Last week, our entire company visited Las Vegas … partly to check out StonExpo and say hello to some customers – but mostly to get together in person as a team (since all of us work from home in different cities). Here we are with some of our friends from Out of the Woods in Utah.
The vibe at the conference was very positive – multiple vendors mentioned that it was the most upbeat since 2008. There seemed to be many new saw manufacturers, and existing manufacturers also showed off new products. For example, here’s Park Industries’ Saber saw that addresses a new market segment at a lower price point (by omitting the waterjet of the Fusion).
There’s always beautiful stone to see, of course …
… and it was nice to attend the MIA reception again. The most exciting buzz we heard that applies directly to our software is that the integration between JobTracker Inventory and SlabSmith created by Data Bridge Integrations works very well … if you use both products, you should probably contact Data Bridge.
We spent much of our time in Las Vegas team-building and talking about our business. We only get to do this once a year or so – it’s hard to step back from the day-to-day work of running a business, but it’s extremely beneficial to connect as a team and remind ourselves how lucky we are to work with each other. If you haven’t done that with your team in a while, you might want to consider doing so (and unlike us, you probably live in the same area, so it might be as simple as an occasional happy hour or something like a bowling party).
… and next time you’re in Las Vegas, you might want to consider trying the “Zoom Line” downtown – we clearly enjoyed it 🙂
We didn’t get to meet with all the customers who reached out to us – next year, we’re going to try to do something a bit more structured so that it’s easier to find each other.
Did you attend the Las Vegas shows last week? Have insights to share? Let your peers know in the comments below.
