Each year, Express holds its annual round of Sales Summits, in various cities around the U.S., where offices gather together to hear keynote speakers and attend relevant workshops.
Last year, our office journeyed to Detroit, and settled at a lovely hotel in the heart of a construction site. That makes for a
great view in the morning [please feel free to acknowledge the sarcasm], and the group "night out" on Saturday consisted of us meandering through a smoky casino in Greek Town.
Noooot
exactly our full cup of tea. We dealt with it, but decided then that we wouldn't be back.
Now THIS year, we registered for the Nashville [ok, technically
Franklin] Summit, which had us excited, rather than anxious about what to expect out of our surroundings and free time.
Once I dropped Sydni off at Mindi's, I picked up Elisa and we continued on to Carri's place, where Dave eventually joined us. The four of us loaded into Dave's car, and off we were!
Here's a stock photo I pulled off Google, source unknown :(, but obviously way better than what we
weren't able to see due to the fog:
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| [this makes me want to go back to norris lake, btw....] |
Anyway, we made it to the hotel with about 15 minutes to spare before Summit actually started. Our rooms weren't yet ready, so we took advantage of the Eastgate office's hospitality and crashed their room for five minutes to transform ourselves from roadtrippers to
fairly polished professionals. Downstairs we went, and there was no time wasted.
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| michael buckley, aka "whiz" from afterburner, inc. |
Our keynote speakers in the general session this year hail from Afterburner, Inc., which is a compilation of former military pilots, Seals and other specialists. "It's
not your average group of Chairforce graduates," is basically the undertone. These guys, prior to earning roles as CEO of their current business platforms, operated fighter jets, executed covert missions and came out not unscathed, but explicitly qualified to continue on and
lead other people. If you're not familiar with Afterburner, go check them out! (:
We breezed through the day's first workshop as well, a focus on the importance and implementation of social media platforms, relevant to the work we do. After that, we finally found some time to
breathe, get changed and rendezvous again for our Cincinnati group dinner.
Oh, here's a nice landscape from our hotel:
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| 2014, franklin, tn! ♥ |
Let's take a look back at last year's view.... yenno, just for kicks:
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| 2013, detroit. hahahaha. gross. |
So yeah.
Minor upgrade, yeah?
Dinner tonight was scheduled at Top Brick in Franklin:
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just a small [& blurry :( ] segment of our near 30-strong group!
elisa. chris. deb. dave. carri. cori. chuck. kate. jess. |
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the ladies of 2712!
elisa. cori. carri. |
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| pretty little lanterns at top brick! |
Whew! It's been a high octane day from the time we hit Tennessee, and from what it looks like, tomorrow's going to flow at about the same pace. Tomorrow night, we'll hit downtown Nashville and see what that scene has to offer our blended little group.
For now, Elisa and I are bunkin' up here at the Marriott. G'nite!
xo |
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