Ben joined StorMan Software in 2002 and is now StorMan's Australian General Manager.
Title: SSAA Tradeshow & Convention
Date: 17th October 2008
It's 6am on Monday morning. I'm at the Brisbane domestic airport. I think to myself: "Here we go again" as I wait for my flight to Perth. I'm killing time by reflecting on how much we had accomplished as a team in order to attend the SSAA Conference this year, and the logistics involved in maintaining a presence at this years’ trade show.
Fast forward to 8am, and I find myself wondering if anyone else gets this excited about attending the conference, and being in front of your customers for that one special time in the year. I realise right then that whatever we'd accomplished at conventions in the past, this year's was going to be special. And I am pleased to say that it was!
After a very chatty plane-trip to Perth, I landed, collected about 400 things for the trade show (including StorMan chocolates for the stand) and headed off to the hotel. Fast forward to Tuesday afternoon, and it comes time to set up the trade show. Ordinarily, this task is fairly onerous because it takes a while to set everything up in a spot that has good access and without covering the floor with cables and the like, so after about the 10th move of furniture the stand looked about right and i was almost finished. Next thing I know, the rest of the StorMan team arrive from New Zealand and decide to completely rearrange the tradeshow stand!
It was then that I looked up and saw the transformation - 2 hours before, the room has been unspectacular in its blandness, and now, suddenly, it had burst to life. I realised that surrounding me were some of the best brains in the business. This is why we come!
I look over and find all the old mates - people like Joe Barbaro from Homestead Press, Sonja from Homewrap, Anthony from Regis Consulting, Ken from StorBuild, Martin from Digitech, Mark from Southwell lifts and Mike Wilson from Steel Storage to name but a few. Then there are the people who make it all happen smoothly, like Claire Beattie from the SSAA who works tirelessly with the members to ensure it all goes well.
It strikes me at this point that our industry is STRONG and it’s strong not because of the money invested or the number of new delegates (although this helps), but it’s strong because of the people that support it and participate in it.
Looking through the various stands and offerings on display it becomes apparent that the Self Storage industry in Australia is well serviced by dedicated competent people, which bodes well for the industry as it moves through some of the toughest times in recent years. However despite all the doom and gloom i was surprised with the amount of new sites that were being discussed and especially the growth in the expansion section. This shows many operators think that they can trade out of any hardships and given my personal experience going through the 90's "recession we had to have" this seems to be true.
Now imagine what it would be like to talk about self storage from 9.00am through to 11.00pm (sometimes later) every day, for 3 days, and there you have it. But to be honest, there's nothing I’d rather be doing!
Suddenly it's all over and we are at the awards dinner on Friday night, congratulating those that have worked exceptionally hard over the last year. I would like to personally thank those winners who use StorMan within their facilities and especially the following award winners...
- Facility of the year 2008 – Storage King Kingston
- Regional Facility of the Year – Rosebud Mini Warehousing
- Manager of the Year – Charlie Bahlmann
- Best Expansion Upgrade – Storage Solutions
- Innovation Award – Able Self Storage Goolwa
Once again it looks to be onwards and upwards for the next year. I was highly impressed with the overall level of the conference. See you again next year on the Gold Coast for what I am sure will be a massive conference. Thanks to all the mates it was great to catch up and to all our customers and my friends, thank you for supporting us and making StorMan what it is today.
Regards,
Ben.
