It's a Team's Life

Expo After Action Report

Another fantastic Expedite Expo is all said and done.  First off, we would like to thank the entire staff at On Time Media for excellent job done putting on the Expo.  It was great seeing and catching up friends most we have not seen since last year’s Expo.

We have included a lot of pictures of the Expo as the saying goes a picture is worth a thousand words.  We hope you enjoy looking at them.

This year’s Expo we were able to connect with a couple more people and companies to connect with.  One of the main reasons we attend the Expo is to and to or networking group.  You and always find someone or a company that can help your improve your business.

Setup day is always fun.  The Expo Hall is always hot inside since all the doors are open and no air conditioning.  All the vendors have a good time and help each out when need to get everyone’s booth setup.  The vendors all work together much like us Expeditors work and help each other.  If you attend the Expo vendors start setting up around 9 am and some don’t finish until 5 pm.  It takes a lot of work in setting up the booths.

Here is how the the floor looks for everyone is setup.

After everyone is done.

After all the booths had been setup it was time to get cleaned up and come back for the welcome BBQ.  The BBQ was sponsored by Load 1.  We would like to thank John Elliot and everyone at Load 1 for providing the meal and entertainment.  It was and excellent spread especially the deserts. 

In our opinion the best part we just wanted to pull up a chair.

Starting first thing Friday and Saturday morning the workshops got started.  Many great topics were covered and every speaker and panel did a fantastic job.  It was greatly appreciated that these folks shared their knowledge with the attendees. 

Each day after the workshops were done were the general sessions.  On Friday Leah Shaver lead a panel that discussed navigated the pit falls.  Then Saturday Brandon Baxter had a panel of industry experts what the future of trucking might look like.  Both sessions were excellent and the moderators and the panels provided a wealth of information and most of all “food for thought”.

This year’s Expo tried something different.  It was called the Sticky Note Sessions.  This was where attendees would write their questions on a “Sticky Note” than Brandon Baxter (the moderator) would ask a panel their question.  Both of had the absolute honor to be one the first panel on Friday along with Nick and Jen Marcu’s.  After our sticky note session, the Marcu’s and the two of us discussed what great questions we were asked.

On the show floor you could talk to a verity of vendors.  You could even climb up into trucks to check out the verity of sleeps built by ARI and Bolt.  What is really nice is that you could spend as long as you wanted talking to each vendor to get all your questions answered.  If you were looking for a new driving opportunity you had many of the Expedite carries at the show.

Another first for the show this year was an Episode of the State Of The Industry Podcast was recorded on the floor in the Load 1 booth.  If you have not listened to this podcast, it is full of great information that John Elliot the owner of Load 1 shares.  Brandon Baxter does a great job interviewing John.

Casino night Friday night was blast.  Thank you so much Hyfield Trucking for sponsoring this great evening of fun.  Free chips to play all different kinds of games and live music.  But best of all are door prizes that were donated from all the vendors that were at the show.  The two-piece band the The Incredible Awesome Brothers lived up to their name they were incredible and awesome.

At the end of each day before the show floor closed a lucky winner got $500 cash.  Your name was called from the driver choice cards that you used to vote for your favorite truck on the show floor.

The votes were tallied for the Drivers' Choice trophy, and the FEDEX FYDA built truck with a Bolt custom sleeper won. Tyler Hollinger from FYDA accepted the trophy.

We already looking forward to next years show.  We can not wait….is is July 2024 yet!  If, you could not make it to this year show we hope you can next year we would like to meet and talk with you.

Below is a small selection of show floor pictures we took.

 

Sandy & Stephen

Let’s Roll We’re Burning Daylight - “Wil Anderson” (The Cowboys) John Wayne