Snow contractors from throughout the United States and Canada converged on Cleveland Aug. 9-11 to continue a series of conversations that began a year ago.

Snow Magazine's Inner Circle was conceived 18 months ago as a way for contractors to interact with each other without fear of revealing their trade secrets to competitors from their own market. This unique educational experience has seen upwards of 30 contractors coming together in two separate groups to share their own experiences, thoughts, trials and tribulations in order to help each other grow and thrive.

Snow industry consultant John Allin facilitated and guided this group through such topics as: sales growth, dealing with lawsuits, mitigating risk, financial responsibility, business structure, selling your company and bolstering profits. Designed to encourage peer-to-peer interaction, the group was guaranteed a competition-free environment so they could open their books and discussed strategy for their own businesses without the fear of revealing too much to their competitors.

Dave Dudash, Green Estates, based in the Cleveland, Ohio market said: “In the past two years, I have attended various symposia, meetings and trade show education sessions – and this event has proven to be the wisest use of my time because of the information shared amongst the group attendees.”
 
Attendee Tom Canete, Canete Snow and Ice Management, Wayne, N.J., agreed. “I came back for a second year just to find out how these guys and how well we all fared through last winter and to continue the learning process begun in 2009.”

Snow Magazine publisher Kevin Gilbride said GIE Media is leading the industry in groundbreaking events to assist snow fighters in learning through closer contact with peers from different markets. “John Allin is by far the best person to draw contractors into the group discussions in a structured environment that encourages interaction and sharing,” Gilbride said. “The group trusts us (GIE Media) and John to keep the interaction moving along to the benefit of all who attended.”

Contractors came from Denver, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ontario, New York, Michigan, Maryland, Indiana, Chicago and New Hampshire to attend the August session. The cross section of contractors included small, four-truck operations to those with hundreds of subcontractors working areas up to 125 miles from their home base.

The sharing of financials, structure, growth strategy, marketing and planning in this type of environment, as well as the free interaction to discuss the pro’s and con’s of each type of organization, benefited all who attended the three day educational event.

For example, Chris Beaudry, owner of Pro-Turf in Dracut, Mass., said his expectation was to learn one valuable thing he could use in his operations. “I learned the first valuable thing within 10 minutes of the start,” Beaudry said. “After that point, the information flow was incredible and incredibly valuable.”

Each evening the group had dinner together in a informal setting that facilitated discussion about specific company challenges, how to address these challenges and what others felt about market conditions, sales activity and competition. Joe Johnson, Johnson Seasonal Services, Dryden, Mich., said the best part of the event was the interaction after the group dinner when the real sharing of experiences took place.

“This was my first time at this event, and I learned more in 45 minutes than I have in the past 12 months about how others attack certain issues and situations,” Johnson said. “On top of this, these guys were interested in my thoughts and ideas too. I’ll be back next year.”

Interested in attending the next Inner Circle event, scheduled for Sept. 13-14 at the downtown Cleveland Renaissance?

Seats are still available. Contact Maria Miller at mmiller@gie.net today for market availability and registration information.