American Co-op held a meeting at the Four Seasons in Jackson Hole, WY Feb. 24 – 26 where about 20 office technology dealers spent a few days watching presentations and discussing best practices with their peers.
American Co-op tends to hold their meetings at both dealer locations and incredible resorts like this and they didn’t miss the opportunity to mix some fun in with the meetings.
Members arrived throughout the week and the conference kicked off on Thursday evening with a cocktail dinner.
The three-day event was sponsored by Konica Minolta, Sharp Electronics, GreatAmerica and ConnectWise.
For their sponsorship, each of the sponsors received time in front of the group during Friday’s meetings, which were held the first half of the day.
Laura Blackmer spoke first, her first official event since becoming President of Konica Minolta’s dealer channel. Laura had a presentation discussing readiness and how to handle bad situations.
Next came GreatAmerica where Jennie Fisher and Kim Louden discussed something nearly all dealers are interested in – hiring people, keeping people, and The Great Resignation.
After a break Sharp President and CEO Mike Marusic spoke to the group about data and how to use it to find new opportunities. He had several powerful examples including one that described using Google tools and data to identify expiring leases.
The last presentation was given by John Schweitzer of ConnectWise who brought the managed services message to the group, many of whom are already actively working with ConnectWise.
During the afternoon session following lunch, all vendors were thrown out (myself included) so the attendees could talk about them.
This was the time when they share best practices between the dealers, who collectively sell the majority of brands most of us are familiar with. We all reconvened later for dinner at one of two restaurants for a relaxing evening of food and wine.
Saturday was the excursion day and if you weren’t skiing on your own, you were probably under blankets in vans on a wildlife tour where it was -11 F at our first stop to see a rare wolf pack sighting.
It was a bucket-list kind of a day and many of the dealers brought their significant others and/or family members on this epic trip. My photo album from the event can be seen at the bottom of this page.
Groups like American Co-op are hugely valuable for so many reasons. Why re-invent the wheel when one of your peers from the group will happily explain to you how they handled a situation or who they use to help keep their businesses running?
And, many are recruiting new members. American Co-op has a few territories that have become available as dealers are acquired, but they’re selective and it has to be an area where they don’t already have a dealer.
This protective territory approach facilitates the open dialogs at their meetings as dealers don’t wind up spilling their guts in front of their local competitors.
I appreciate being invited and included in the meetings and excursions throughout this conference. Please contact andy@industryanalysts.com if you’d like more information about this amazing peer group and I will put you in touch with the right people.
SOURCE Industry Analysts Inc.