February 27, 2009 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

One last day in the Queen City.  It’s always bitter-sweet when the show ends.  I’m looking forward to getting home to Linda and the kids, but I’ve had such a blast, it’s sad to see it end!

More appointments today, and everyone’s highlight, the Broadway luncheon.  As usual, they brought out a great mix of the new (I had NOT heard about “Rock of Ages”, the 80’s Hard Rock musical…what fun!), and the classics (what a surprise…the Lion King preview was not “Shadowlands”!).  Of course, the highlight, as always, was the full cast of Jersey Boys doing several numbers.  Don’t care if I’ve seen that sequence about five times this year…I still get up, dance and clap along.  What a great show!

Maryland/DC/Virginia did a great job in the evening getting us excited about 2010 at the Gaylord National Harbor.  And then it was over, except one last time of craziness in the Westin bar.  It started with Emi and Michelle teasing the boys from Eastern Travel…next thing you knew, Emi was Robert, and Robert was Emi, and everyone was exchanging name tags and assuming another person’s identity.  I think we’ve started a new trend…I already have things arranged for who I will become in 2010.

It was a very funny end to a very good convention.  Was it all a hit?  Nope, but ABA continues to bat right around .900, and that’s an average that is nothing short of impressive.  And there’s ALWAYS room for improvement, and I know that improvement is #1 on Lynn, Vicki and Pete’s list.  In 2010, there will be more new ideas, new activities, and new opportunities.  And that, in a nutshell, is what ABA is all about!

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February 27, 2009 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Sunday in Charlotte…and it’s finally appointment time for us Attractions!

I’ve said it before, but the appointments really are not the highlight for me.  I do more “work” in Orientation and at the evening events, but I do enjoy the appointments!  The majority are with people I either know very well, or at least know fairly well.  But there’s still that moment when I can surprise them…either they didn’t know about our other theatres, or our touring company, or something.

But I also had “damage control” to do…one week prior to ABA, a large Dinner Theatre in Ohio closed their doors very suddenly, and it effected quite a few Operators. The Theatre is now bankrupt, and deposits probably won’t be returned to those companies.  So we decided to offer to honor any monies already paid to Carousel if they would move their reservation to us.

Several Operators asked why we were doing it, and that’s a legitimate question.  We didn’t do it for the exposure (although that never hurts!).  We didn’t do it for the increased business (although that never hurts!).  We did it to send the message that, in these troubled economic times, we are still standing strong, and that the demise of one Dinner Theatre doesn’t say that we’re all one step ahead of the bankers!

It’s the same as the other side of the table…when a Tour Operator goes out of business (or a hotel, or a restaurant, or a whatever), it effects everyone.  There is a natural tendency to react to something like that, and to wonder if my favorite restaurant is next.  So my goal was more to say “we’re fine, and we’ll still be here next year”.

Sometimes, you have to take the “bigger stand”, and help send a message.  One Operator that is seriously considering the offer had over $2,000 in deposits and pre-payments to Carousel, but we’ll bite the bullet and work with her if she chooses to transfer the dates to us.  It will hurt, but it also helps solidify our message of strength and consistency.  And you can’t put a price on that!

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February 27, 2009 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Back on the floor as Captain again Saturday morning, and it’s really getting quiet in Orientation.  But that’s OK…we’ve done a good job with the Star delegates, and there comes a point when things should slow down.

Today is the Branson lunch…now, I know that the Broadway luncheon gets top billing when it comes to the meals not to be missed, but I’ve come to really look forward to the Branson lunch.  It can be very hit or miss, but there’s always a few stars present, and I still remember the thrill the year we were in Texas.  The show started with Les Brown Jr. and the Band Of Renown (my parents loved them).  The show ended with Andy Williams (my Mom’s absolute favorite singer ever).

This year, the show started with Lee Greenwood, and included a bunch of new talented people from town.  In the middle, Cathy Rigby came out to preview a production of Peter Pan that’s going to be in Branson for the next year (I knew it was a matter of time before she flew over the audience, and she did not disappoint).  Closing was Yakov Smirnov (my Dad’s favorite comedian), so you knew that Lee Greenwood would come back out to sing “God Bless The USA”.  But it was still stirring stuff, and they did a great job.

More Orientation in the afternoon, then another of the events I’ve been waiting for…the party at Lowes Motor Speedway!  Have you gathered by now that I’m kind of a NASCAR Fan? I freely admit to being totally hooked, and I was really looking forward to this event.  We gathered the usual suspects at the coaches, and loaded up.  We were not sure what the full evening plan was, but we knew that Steve had “fastpasses” to jump to the front of the line for pace car rides!  They had given them to Operators during Marketplace today, and he casually gathered some extras in from friends that were not going to the event.  So we were golden!

First stop, the new ZMax Drag Racing venue…beautiful, and I was hoping we’d see a funnycar, or something.  Instead, the buses were running down the track!  Fun, if your driver was into it…ours was not.  He was having serious bus troubles, and I don’t think he wanted to risk anything.  When we pulled off the Interstate, the bus shut down at the top of the exit ramp, blocking traffic for about 3 minutes.  So he understandably took it easy…it was still fun to roll down that long track, and imagine what it might feel like.

Then, up the hill, and the back way into the Speedway…except the bus shut down again at the top of one of the hills, and would not start!  We sat there for what seemed like all night (probably only about 10 minutes), and he eventually got it running again.  We did learn a very important life lesson, though.  If Michelle’s blood sugar gets too low, she turns into a panther with claws fully extended.  Very critical piece of information for future conventions!

Finally, we were inside the track through the tunnel…had to wait a bit for the coaches to circle the track, then it was finally time!  We used the “fastpasses” and hopped into a pace car for a trip around the track.  Now, we only got up to around 95, but it was still thrilling.  So thrilling that we all ended up taking multiple trips!  The very long line thinned out as the evening went on, until you could just walk up and get in a car. Of course, the times I let the girls go, their drivers went triple digits (Emi got up to 105!), but it was still a thrill to be on that track, especially on the high banks of the turns!

Best ride was actually in the LMS Van…because the driver was also the head of maintenance for the track!  He took us around probably 10 laps (most of the cars were doing 2-3 laps).  He explained just about everything we wanted to know, and really helped fill in the gaps of my NASCAR knowledge.  I was able to ask those “stupid questions” I always wanted to ask, but didn’t want to show my ignorance to the NASCAR cogniscenti that I hang out with.

Great event, ABA!  Can we schedule all future Marketplaces near a NASCAR track, so we can do that again?

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February 9, 2009 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Friday morning, more floor tours, but this time, I was Captain of Orientation for 2 hours.  Of course, it’s starting to slow down some now, so being Captain isn’t a big deal.

Then it was off to the Sightseeing Tours.  Again, I hear people “poo-poo” the sightseeing as a waste of time, and why don’t met get more business done, and less of “this extra junk”.  You know how I feel about it…I’ve said time and again how much more business I do at the social events than I ever do anywhere else.  Sightseeing tours are the same way.  I remember going on a tour in Texas that I just picked at random.  I didn’t really see one that totally excited me, so I just picked one.  I ended up talking to several Operators in the course of that tour, and one of them is now a regular customer here!

But I was excited about this one…I had been led to believe that it involved something I’ve always wanted to do.  Our first stop was the Richard Petty Driving Experience.  Now, you KNOW what we were expecting, and when the bus pulled off at the exit for Lowes Motor Speedway, we got more excited!  But then we got the bad news…we were going to the Petty offices, not for a ride around the track.  Curses, foiled again!

But the tour at Petty was fascinating, as they had a number of actual NASCAR cars there that were being reconditioned for them to use them in their program.  Emi was excited, as they had both an Elliot Sadler and a Ryan Newman car there (being female, she cannot simply pick a favorite driver..,she has to have two!).  Since they do mostly Dodge and Chevy cars, there unfortunately wasn’t a Carl Edwards car there, but nothing is perfect.  Of course, I was also holding out hope that we would turn a corner somewhere in the garage and find the King himself standing there to greet us, but no such luck on that end either.

From there, we visited the Sam Bass Gallery (NASCAR’s official artist…wow.  I should have spent more time in art class, given what he can charge for a drawing!), and the Hendrick Motorsports complex.  Had some excitement there as well…we were listening to an explanation from one of their staff in the building that houses the Mark Martin and Dale Earnhart, Jr. teams.  When he was done, everyone headed down the hallway to look out on the work floor.  I was wandering around with some friends, and saw a familiar face walk in the front door…Mike Helton, the President of NASCAR!  I didn’t move fast enough, but I found out who can!  Jim Diebel from Hanover Holiday Tours (a staunch supporter of Jimmie Johnson) recognized him as fast as I did, and caught him going back out the front door for a quick picture.  I was going to ask for one as well, but you could tell that he really wasn’t in the mood for that stuff. But I did get to shake his hand, and say “thanks”, so that was neat.

The tour was conducted by Jennifer Parsley from Adventures in Motorsports Tours, a local Charlotte receptive that specializes in NASCAR Tours.  We got to talking, and I found out that her father, Roger, had led the tour the last time I was in Charlotte with North Carolina Motorcoach!  I still remember that tour, as Roger was able to tell some amazing Dale Earnhart Sr. stories, having grown up in Kannapolis with him, and the family is still very close to Martha Earnhart!  Roger was actually on the other coach, and came over to say “hi!”.  Small world, eh?

It just goes to show…if you have something you know very well, find a way to offer it to Motorcoaches!  AIM’s tours can be personalized for anything a group wants, even including meet-and-greets with NASCAR people, a visit to a Pit Crew Training Facility and more.  You can really tell how much they love their work!  And they understand the overwhelming lesson of this year…don’t just sell the Operators.  Jennifer invited a bunch of us to come back down for one of the races at Lowes this year, and she’ll put together a complete package for us.  You know, we may just take her up on that yet!

Friday evening was “relax time” for us…the gang went out to dinner at our annual tradition of a Mexican restaurant (long story…don’t ask!).  We got back in time to join the evening’s activities in progress, and got the best of both sides.  Private time with friends, and networking time with the attendees.  Who could ask for anything more?

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February 6, 2009 by Chris Harrower, CTIS.

Thursday morning in Charlotte dawned early and cold, but it’s back to the floor for more floor tours, and more walking (but only about 3.5 miles today).  It’s the first “real” day of Marketplace, and things are really starting to hop!

But you can feel the effects of the economy…while attendance for the week was on par with past years, people are starting to come more for just their appointment day, and not staying for the week.  Personally, I think this is a mistake, and we need to help our supervisors understand that you might get away with that at some of the other shows, but ABA (and some of the others “big” shows) is different.  I do as much business at the meals and social events as I do on the business floor. So it’s still important to get as much face time as you can at this show.

Kudos to Philadelphia for a great opening luncheon.  I was never a huge fan of Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes (and I was surprised how many “kids” at my table at lunch who knew nothing about them!), but they were tremendous!  I knew more of their songs than I expected, and ended up doing a nice duet with Cynthia from Birmingham on one of the songs (she wanted to get up and dance, but the guys on stage had smooth down pat, and I would have looked more of a jerk than usual if I had tried!).  I could have done without Mr. Smith’s welcome, especially when he called attention to how cheap our beloved State is right now, but it can’t all be perfect.  I know that Ryan and his team will do an excellent job in a couple of years in the City of Brotherly Shove!

Back to the floor for more tours, then it’s time for the evening event.  A high school marching band welcomed us to dinner, and NC did a nice job, with some really good food.  But our minds were on something else.  It’s Bowling Time!  All the smack talk comes to an end tonight, as we hopped on the buses (glad I didn’t try to walk down to Strike City, as that’s NOT where we ended up going!  Whoopsie…).  Did we have fun?  You bet.  Did we roll the ball down the lane? Certainly.  Did we stink up the joint?  Of course!  I never promised we’d win, but we had a ton of fun.

For me, the highlight came later in the evening…the entire event was a benefit for Carolina Breast Friends, and the Pink House they’re building to help Breast Cancer patients.  The entire story of Kristy Adams-Ebel was very moving, and her husband continues the work after living a very difficult life, losing a bunch of family members in a very short time span. The whole time Chris, her husband, was talking, I kept thinking of my teammate and hero, Gwen Elmore, who was sitting there at the table with me.  I wanted to go meet him after he spoke, and introduce him to my friend, but we had to keep moving.

During the bowling, to my surprise, Chris came around the lanes, and thanked everyone personally.  So I DID get to introduce him to Gwen, and they had a very nice chance to talk.  It was very moving, and I think they both appreciated it.  I know I did.

That’s what is so important about an event like this.  A city like Charlotte pays a lot of money, and invests thousands of man-hours in planning and implementing something like an ABA Marketplace.  We can (and should) give something back to our host city for all they do for us, yet I would say that only maybe 25% of the people in attendance at Marketplace actually came out and supported the bowling event.  Don’t get me wrong…we raised over $16,000 for CBF, and that’s phenomenal.  But what could have happened if more people had participated?  Maybe next year…

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