Insider caught up with Chris Cowlbeck of the IBOUSA to get his reflections on last week’s convention.
I think you were the hardest working guy in Scottsdale last week at the IBO convention. What were the highlights from your perspective?
We have a great team of folks including Carrie, Chad and Jerrod, that come together to make our conferences work. Our execs are unpaid and help based on their deep appreciation of the values of the group. From our Vendor Associates who give great educational presentations to our Consultant Associates who hone our sales, legal, technical and finance skills, we’ve put a formula together so that everyone can take something home with them to make the effort worthwhile. For me, the highlight has been seeing the light bulbs go off across the crowd as we are introducing new concepts in the technical world that will help us all be more efficient, effective and to be more profitable.
What did you hear from the Associates as top priorities for the organization?
Making more money is a top priority for everyone, and the common operating platform we are perfecting is allowing us to do all sorts of things including cooperative automated buying as well as common selling tools that, on our own, we could not afford to develop. With the numerous inbound inquiries to associate with our networking group we are challenged to keep the conferences that we have twice a year meaningful and not over grow the commitments we have for existing venues. We think we have some solutions in the works that we will be able to share with the entire class of independent operators in the very near future.
Are you pleased with the strides the IBO has made in relation to vendor cooperation?
By and large, we are extremely tickled with the willingness of most of our Vendor Associates to assist from the technical side as they can to help us perfect our operating platform. They have taken a position of realizing that if we operators benefit and excel, we will make more money and buy more of their products. It has also brought many of them together as more friendly competitors to overcome common obstacles and focus on more important issues that in the end, benefit the operators, and then themselves. The AdMac Certification program we have endorsed as well as the IBO Fusion tech sandbox are recent examples of participants willing to do what’s in the best interest of their operator customers.
Chris, when and where is the next IBO conference?
Our conferences are limited to existing or prospective associates and it hurts me to have to tell great people there may be a year or two before we can comfortably absorb more companies. Unfortunately, given our size, we can’t open it up to everyone today, based on venue commitments we have to make several years in advance. Our next conference is in St Louis near the end of September, and we always try to find some fun activities so this time we have several suites for the Cardinals vs Cubs ballgame. Our next one is in Jacksonville Florida in the spring of 2018 and Columbus Ohio in the fall of 2018. Chattanooga Tennessee, Savannah Georgia and Birmingham Alabama are in our sites for 2019.
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