23 June 2014
Hello everyone,
Well it’s that time of year again when I head off to the Storage King conference. This year it was in my home town of Adelaide and I must say it was nice to come home. Contrary to popular belief things do change in Adelaide and while I was there found the new north / south highway to be very useful.
Storage King had selected the Intercontinental Hotel and while one of the older hotels in Adelaide it certainly looked after me and the Storage King team while we were there. Storman was of course exhibiting at the Storage King Suppliers show and Mark Greig and I were tasked with entertaining the Storage King team on the Thursday morning with some Storman training… more on that in a moment.
Arriving at the hotel I setup the tradeshow and caught up with all the other “usual suspects” and proceeded to learn what the company had been up to since the last conference. The first sessions were held in the National Wine Centre and had the advantage of not only the amazing views of the Adelaide Botanical gardens but also of having a few quiet wines while enjoying some truly amazing food. I can thoroughly recommend the Wine Centre for food and wine.
The second day found Anthony Regis from Regis Consulting taking the staff for a “fitness”” session on the banks of the river Torrens, Somehow my invitation got wine on it and I forgot to be up at 5.00am for that session. Sorry Anthony! After a great start we had a good morning session before attending a fantastic afternoon in the Adelaide hills where we enjoyed a long lunch at The Lane Vineyard in the very beautiful Adelaide Hills, close to Hahndorf.
Making the most of this networking opportunity, it was great to sit down and really catch up with my customers and listen to the many Storman stories that they chose to share with me. Thank you.
Moving on we had dinner in Hahndorf at the Hahndorf Inn and I was really surprised to find a wheat beer that I liked. Traditionally I haven’t met one that I liked however with some encouragement form the crew at Storage King I found one to my taste here. Well done Hahndorf Inn! After a very German dinner we headed back to Adelaide to watch the first round of the State of Origin and I am disappointed that the winning streak the Blues showed this night continued on and won them the first State of Origin series in 8 years… about time, I say; I was running out of fingers to hold up!
Thursday morning bought with it a great chance for Mark Greig and I to teach the team at Storage King some trick and tips that they could take back to their stores the following week. As a finale we did a session where the “volunteers” were tasked with a Merchandise Challenge and a Storman Puzzle. After much cheering and egging on by the rest we emerged with two winners Erin and Maria. Well done ladies and good luck next year. I hope they enjoyed their Haigh’s Chocolates .
Thursday night bought with it an air of celebration as we headed to the historic port of Glenelg for the annual Storage King Awards dinner. For you observant readers you will notice that the work “Glenelg” is a palindrome and is only one of 15 Palindromic palaces with seven letters in the world. Now there’s a piece of “tribble” (information that’s interesting, but useless – trivia is neither). We celebrated at the Stamford Grand Hotel in their Ballroom. In keeping with the theme of the night we all went in 1920’s getup and some of the “gangsters” ended up “gangsta” by the end of the night.
Over all a great conference and one that Storman was proud to sponsor and attend. Thanks Storage King and I will see you all next year!
