Annual Meeting In Orlando Huge Success
Orlando, Florida – The Florida Messenger Association held their annual meeting in Orlando, Florida on January 27thand 28th. The two-day event was attended by over 100 people representing more than 70 member companies and more than 30 vendors and guests. The agenda began on Thursday afternoon with a tour of Air Traffic Services, Inc. (ATS). Lance Dearborn, President of ATS and Kelly Caldwell, Senior Operations Manager conducted an in-depth tour of their impressive new 60,000 square foot facility. The attendees regrouped for the evening festivities for a reception and dinner. Datex, Inc. and Brightstone Insurance Services, LLC sponsored the reception.
The Friday agenda began with opening comments by FMA President, Larry Schwartz of Baron Messenger Service, Inc. He was followed by Keynote Speaker, Sate of Florida Senator D. Alan Hayes (R-20) . His comments included an outlook on the business climate in Florida, as well as cost-cutting initiatives at the state level. He provided insight to the audience regarding the importance of getting to know their legislators at both the state and national levels.
The morning continued with committee reports. Steve Howard, FMA Treasurer and President of Esquire Express, Inc. gave the Treasurer’s Report. Larry Schwartz provided a brief report on website activities, including glowing reviews of the performance of hits and click through rates for those who are advertising on the FMA website. Steven Seltzer, GLAC chair and President of Comet Delivery Services gave the report for the Government and Legal Affairs Committee. He reported on the identical bills recently submitted in the Florida State House of Representatives and Florida Senate regarding the description of an independent contractor for business tax purposes. Steven also discussed plans for the Florida delegation to “storm the hill” on March 2ndand 3rdfor the MCAA Lobby Day, as well as the upcoming Florida Lobby Day in Tallahassee.
Chris Kane, chair of the Vendor Relations Committee and President of Courierboard.com commented on the tremendous support given by the large list of vendors who contribute to the FMA. Tim Petty, chair of the Membership Committee and President of Pettyco Express, talked about the tremendous effort and superlative results achieved in reaching dozens of new and hundreds of potential members.
Special recognition went to Kim Ganoe of Datex and Chris Kane of Courierboard for their contribution. Harold Boyett, FMA Vice President, and President of Blue Streak Couriers is the also the chair of the Public Relations Committee. He asked all members to become a fan of the FMA Face Book page and shared the vision for promoting the importance of customers doing business with FMA members. Harold was followed by the spotlight presentation conducted by Lance Dearborn of Air Traffic Services, Inc. Lance captivated the audience with the incredible story of how the company began as a local hot shot, on-demand service provider that grew into a regional powerhouse.
The second featured speaker of the morning was Forest Kragten, Vice President at Network Global Logistics. Mr. Kratgen spoke about the importance of business valuation and the various concepts involved in knowing how to properly asses a business’ worth. Kim Ganoe from Datex followed with a brief description on how her company can help members of the Florida Messenger Association. Lunch was sponsored by Complete Innovations, a leading global provider of mission critical operational solutions for mobile workforce and transportation-related companies. Stephen Nesbit, Senior Account Executive for Complete Innovations, spoke to the group after lunch and he received a standing ovation at the end of his comments.
Daniel Kirk, Chief Executive Officer of Big Dog Logistics, then highlighted best practices for a courier company to position itself as a provider of choice for third party logistics companies (like Big Dog.) His story was full of examples of how successful partnerships have been forged with companies throughout the country. He shared the history of his company including how it received its name.
John Benko, of MANKO Delivery Systems, Inc. spent a few minutes updating the group on the activities of the MCAA. In particular, he urged everyone to be involved with National Lobby Day on March 2ndand 3rd. Brian Jungeburg and Howard Schlactus introduced the new Brightstone Insurance Services, LLC. They talked about the new, larger, stronger organization and the ability to serve the FMA members better than ever before.
The last presentations of the day included “Dr. FMA,” the resident expert on health. He showed the members of the audience how to perform a “health check” on their company. Thomas Jowers, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Advantage Delivery and Logistics followed with a presentation on the four “P’s” of marketing.
The sponsors should be commended for their generous donations of door prizes. The list of prizes included a forty-seven inch flat screen television, a Wii game console, two laptops, ipods, American Express gift cards, a Kindle, 3 Blackberry devices, a high speed air card and a certificate to be used toward medical courier training.
Thank you to all of our sponsors: AT&T, Avalon Risk, Brightstone, Complete Innovations, Courierboard.com, CXT, Datatrac, Datex, Integrity Medical Courier Training, SCI. Nearly half of the attendees left with some type of door prize.
The meeting committee did an excellent job. Tim Petty, President of Pettyco Express, Kim Ganoe, of Datex, Inc., and Chris Kane of Courierboard.com, performed an organized and powerful phone campaign to reach dozens of companies who would otherwise not have known about the meeting.
The Association would like to express a very special thanks to Thomas Jowers, of Advantage Delivery and Logistics, as he worked tirelessly to put together and amazing meeting.
If you missed this meeting, you really missed it.
