or two with them:

This year, we also hired some professional line dancers to teach us a few new steps. I really enjoyed line dancing and we danced till it got dark outside.

Downtown looks beautiful at night: 

After the evening entertainment ended, most of our customers like to go out Honkytonking. While this is usually the time of day for our team to prep for the last details for the next day, we did went to the Wild Beaver to watch some city cowboys, aka our customers, ride the bull:

The next day we had to get up very early as it was Plant Tour Day and while the customers took the Shuttle Bus over to our facility, we made sure everything was set up correctly. This year, I was in charge of the plant tour to ensure that all our stations are set up correctly and all the products were there and running. 

For lunch this year, we switched it up and had ordered Food Trucks. While waiting in line was a bit annoying, the food options were great, especially the Ice-Cream Truck for dessert. 

Annual Conference Group Photo:

On Wednesday, it was Casino Night at the Bell Tower. There were quite a variety of entertainment available: one could try their hand at Craps, Roulette or Blackjack, participate in a Game Show,r have a tasting at the Whiskey room or chat while drinking a local beer specifically crafted and brewed for Des-Case. 

Ready to gamble (with fake money and only our customers were allowed to win prizes). Nonetheless, we had lots of fun. This is my favorite event as it gives me a chance to try my luck at the Blackjack table once a year.

Every year, this lovely lady and I play at the same Blackjack table together. She is fun and also teaches me some new tricks.

These 5 girls won in the Game Show:

Last picture of my coworkers and myself after a successful conference.

It was truly a busy and exhausting few weeks of preparation and hosting but also fun. At the same time, May was busy at home too with Elliot's preschool graduation, last dance practice and football games. More about that in the next blog post.