2023 Dealer Conference: Go Beyond
Published November 21, 2023 by April Morgan
Last year’s Dealer Conference was such a success in San Antonio Texas and having our reception at The Alamo, they told us to go bigger, so we did. What is bigger than the Alamo in Texas? Disney World! This year, we hosted our 2023 annual Dealer Conference in Orlando, Florida at the Gaylord Palms Resort. Not only is the resort right across from the Disney World parks, but it is so enormous it has an entire jungle inside with live alligators!
Our conference officially began on Sunday, November 12th. Dealers were welcomed to the Gaylord Palms where they could register, get their welcome information and a few goodies. After registration, dealers had a little bit of time to explore and possibly get lost in the resort before we packed up the buses and headed to our welcome reception dinner. Despite being an hour away, this year’s welcome reception was a once in a lifetime experience at the Kennedy Space Center. This was the inspiration for our “Go Beyond” space theme this year. Our dealers and staff truly went beyond as they were guided into the immersive experience of re-watching history take place and being face-to-face with the Space Shuttle Atlantis, the space craft that flew 33 missions and orbited Earth nearly five thousand times before retiring, like many of us do in Florida.
This event was nothing to beat around the bush. We had dueling pianists perform, and plenty of delicious appetizers, from Korean BBQ wings to lobster mac and cheese, which were the perfect snack foods for our guests to enjoy as they got to stroll around the museum and learn about space exploration. It was a great way to kick off our conference and we all left feeling very inspired for 2024.
Monday morning, our dealers were up bright and early with a breakfast buffet, while some ate breakfast, others were registering. After registration and breakfast was complete, everyone entered the ballroom to begin General Session. LS Tractor CEO Mike Kim welcomed our dealers along with a virtual greeting from LS Mtron CEO Mr. Shin. After presentations were given from Sales, Dealer Development, Parts, and Product, dealers broke up into rotating breakout sessions, where they heard more from Product, Service, IT and got to visit our sponsors in the Vendor Hall.
After a full day of learning and collaborating, we headed to our first ever Regional Dinner at Planet Hollywood in Disney Springs. Planet Hollywood is a fun Disney-themed restaurant with music and large screens for never-ending entertainment.
We separated our West Coast and our East Coast dealers on different levels to allow each side to split up and get to know one another more. Many also floated from floor to floor and mingled while enjoying the buffet-style dinner and served drinks. After dinner, dealers could walk around Disney Springs and check out the different shops and attractions that were there, like the Coca-Cola store and the Lego store!
Tuesday started with the famous breakfast buffet and dealers swiftly broke out into rotating breakout sessions once again. They floated from Branding to Sales Support, and Digital Marketing 101. After lunch, dealers got to break off into 8 different regional meetings with their Business Managers and had some great in-depth discussions.
Then everyone went outside for Product Day! Product Day was held right outside the Gaylord Palms hotel. Dealers were able to ride, and test drive all our products, including our new models that were announced last year and will be hitting dealerships soon.
We ended Tuesday night with an Awards Banquet that was the official kick-off of our 15 years in the U.S. We honored a few of our dealers for their hard work this year and took the time to recognize our wonderful Dealer Council members. The night was filled with community and engaging discussions amongst our dealers and staff. It was a great way to end a successful conference and year. We are excited to “Go Beyond” in 2024 and are so incredibly grateful for all of our dealers who attended. We hope you enjoyed it as much as we did.
