This past week was the annual convention of the National
Pest Management Association, Pest World 2015. The extravaganza was held in
Nashville Tennessee at the Gaylord Hotel and Convention center by Opryland. As
usual, Syngenta had a large presence at the convention. We had a large booth on
the trade show floor, we sponsored the internet café, the Crown Leadership
Awards, and the Keynote speaker, Alison Levine, at the annual association meeting on Thursday.
The convention starts on Tuesday afternoon with a 4 hour
trade show. Our leaders decided that we needed to meet as a team on Monday
afternoon at 3 pm. In hind sight I should have just skipped the meeting but
instead I flew to Nashville on Sunday evening so I could be there in time for
the meeting. While walking to the meeting Monday afternoon I noticed that crews
were hanging Christmas decorations on all the railings. Seems just a little
early to me.
The Gaylord Hotel is a huge affair with three main sections
and covered atriums between the different areas. The first few days it was easy
to get lost navigating between events.
Our booth this year was the largest at the show and was very
well done. It was also very comfortable with 4 different sitting areas where
you could visit with customers. It made it much easier to spend the 12 hours in
the booth this year.
We had interesting shirts this year. Tuesday was a light
blue polo, Wednesday and grey polo, and Thursday a grey pullover. All three had
linings with an entomology theme with various bug designs. The shirts were a
bit feminine and as a former colleague commented, we looked very ‘metero-sexual’.
Oh well, it probably made up for all the masculine shirts our female colleagues
have at to endure over the years. It could have been worse, we could have been
in bright pink shirts and pink booties for Breast Cancer Awareness month like the folks at the
Forshaw booth.
The convention is an international affair. Next to us was a
booth for a company from Taiwan. They had some interesting looking products.
Not sure how they got that through customs. They also had very few visitors at
their booth. I suspect they won’t be back next year.
Wednesday evening is the grand Crown Leadership Awards
presented by Pest Control Technology magazine and sponsored by Syngenta. It is
a coat and tie affair. Pat Willenbrock represented Syngenta and did a great
job. In the past this event has been very long but this year they finished the
awards in a record hour and twenty-seven minutes. I was impressed.
I had a very early flight Friday morning so Thursday I opted
out of the customer dinners. Instead I ate at Stax burgers and ate my dinner
with this great view of the atrium with the fountain and gardens.
I was back in
Salt Lake City by 9:30 Friday morning and took the train to Provo. It was a
long week.
