American Newspaper Solutions (ANS) and CarrierTrack® Technologies (CTT) attended their first America’s Newspapers Mega-Conference this April at the J. W. Marriott at Bonnet Creek in Orlando, Florida. We thought it would be great for us to give you observations about how we experienced our new membership and this conference from the perspective of a Gold Solutions Partner (and Sponsor) making their initial appearance. Owner and CEO of our companies, Jerry Ballenger, as well as Rick Epstein, president of ANS and chief marketing officer, represented our companies.
This journey started when we decided that our experienced-based solutions were of real benefit to an industry in transition. We contacted Patty Slusher, director of membership of America’s Newspapers. We asked a number of questions about the organization and who its members were. We explained the core competencies of our two companies, and how we felt we are structured to be foundational to organizations looking to find an alternative to the higher cost associated with maintaining an in-house distribution organization or using the United States Postal Service. Patty told us about both the opportunities to contribute to the power of America’s Newspapers as a Solutions Partner and the structure of the Mega-Conference.
With the information supplied by Patty and others from the organization, we worked to make sure that we were set up to leverage both our membership and the conference. We were told that we would be able to submit articles about how our organization and experience can broadly help the industry, which have been challenging, but exhilarating to compose. It has become obvious to us that there are many ways that our experiences can be of value to others facing the issues and opportunities that our industry offers. ANS has been involved with conversion to hand delivery for each of our verticals, which include Daily Home Delivery, Weekly Newspaper Delivery, Single Copy Sales, Delivery to Postal Facilities (DDU), Total Market Coverage (TMC), Selective Market Coverage (SMC) and Last Mile Delivery from company and postal distribution systems for many years. We know that careful planning and adapting our state-of-the-art CTT technology creates the foundation for success.
The Mega-Conference created the opportunity that required us to develop a way of comprehensively describing our offerings in a manner that could be both targeted and brief. Because of the many areas where our services are offered, we determined that a series of product specific videos could tell our story best. We spent the period of time between joining the organization and the conference, refining the videos we had developed for sales, training and relations with the communities in which we distribute. We found both the hotel and the rooms used for the Town Square very amenable to setting up our booth and video presentations.
We thought the idea of integrating the vendor area and the booths for breakfast, breaks, lunch and receptions as being key to creating an atmosphere where participants had a reason to attend and interact with other participants and companies presenting their services. The conference meetings seemed well attended, which kept the attention of everyone focused on the dynamic changes in our industry. The attendees seemed truly engaged in finding ways to bring both efficiency and growth to their organizations.
We think Dean Ridings, CEO of America’s Newspapers, summed it up best, when he said that there was a special buzz about this year's Mega-Conference, which represented an industry both challenged but creating a dynamic future that can be as rewarding as has been its unequaled past. ANS and CTT are determined to be part of that future and are very satisfied with our choice to become Gold Solutions Partners and Mega-Conference participants.
For information about CarrierTrack®, please contact:
Jerry Ballenger – jwb@carriertrack.com
Rick Epstein – rick@carriertrack.com
Website – carriertracktechnologies.com
