Mid-South Atlantic Regional Conference

The next stop found me in my home state of North Carolina. I travelled down to Pinehurst to attend the 4th Annual HFTP Mid-South Atlantic Conference. Instead of having to navigate airports, I was able to have a leisurely drive with the company of my wife as we engaged in four hours of stimulating conversation. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The day was absolutely gorgeous. It was in the high 50's and not a cloud in the sky. A fantastic change from all the winter weather we've had over the past several weeks. We arrived just before the conference was to begin and were amazed at what we saw. The attendance exploded over the last couple of weeks and they out-grew their conference space. The vendor/sponsors had to be moved to a different location and the conference lunch had to be moved to the dining room. AWESOME!! This is just another great indicator that things are turning around. The conference was organized by The Central Carolina Chapter, The Charlotte/Blue Ridge Chapter, The South Carolina Chapter, and The Central Virginia Chapter.

The numbers that were provided to me say there were 94 attendees!! This is a record for this conference. So, let's recap on how 2010 is shaping up so far for HFTP. First, January exceeded the projections for new membership and membership renewals. Then EHTEC breaks the record for attendance. Then the Mid-South Atlantic Regional has a record attendance. This is looking extremely good and encouraging. Let's keep it going as we look ahead to the HFTP Development Conference March 15 & 16 in New Orleans and HITEC in June.

There was a great lineup of speakers headed off by Daniel Conti, CHAE, CAM, and Director of Finance for The Ritz Carlton Golf Club & Spa of Jupiter. Daniel is also a current member of the HFTP Global Board of Directors. His session was on "Providing Superior Customer Service Without Spending Your Last Dime." Daniel gave his usual great presentation. The afternoon was packed with great quality sessions finished up by Merilyn Feldstein, M.P.A., JCTC, MBTI helping us to "Understand Yourself and Others."

There was also a networking opportunity for the attendees to mix and mingle with the 19 vendor sponsors!! I am so thankful to all of our vendor partners that support HFTP with events such as this as well as our Global events. Part of the education opportunities for our members it to share what vendors are offering the solutions that we need in our operations. It is very difficult to research and find vendors that we need, so your willingness to support our events and display your solutions just makes for a win-win opportunity. I encourage all of our HFTP members to thank all of our sponsors for all of our events. Without them, we could not provide the members with all the services at such affordable prices.

The evening was capped off by an amazing dinner. The food was great, the company was awesome and we had a great time. So much so, I forgot to take any pictures of the dinner.   You'll just have to take my word for it, it was beautiful.

The next day began with one of my personal favorite speakers at HFTP events, Mr. Jerry Trieber. Jerry, Director of Field Accounting for Crestline Resorts & Hotels is a certified everything and all-around great guy. He has spoken at nearly every HFTP event for many years now and when you hear him present, you'll know why. To make a topic like fraud fun and interesting is not an easy task. But, Jerry can sure do it and even have us singing about it. That song is stuck in my head, by the way. THANKS!!

The remainder of the morning was packed with some more great sessions and we concluded just after lunch. It was such a gorgeous day that we assembled for a group picture out in front of our host property The Carolina. I'm not really sure what R.P. is doing, you'll have to ask him yourself.  The picture is at the bottom of the blog.

After we finished Arlene and I had lunch with Joann Phillips from The Country Club of North Carolina. She served as one of the property contacts for the conference and has been a key player in the Central Carolina Chapter of HFTP for years and years. She has been a source of encouragement for me over the years and is a very dear friend. Of course, she's going to kill me for writing all this for everyone to read, but there's nothing she can do about it!!

After lunch Arlene and I headed back home. We had another four hours for some more stimulating conversation, of course when Arlene wasn't taking a nap. But it was a beautiful day and when you have scenery like this staring you in the face, you can't really complain about anything. Life is just too good to us.

When we returned, we went to see the final performance of the play Chicago as performed by the North Buncombe High School Drama Team. My youngest daughter Jill stole the show, of course. She was in the ensemble, but still the star.

I'd love to hear from you, so drop me a line.

Look for the dates for next year's Mid-South Atlantic Regional Conference as we go up to Virginia.

Hope to see you real soon.