October 1, 2011 in Home by admin

Calspro 2011

Calspro has historically been good to us.  We have made several important connections and won the business of several Calspro members including seven of the 11 board members and the president.  Since this convention is so important to us we made the decision last year that we would double down and send two staff members to the show.  Doug and I were the lucky Tristar participants this year.

One of the few drawbacks to living in San Luis Obispo County is the lack of a decent airport.  There would be no easy travel to Reno.  We were going to need to drive.  I’m not going to lie; the drive up there is a long one.  To get there Doug and I drove up I-5 and cut over on the 80.  We visited with a couple clients in Sacramento to break up the drive.  The 80 between Reno and Sacramento is beautiful.   As luck would have it this weekend was also the Street Vibrations Fall Rally, a very large Harley Davidson event which brings thousands of bikers into Reno.  We knew right away this was going to be an entertaining weekend.

Friday evening began with a meet and greet cocktail party.  We saw many familiar faces and met some new ones.  Meeting Pete Lazetich, a former San Diego Charger great and owner of Reno Carson Messenger was really cool.  I am pretty much nuts when it comes to Chargers football.  Listening to Pete sing some Johnny Cash was something I’ll remember for a long time.

The show itself was one of our best.  Right away we had new prospective clients looking at our products.  They were impressed with the way our Process Service software handled GPS; billing, statements, and they loved the Smartphone apps for their process servers.  Our dispatch and order tracking mechanisms also impressed.  I don’t remember the last time our booth was this busy at a show.   Our Investigations program was also a hit with the many private investigators that attended the show, as too was Wincopy our Subpoena preparation-mobile photocopy program with those who do that type of work.

We also had the best schwag.  Pens, magnets, we didn’t go there.  Instead I had my wife come up with some products from her skin care line.  Oluvskin is her skin care line; the primary ingredient is our extra virgin olive oil.  We gave out soaps, chap stick, and olive oil with our logo on the packaging.  People loved it!

Another highlight of our trip was our Saturday night dinner adventure.  We had the cabbie bring us to one of the best steakhouses in Reno.  Since neither Doug nor I were patient enough to wait two hours to be seated, we ended up going to Ichiban, a Japanese steakhouse.  As luck would have it we would share our table with a woman who’s loosely connected to our industry.  She writes software for medical facilities.  We’d also share the table with some boisterous semi-drunk partiers.  When we weren’t laughing we were enjoying some amazing cuisine.  Our chef was an aboslute ninja.  He was amazing!

Sunday’s drive home was long, thank goodness for Sirius NFL radio.  It took two and a half NFL games including a Chargers win to get home.  Although we’ll miss Reno, we were happy to learn that next year’s show will be in Anaheim which is  much closer.  See you guys next year!

- Dennis