With the Elevate Conference in New Orleans on the horizon, we give you an insider's view on the events that are shaping the world of transportation, sales, and marketing. The Transportation, Marketing & Sales Association is stitching together the fabric of our community with new initiatives designed to spark connections and ignite conversations. Learn more about how TMSA is creating avenues for members to learn, grow, and succeed together here on the Standing Out podcast with Jennifer Karpus-Romain. March 26th @ 2pm Central Time!
A word about our sponsors:
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
With the Elevate Conference in New Orleans on the horizon, we give you an insider's view on the events that are shaping the world of transportation, sales, and marketing. The Transportation, Marketing & Sales Association is stitching together the fabric of our community with new initiatives designed to spark connections and ignite conversations. Learn more about how TMSA is creating avenues for members to learn, grow, and succeed together here on the Standing Out podcast with Jennifer Karpus-Romain. March 26th @ 2pm Central Time!
A word about our sponsors:
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
What's up, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Standing Out. I'm Trey Griggs, your host.
Speaker 1:So glad that you are with us today. Standing Out is all about sales, marketing and leadership. So excited to have you joining us today. Also very excited to announce that we are now on Reads Across America Radio as a syndicate show. So check out some of the great programming that they have over there. If you go to their website, readsacrossamericaorg, select Newsroom and then you can see their radio programming. Again, so excited to be associated with an organization that is helping the future generations Remember our past generations and the sacrifices that they made to secure the freedoms that we have here in America. So be sure to check Readsacrossamericaorg for the radio programming and also consider making a donation to sponsor a Reads for this upcoming December where we put those on Tombstones of fallen soldiers.
Speaker 1:Also, we got a big event coming up in June. If you have not registered for the TMSA Elevate Conference yet, you need to do that. Make sure you go to eventstmsa todayorg. It's going to be June 8th through 11th down in New Orleans and the Big Easy. Have a good time down there. Listen. If you're in transportation, sales and marketing, you need to be a part of this event. Great education, great networking and we just have a lot of fun. We're the fun crowd of all organizations, so going to be a great time Again. Check it out at Elevate. I'm sorry, excuse me, eventstmsaorg for the Elevate Conference.
Speaker 1:All right, before we bring our guests on today, who may have something to say about the Elevate Conference, we'll get to that in a minute. We got to give a shout out to our sponsor. Thank you so much to our friends over at SPI Logistics for sponsoring the show. Listen, if you're a freight broker or an agent looking for a new home don't want to deal with the back office anymore, want to stay in your lane working with customers and book and loads be sure to check them out at successspi3plcom. Successspi3plcom. They got the technology system and back office support to help you succeed. And be sure to let them know that you heard about it right here on Standing Out. All right, we've got a great show today. I can't wait to bring our guests on today. I've known her for a little while. We've had a little bit of fun from time to time building a brand and doing some fun stuff. So please welcome from TMSA the executive director and my good friend Jennifer Carpus Romaine. What's up, my friend Hi.
Speaker 2:How are you?
Speaker 1:doing. I am so excited to have you on the show today. It seems like it's been a little while since you've been on the show, but here we are, ready to go. Oh, I just put the wrong one up. Look at that, we'll swap it out. We'll swap it out. We got to get the old branding out of there. You know it's amateur hour on here. That's how it always works. All right, my friend, we've got a few things to talk about. This is excited for this show because there's a few things coming up that are rather, rather important. I'll do that, though Of course, we have to ask you do you want a coffee mug standing out, or a water bottle standing out? Or we even have new glassware now. We have glasses with the standing out logo on it. So what do you think? What do you think?
Speaker 2:Well, I think if I bring home another coffee mug, my husband may kill me, because I do that often and he tends to steal the standing out water bottles.
Speaker 1:It is a good water bottle. I'm not going to lie, yeah it is a solid water bottle.
Speaker 2:Very nice, I'm going to go get the water bottle today and try to keep it.
Speaker 1:We'll throw a water bottle your way. Yeah, very good, see, if we can keep it, maybe we'll put your name on it. Ooh, we're going to put your name on it, and that way he can't steal it anymore.
Speaker 2:That's what we're doing. I think he still will, because we're married and what's mine is his and all that jazz.
Speaker 1:Possibly, but the same time you know it's got your name on it, it's going to be. Maybe it'll hold him back just a little bit from stealing that, so we'll get that water bottle out to you and do that. All right, thank you, you got. We got some big stuff coming up. First of all, what's what's top of mind right now? What is what is coming up that you're just so excited about? I think I know well.
Speaker 2:So really exciting a tmsa. So we're actually celebrating our 100 year anniversary this year. So we've been a trade nonprofit serving the industry in the space for 100 years and it's evolved throughout those 100 years and it's just really really exciting to be kind of at the helm of that as we go on and Look at the past and point towards the future. So our official incorporation date, the first meeting of the original tmsa which was not called that at the time, but Is march 19th. So we are Celebrating that kind of all month in the month of march. So if you check out our socials you'll be seeing Historical looks back at tmsa throughout the year but also getting pumped and ready for our elevate conference in june that you were talking about at the beginning of the show. So that's kind of our big event that we do in every year and it's in new erland's this year which we're really excited about. And then we also have an executive summit later on in the year in october. That's going to be in haboka, new jersey, this year.
Speaker 1:I mean it's almost unbelievable. What organization survives for 100 years, for a century, I mean, especially in american history. That's pretty impressive. But it didn't start as the tmsa. What did it start? As for people that don't know, it started.
Speaker 2:I'm gonna pull up the official name because it is long.
Speaker 1:I tend to.
Speaker 2:Mix up the words, but it was officially launched as the american association of railroad advertising Agents was the initial name, and then it kind of went through a few different names. So we definitely got our start in rail. Um. At one point it was a ram, the association of railroad advertising managers. Then we went to, we switched when they wanted to broaden the scope, and then it was the transportation marketing and communications association and now we are at the transportation marketing and sales association. So it's definitely gone through a lot of transitions. Will we um Continue to evolve with the market and what the market needs and being that support system, providing that Education, resources, networking, all of those things that we do for our members and the industry at large?
Speaker 1:You mean railroad marketing is an advertising, is not a primary function of the tmsa anymore.
Speaker 2:I mean, we still welcome the railroads and do they?
Speaker 1:have railroad advertising. I mean what? What was that? I'm trying to think of what that was like. Stuff, stars, the railroad posters there.
Speaker 2:I mean they're pretty cool, but yeah, they they got together to make sure that they would get fair rates for the advertisements.
Speaker 1:Are you gonna get one of those old railroad posters for the for the 100 anniversary for?
Speaker 2:elevate. We're not revealing our secrets, man Come on a lot of secrets, all right.
Speaker 1:Well, we'll have to wait and see. I guess everybody else will have to wait and see and just come and find out. So if you haven't registered for elevate yet, they definitely get out there and do that. It's gonna be a great show. What, um, what can people expect to the show? So, obviously, 100 years, a big deal. I think there's a, maybe a new logo going out there. I think there might be some other, some other? Well, what secrets can you reveal? What can you tell us what? What's gonna happen?
Speaker 2:So we do. We definitely have our specialty 100 year logo that we've started to use on our promotions and swag. So when we were at manifest back in February, we had a coffee event. So we had like coffee coasters that people could use that had the logo on it, and so that's really exciting for us. Um, we really proud ourselves on the education that we put out. So even though we're celebrating our anniversary, the show is still about bringing together the best of the best of sales and marketing, providing education, providing resources and networking at that event.
Speaker 2:We love being able to help the people that are coming to our events. Both network with each other, but see the cities that we're in. So ahead of conference we have and well, I should say ahead of conference and after conference, we have a lot of things that people can opt into. Um, I know there's we have a lot of younger people that come Um to you and it can be really intimidating if you're going to a show by yourself or if you are a younger person not wanting to necessarily walk the streets of a new city by yourself. So we try to have like a group feel so people can feel safe but also go out and do extra fun stuff. So, for instance, on the ninth, which is the sunday, before all the official things kick off, we have a jazz brunch cruise on the steamboat, steamboat, uh, natchez, and so it's like a jazz brunch cruise and you get to go all around On the river and it's really, really cool. I got to do it during my site visits and I was like, oh, I can't wait for my friends to be able to come and do this as well. And then, um, we have programming all day monday, but on tuesday night We'll end the show around 3 pm On tuesday and what we're doing is then offering some additional stuff. So we have a the sazarek house is a whiskey museum and it's a free ticket but we can get the group ticket so we can all go together. And then we also have some private tmsa ghost tours going on on tuesday night, and then anyone.
Speaker 2:We did a port of the Of savannah port tour of the savannah port last year and elevate, and it was a huge hit. So we brought that back. On wednesday after show we have an opt-on port of new orleans tour as well, and so a bunch of people have already signed up for that really excited. But those are just the optional add-on things. That's not even the stuff that you get for coming with us. So we open our show with a newcomers reception now. So if you are new, we meet and greet with you.
Speaker 2:Something that, um, I started a few years ago, even before I took over tmsa, but back when I was a member is we have a buddy program. So if you're brand new to tmsa, it's your first conference, you get assigned to a tmsa veteran and you get partnered with them. You, before the conference even happens, you can ask all your questions. You have a buddy. If you have questions of like, oh I'm hoping to meet these people, or want to learn about this Stuff, or I want to meet this type of partner, they can kind of point you in that direction even before you step in the door. So that's something I'm incredibly proud of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's a lot of good things that are happening. I'm still kind of stuck on jazz brunch, though. Is there going to be jazz flute being played at this thing?
Speaker 2:There is live jazz music and, as we've talked about in the past, people like brunch and the cocktails associated with brunch.
Speaker 1:Especially on a trip, because a lot of times late nights, you're not going to have breakfast. It's kind of nice to have a brunch, yeah.
Speaker 2:so this you can get a little bit of everything. And then also on Sunday we have our community give back. So we are partnering with the Covenant House and New Orleans this year to do some type of community give back. Last year we partnered with the Children's Hospital in Savannah. We made type blankets, which, trey, was one of the only people besides me and Whitney who knew how to make type blankets. Let's go.
Speaker 2:Because I thought that was just like a skill set. People learned as a youth, but apparently not. But everyone was a good sport. We made a ton of blankets for the children.
Speaker 1:You didn't even believe me that I knew how to do it. I'm like man. Pre-judge the book, come on.
Speaker 2:It was. It was great. And then we'll have, of course, our opening reception, which this year we get to do a second line through the streets of New Orleans. So we will in fact have a parade going through a TMSA parade to launch the show, and that's all just on the fun day one. That's not even getting into the educational lineup which is shaping up to be really exciting as well.
Speaker 1:There's got to be some beignets. Little donuts, right? Little sugary, powdery donuts. Is that what they're called, beignets?
Speaker 2:They are called beignets and you can get them everywhere in New Orleans and they are delicious.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a problem. It's a problem. We were there for just a very short period of time last spring as a family and it was a problem. That's all I'm going to say about that.
Speaker 2:Oh for sure, when I did the site visits they had like every place I went and every meal. They were like here I'm like, oh, ok, they're delicious. I took a bite of all of them, but you got to see the difference, the different dip sauces.
Speaker 1:I know there's so many. There's just a lot of variety, a lot of things you do, and it's packed. All the time there's a line out the door to get those things. So they've got something cooking down there, that's for sure. There's a couple of other things that are new going on at TMSA that we've got to talk about. First of all, tmsa you're thinking about a book club. There's a podcast or some fireside chess. Talk about all these other things that you've started the past year, and where are you going with those?
Speaker 2:Sure, so we do our LinkedIn lives and we're hoping to do that more regularly, so stay tuned for that.
Speaker 1:Listen all I'm going to say. If Coleman gets on that before I do, I'm going to be ticked off. But I understand We'll see.
Speaker 2:We'll see. So, our LinkedIn lives are interview style formats and people really respond to those. I love being able to highlight our members or different things that are going on.
Speaker 1:You're a great host. You're a great host, you do a great job.
Speaker 2:Thank you. And then the book club is something that was I kind of said as a joke, but I actually really, really love, and I have it scheduled for the end of Q2, q3. So we're going to clear elevate before we dive in to that. But because we have launched other things for our members over the past, so we just launched a new partner referral program for our partners. We launched a TMSA Slack.
Speaker 2:So one of the biggest things that people had told us is oh, we love connecting with other TMSA members. We want a space where we can all talk and communicate, and so we created a Slack channel and so anyone inside TMSA you have to be a member can go inside the Slack. We have different categories, so if you are a sales manager and just want to talk to other sales managers, or if you're a person who really, really wants to talk only about SEO, all of those options are there for you. And then, of course, the general we had. One of our members is getting his master's and he's like I need to interview people about their LinkedIn use and it was so awesome to see Everyone's like, yeah, got it, and I was like this was a very painless process. Please help this nice man, and so seeing the community come together and supporting each other virtually is, as we see it in person is really impactful as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's awesome. I love that the community element of some of these groups are really powerful, and it's neat to see opportunities where it's not just at the event or it's not just occasionally when you're running people linked in, but you can have a little more, you know, in intentional conversations and networking throughout the year, I think, which is really awesome. Well, I have to ask about books, though. Are these gonna be sales and marketing books that inspire you? Are these gonna be like Jennifer, like like Oprah's booklets? Is this Jennifer's book?
Speaker 2:No. So my concept with this is I think that we all have best intentions of reading business books, whether it's a general business, industry, sales or marketing, and Sometimes, you know, we get stuck yeah.
Speaker 2:I built a library of stairs and so all of mine are stairs now, but we don't all read them, or as quickly as we would like to read them, and we definitely then don't always like, oh, I learned all of this stuff. I want to go sit in a group of people and talk about it. So the concept of the book club is that people can join the book club and then give suggestions and we'll pick. One per quarter is what we'll start at. I like it first, want to do one per month.
Speaker 1:I'm like I feel like that's a lofty goal to get a bunch of big jump for people who haven't been able to read one book a year to get.
Speaker 2:So it'll be a quarterly book club where we'll we'll get the book and people can read it and then we'll come together virtually and talk about the book and what we thought about it and how to implement it into our businesses. And that's, yes, like, tmsa is a true membership Organization and we continue to build the virtual components of being able to connect and also going to other industry events and doing networking. So, like at manifest, yes, we did a coffee networking event and at modex we did a networking reception and we're figured putting the bow ties on what we're gonna do at TIA and anytime that we're there and it's something. I actually pulled my board members and say like, hey, what shows are you guys going to? Because I try to go to as many as I can, but you know we're a trade-down profit with the budget to. I can't just go to every show, unfortunately, but so many of our advocates and the people who represent the brand besides me do go.
Speaker 2:So, like trying to figure out Then how can we can coordinate stuff, and that was really cool to see, like at the manifest, when I had members been like, oh, I wish there was a space at least for one hour where all the members could get together. I'm like we do, we have that it's at you know 10 o'clock or whenever we had it. So Growing that way too, because sometimes you do just want to be able to see these people, that you meet at a TMSA show and connect with them and be in that space, and it's been really great over the past couple years to grow that and see everybody and see how our own networks have grown and come together To support each other.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if you're asking me you know what you should do at TIA, or at any event moving forward. I think the answer is pretty clear, my friend.
Speaker 2:I mean you're gonna say karaoke.
Speaker 1:I Mean, is there really anything else that that goes with that? I mean, I don't know that there is. That's just my. I got video. I'm not showing it right now, but I've got video.
Speaker 2:I told you we're not doing ever, I'm not showing it like it was a.
Speaker 1:It was a performance, my friend. It was impressive and and there's others in the industry who also are really into Karaoke as well that I found out. Our friend Audrey song is into it. Chris Thomas, the truck driver, he's into it. Brian obushan, he was into a Coleman even got after it in Vegas karaoke the night that we missed you. It was. It was a great.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm just a good karaoke may just we have to become a standard thing that we do when we go to events, wherever it is. We're gonna do it at mats. Chris Thomas and I are doing a karaoke that it mats coming up, so I'm just I'm just throwing that out there. I think that's. I think that's what you should do is a Karaoke. Now we kind of run with that. That'd be fun. Let me know thinking about that. All right, we got a pause for a minute. It's time to have a little fun on the show, as we always do. We got to play a game today, and today the game we were playing is who said that? Where's the video? Do we have a video?
Speaker 2:maybe we don't have a video?
Speaker 1:do we have a video?
Speaker 2:Famous people or people like I know a question.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's a good question. I'm not sure exactly. And we need to get in, we need to get a new video. Oh, we got to get a new video, all right. Well, maybe we'll throw that on there over all this in post-production, but for now we're gonna go ahead and play the game. So we are going to play round one here and we'll see how it goes. Not sure. Let's find out what. What happens here? Here we go, let's see Sunday. Kind of love.
Speaker 2:I.
Speaker 1:Have an idea to last. I have one. I have one guess, I don't know a lot of classes but Ella Fitzgerald, yeah, that's who I was gonna say, yes, that's who I think it is. That's what we're gonna go with. Let's see if that's right. Is that right?
Speaker 2:That's who I was thinking about, but that's funny yeah.
Speaker 1:So close, so close, I mean, it started with the right letter. It was one of those two. I can't believe we both thought of the same thing. Etta James is wonderful. Okay, we missed that one.
Speaker 2:Alright, let's see if we get another one I like At Last by Etta James.
Speaker 1:At Last by Etta James. Is that's fire. I'm with you on that. That's a karaoke song. Somebody should karaoke that, alright.
Speaker 2:Somebody does Trey, somebody does Trey. I feel like my brain is not. This is Family Affair, isn't it?
Speaker 1:Is this by Sister Sledge Family Affair? No, no, who is that? By Mary J Blige. Who, mary J Blige? I think it's Mary J Blige. Yes, it is. Come on, come on.
Speaker 2:I'm like I know who it's not I always I hate to guess wrong Because I don't like to guess. I like to know.
Speaker 1:And now I'm concerned about my oh mine looking stupid. So we're a good team, alright, so we got one out of two. Alright, here we go. Let's see if we can get the next one. Who is that? Yeah, yeah, I don't like your girlfriend.
Speaker 2:No way, no way. I think you need a new one, isn't this Everlovine?
Speaker 1:I'm gonna go with you on that girlfriend. There you go. Look at that Nice work, nice work. See, this is teamwork right here, because I would have guessed that. I know the song but not the singer, so that's good. Alright, two out of three, we're on a roll. Let's keep it going. It's time to go solo.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:Tina Turner, tina Turner, yes, yes, you're queen, let's go. Yep, what's love? Yeah, I can see this is also a karaoke song for you. What's love got to do.
Speaker 2:I don't like that. You're understanding my ranges now and selecting myself.
Speaker 1:Alright, listen, that's three out of four and that's three in a row. That's a turkey. Let's go. Let's see if we can get another one. Here we go. I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me. I still feel your touch.
Speaker 2:I know this song, but I can't.
Speaker 1:This should cure it.
Speaker 2:Oh, give me my wings. Oh, I don't know what it is. I don't remember what the name?
Speaker 1:is what? Do you know the name of the song?
Speaker 2:I know, but I know the lyrics, Cause every time we touch I get this feeling. I reach for the sky.
Speaker 1:Keep going. Alright, we don't know this one. What is it? Oh?
Speaker 2:we got it. I knew the lyrics.
Speaker 1:Nice, listen, we're counting that, because you totally said the name of the song I sang it.
Speaker 1:That counts on the show. Alright, that's four out of five. Alright, here we go Next one. Yeah, we get children cheering for us on the show. I love that. Next one, we got children in the back. They're just clapping when we tell them to clap, alright, what do we got Next one? Oh, that's it. Oh, okay, okay, so we got four out of five. Then I guess, is that right? Yeah, we got four out of five. That's pretty good. That's about my college GPA, so that's pretty good. Nice work. Nice work on that, very good. Also, we have a random question of the day. We like to do this from time to time. We have a random question of the day on the show, so we had to get that out. Today's random question of the day is oh, if you could get rid of one veggie immediately, which one would you choose? I like this question. Let's go which one?
Speaker 2:So I don't Okay, so I feel like my real answer is vegetable adjacent, like it's not, it's a fungus. I hate mushrooms, like with the passion. Like with the vegetable but it like goes in with federal, if it goes with the vegetables, yeah, so but if I had to pick a vegetable to get rid of immediately, it would be one right answer here an onion.
Speaker 1:I don't like that really onions. Onion is my second.
Speaker 2:It's hard to but like if you're cooking like, I like to cook down onions, so like it's hard to answer, but I don't like a raw onion onion.
Speaker 1:No thank you Well, yeah, but but if you get rid of onions, you lose onion rings. The right answer, my friend, is celery. That is garbage. I feel like we had an entire conversation about this.
Speaker 2:I'm, we're on the street and I was part of the team that thought celery was a good vessel for other things, and so you didn't want.
Speaker 1:like you don't get rid of those things I don't care about if you're like putting peanut butter in it. Yeah, peanut butter.
Speaker 2:Yeah, chicken noodle soup.
Speaker 1:That's also why I can't get rid of celery, because like a good chicken Chicken noodle soup without celery and I Like to me. It's an optional condiment that goes with chicken noodle soup. It's not required. That's what I'm saying. I can live without celery Onions. I love onion rings and I love cooking with onions. I don't like raw onions. I'm waiting on that Raw onions out, but the right answer for me is celery. I gotta go that way, all right. Good, random question. I like that. A little debate. Appreciate that it's good. All right, so we got three months essentially leading up to the Elevate Conference. What's gonna happen between now and then? What's going down?
Speaker 2:Sorry, my phone rang and it never rings.
Speaker 1:I was very confused.
Speaker 2:So it's a lot of planning. So we're securing all of the speakers right now, so we're slowly adding things into the agenda. One thing that I'm really excited about this year is we're doing the agenda a little bit different. So we always have like really great breakout sessions. We have panels. We're bringing back a shippers panel. This year we're doing a thriving through disruption panel, which I'm really pumped about because so many people go through murders and acquisitions and trying to figure out how to consolidate your brand and what is that brand message and all of that kind of stuff. But one thing that we're doing is something a little bit different and there are like 15 minute chronicles, stories that leave a mark, and we're allowing people to have really impactful stories. Take the stage, no slides, nothing, just great storytellers that are like powerhouse speakers to come and tell their stories for 15 minutes. In between all of the other great things that we have going on.
Speaker 1:Are they additional to this or is this cold Like, are you just inviting people up?
Speaker 2:Oh no, we will plan them ahead of time. I don't have a good people like a pop Like open mic at TMSA whoa alright. I might type myself couldn't handle that.
Speaker 1:No, we're repicking the people I know because I've asked for ideas to do on stage and you're like no, we're not doing that. No, underwear on your head, that's not happening.
Speaker 2:Correct, we didn't use that. I think they said no underwear and somehow that's still happened.
Speaker 1:But anyway, Well, nobody wore it. That's the thing it wasn't. Nobody's wearing it just for fun. If you don't know what we're talking about, people, you miss last year's Elevate conference, don't miss this year. You never know what's gonna happen. That's cool, that'll be fun.
Speaker 2:I love story talks, yeah, so I'm really excited about that because I really believe in the diversification of content and how we bring forth information, and sometimes you need that deep analytical dive with the stats and multiple voices and all that stuff, but sometimes you just need this. This is the story. This is how I got to where I am in the industry. This is that really cool thing that I did in sales and marketing, or this is a trending topic that people don't understand, so we're gonna spend the next 15 minutes of me explaining it, because I've been following it and tracking it and I'm here to tell you what it is, so I'm pretty excited about that. But yeah, we pride ourselves at TMSA that we always try to Change and evolve and listen.
Speaker 2:I sit in the. I always tell people like please fill out the survey. At the end, I really want to hear what you liked and didn't like. It can hurt my feelings sometimes if people didn't like stuff, because I'm human. However Better or grow or continue to meet the needs of our conference attendees or our members, if we don't know the things that are working, you're not working, and so so many people tell us the positive things that they like or things that we can involve in and change. So, like this year we're doing a sponsor hour because sometimes people are like, oh, I actually really wanted to meet that sponsor, but I didn't meet and see them and I'm like, okay, well, that's a problem for our sponsor network, like they should definitely be visible should be able to.
Speaker 2:And of course we do other things where people met them. But hey, one hour, everyone, all the sponsors, together in the room. You know exactly where they are, you'll get prizes if you participate and go meet them, all that stuff. We still don't do a traditional trade show floor anymore. We have in the past, but we just found them. The sponsors were out of the conversation and out of the networking and we don't want them to do that. But having this dedicated sponsor hour will really allow them to Do those, how those conversations, people can meet them and engage with them in a in a different way, and so we're pretty pumped about that. But we are continuing to take that feedback and take it to heart and really try to continue to evolve and Meet everybody's needs as best as we can.
Speaker 1:What was the best feedback you got last year that you're implementing this year? Was it the sponsor hour? Was there something else that is also changing this year because of feedback?
Speaker 2:I do think the sponsor hour was good in terms of like making sure that we're keeping our eyes on the ball, in terms of our partnerships, people, really they we now will have. Last year where we ate and where our award banquet was was like two floors down and people didn't love that. So we are doing most of the things in the grand ballroom where we are. So there's there's one breakout room that is just like a couple stairs down. There's nothing we could do about that. But everything else is kind of right in the thing. And one thing that we did too, which that we're implementing this year that wasn't necessarily told to us, but just a general like feeling I get is we're having a wellness room and it's going to be like dimmed lights and nice soft music, maybe some essential oils puffing in the air, just having like a bit of a safe space to walk into.
Speaker 2:Like I am a fairly outgoing Person, but I am like an extrovert, an introvert. I can turn it on when I need to, but like sometimes I need to decompress and can get very overwhelmed, and so having that space to kind of just breathe for a minute and recognizing like hey, that's okay. Like we did start a DEI initiative last year at TMSA. That was a big thing that we didn't have been doing, and we believe Diversity, equity, inclusion isn't just one thing and it's not just the things you can see, and there's a ton of neuro divergent people who get overwhelmed.
Speaker 2:But or whether you have ADHD or you have autism or you just are have anxiety, or you're just a person who drank too much the night before and need to just sit for a minute, like whatever that looks like for you, we want to try to accommodate that as best that we can, and we did start asking people like do you need, like, a translator or are you hard of hearing? Anything that's off-site. We will arrange Transport like anything besides the port tour, as a ten minute walk or less, but we'll provide an Uber for people if they need to get somewhere because they can't walk. So we're trying to support people as best we can. And that's all different types of people because everyone has different needs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, it's awesome and I know that there are certain people, especially on our team, who are gonna love that kind of quiet room. I wish I would go crazy in that room. I probably would not be. I walk in and flip the lights on, through some music on.
Speaker 2:You're like hey guys, what are you?
Speaker 1:doing it would not work out, so I'll I'll stick through that.
Speaker 1:I would just not tell you when it was because you were gonna be a lot of people that are gonna absolutely love that type of room. I love the fact you're thinking about all these just needs and it's hard to shuffle. You know move a large group of people to different locations so I love the fact that it's gonna be more centralized and that'll help out a lot and just make it easier For everybody to know where to go and how to get there and not have to deal with all that. So, although last year's was pretty cool down, I'm gonna say that room was pretty cool right by the river with you know yeah, I mean, everything has a purpose and there's a lot and we still have some different stuff.
Speaker 2:Like we like the opening reception will be in the courtyard, so it'll be outside with the overflow room, and so we will have other stuff we have. We actually have like a. So we're at the Royal Sinesta, so it's one of the hotels that actually have those really cool Belvenies on Bourbon Street and we have one of those.
Speaker 2:VIPs, like for our sponsors and stuff. So we have that space this year and so we're yeah, we're trying to elevate. We named the conference elevate because we like to believe that's what we're doing for other people, but we're trying to do that for ourselves too, continuing to elevate what we do and see what what works and what doesn't work. But we're never gonna know, unless if we try and even that, like we're playing around with the time frames of our sessions and there's one session and we were talking in our education committee like oh, do we think that's enough time? We're not enough time? Like well, we're gonna find out, you know.
Speaker 2:Like I think historically things have always been like 45 minutes or an hour, but sometimes you don't need that full-time. Sometimes you do and you know. But like we want to make sure that we're being thoughtful in our approach and giving the amount of time that people need. We don't want to be too small, we don't want to be too big either, because if you go too long then you're also Shortening up the amount of people that can take the stage and and so we're we're trying to be as thoughtful as we can for our educational lineup.
Speaker 1:Yep and a balcony party rural sinesta. Beads, no beads, no beads. You're right, we're not doing any beads.
Speaker 2:Um, I so, if it's a conversation and I've been having like business beads, I called them. Like I want to have like a like, no flashing On like some type of icon like business Appropriate for that.
Speaker 1:So we'll see, but yes, you'll come up with something clever. I have no doubt about it, my friend. Well, it is great having you on the show. I'm so excited to be your friend, so excited to partner with you as a company with TMSA what they're doing so excited your regular on the word on the street. It's just been a fun ride, my friend, the last two years gonna know you and work with you and can't wait for this event to be the best one yet hundred year anniversary of TMSA at the Elevate conference. So thank you for joining us today and sharing some thoughts with us.
Speaker 1:Of course Thank you and create walk-up song. Gotta get it out with the Thunderstruck. Make sure you're doing this. We will see you next time. Remember, as Jesse Cole the Savannah bananas likes to say Don't stand still, start standing out.