ACDI held its Solutions Summit Oct. 23-25 in Lexington, Kentucky, bringing together their home office staff, partners and resellers, as well a few members of the media. It was a great couple of days filled with information, accolades, recognition and excitement about the future — as well as some ax throwing. Here’s a glimpse into some of the fun.
Clockwise from top left: Director of Sales Jeff McWilliams kicked things off with a lot of candid pictures of the staff and a good Spicoli joke; President Josh Lane and Director of Business Development Mark Hart welcome attendees and share some company updates; and the whole ACDI staff gets a well-deserved shout-out and thank you.
Partners including Elatec, Epson, GreatAmerica Financial Services, Konica Minolta, Lexmark and of course, PaperCut, had busy tables throughout the event, and had the opportunity to present as well, sharing information on new products, solutions, and integrations.
Lightning round-style table-hopping allowed dealers to share tips, tricks and best practices.
ACDI has an active advisory board, which got a sneak peek of the event and shared thoughts and ideas with ACDI’s leadership.
A highlight of the day was the dealer panel, featuring Damon Webb of Pacific Office Automation, Eric Knight of Atlantic, Tomorrow’s Office, Chelsey Bode of Pearson-Kelly Technology, Dan Rickert of EO Johnson and John Lopez of Milner. They discussed the challenges and rewards of selling solutions, the difference between print management and fleet management, billing models, the role of the cloud, managed IT, verticals, and much more.
Onto the previously mentioned ax-throwing — you’re intrigued, right? Part of the evening’s activities included competitions at Battle Axes, Lexington’s “Premier Hatchet-Throwing Destination” (quotes because I could not make that up). The sign really speaks for itself (bonus points for the best placement of Epson’s tagline ever).
Teams were broken into Game of Thrones-themed houses sorted by sales rep. I’m just going to go ahead and say that everyone was a winner because as it turns out, ax throwing is fun!
It feels kind of like Josh Lane has done this before.
Unfortunately I had to leave before Day 2, which included a trip to the historic Keeneland racetrack and a tour of the Buffalo Trace distillery. Reports indicate a great time was had by all!
The event’s theme was ‘Lucky in Kentucky’ and it seems safe to say we all got lucky just by being there. When you combine fun, information-sharing and networking, you have a winner.
is editor-in-chief of BPO Media’s publications Workflow and The Imaging Channel, and senior analyst for BPO Research. She has more than 20 years professional writing and editing experience and has specialized in the office technology industry for the last 15 years, focusing on areas including print and imaging hardware and supplies, workflow automation, managed print, document management solutions and software, business solutions and more. Contact her at amy@bpomedia.com.
