It’s my favorite kind of year. It’s a year when once again we’ll host our Tideworks Customer Conference.
The Tideworks Customer Conference 2016 is this September, 14-15th here in Seattle. Our theme is “Navigating the terminal technology landscape together.” Sure it’s a mouthful, but it has one meaning. We’re here for you. I like that about us. We take to heart the trust we build and have in one another. During the customer conference that relationship and how key it is to all our success is front and center.
The venue we’ve secured for the conference is one of my favorites in the city. It’s right on the Seattle waterfront, steps away from everything our amazing city has to offer in entertainment and activities. Yes, I’m biased. I’m a rare Seattle native. I’ve lived all over this country and visited all but two* states and there is nothing like coming home, flying over the Puget Sound and our vibrant downtown on approach to Seattle. I always hope our customers have a window seat to enjoy that incoming view.
And so, here it is late February and all kinds of months and important milestones away from that exciting customer conference event, and yet you know we’re busy building out our programs, arranging for special guest speakers and making sure just the right menu will be served on the final night’s famous special cocktail hour and dinner.
Each of our Tideworks Customer Conferences have had something special about them. Of course, the best part is seeing everyone. For so many days of the year in meetings and work sessions our customers are SSAT, DOLE, PET, BCT, DOYLE, ICTSI, BNSF, CSX and more. During the conference there’s a great reminder that our customers are Javier, Chris, Ed, John, Elizabeth, Sarah, Ryan, Gerard and a host of other terrific folks with amazing stories to tell, families to catch up on, business plans to share and challenges to meet head on, face to face, together.
There’s no conference call, no web exchange, no business meeting, no blog that can top an hour in a hotel lobby bar, or on a balcony overlooking the water and snowcapped Olympic Mountains asking each other questions, listening and daring no wrong answers, laughing at our history together and smiling with thoughts of everything to come.
I’m proud of our company’s accomplishments but nothing makes me stand with more pride than the partnerships we’ve built with our clients and our partners. With you.
And so as we plan this year’s conference I find myself asking…what would you like to know? What would you like to hear from us and others in this dynamic home to so many technologists and successful business entrepreneurs? What’s important to you? What types of moments at our Tideworks Customer Conference will make you glad you weathered today’s often challenging air travel and smile with reminders why you’re glad that months, years or even decades ago you chose Tideworks to be your terminal’s technology provider?
I know this. I promise we’ll come up with some terrific answers.
Cheers and here’s to everything we do together from now ’til September and beyond.
*Alaska and North Dakota. Alaska, that’s got to be an easy weekend someday. As for the other…any of you have an inland depot in North Dakota that could use a good site analysis?
