The 2019 ARA Show is in the books*, and oh, what an event it was for Point of Rental!

That includes the entire Point of Rental family and our friends, who showed up and spent plenty of time with us – we had 800+ visitors at Booth #4111, along with another 300+ who showed up at the Marriott for our joint Users Meeting and Reception with Rouse Analytics on Sunday evening. On Thursday, attendees of our sold-out regional training session got an entire day of software training with the team.

So what does it take to have, as many people in the convention center called it, “the busiest booth at the show”?

Getting Ready

It all started on February 11. That’s when we loaded a 26-foot moving truck up with 12,000 pounds of monitors, tables, counters, lockers, closets, and other equipment and giveaways, sending two Pointers off on an #EPICARAadventure. Over the next four days, we had 28 social media posts using that hashtag, recorded 15 on-site customer interviews, and visited five customer locations, all without exceeding the truck’s governed speed limit of 60 mph. 1,500 miles later, we unloaded the booth equipment at the Anaheim Convention Center on Friday morning.

Our setup team readied the booth for the main team’s Sunday arrival. They finished on time, despite having to wait for everyone’s flights to arrive, for convention center staff to hang the signs, and a prolonged search for our tables, which had been delivered to the wrong location on the show floor.

The Show Floor

Once the actual show started, Booth #4111 was a madhouse. Our 800+ visitors picked up all 500 backpacks that TSO Mobile provided before noon on Tuesday. They also snapped up approximately 850 bottle openers and spent approximately 350 hours receiving on-screen assistance from our team of experts in addition to the time spent talking to Pointers who didn’t have a computer station. Back at our offices, the non-deployed Point of Rental team served not only all of our customers who weren’t at the show, but provided invaluable support to our booth to serve visitors (and Pointers!) that needed it.

Wrapping Up

Even with the ARA Show over at 1 p.m. Wednesday, Point of Rental’s work in California continued. The team educated dozens of current customers at Thursday’s regional training. While the trainers did that, our director’s team furthered their leadership educations and our tear-down team prepared our booth to be loaded onto the truck.

Another pair of Pointers drove back to POR HQ Thursday evening, Friday, and Saturday with the booth. After their own 1,500 mile trek through rain, snow, traffic, and being pulled over and checked for proper paperwork, they arrived on Saturday. On Monday, Feb. 25, the whole team unloaded the truck, ending the adventure.

Two weeks after it started, everyone and everything are back to their original places. Pointers are ready to start following up on everything we learned and with everyone we met at the ARA Show. Thanks for being a part of the journey with us!

*Well, not literally, since we’re still submitting expense reports. Sorry, accounting team!

Odds & Ends:

  • 250 miles: The approximate distance we walked around Anaheim from Sunday to Wednesday.
  • 80 (approximate): The number of breakfasts the team consumed at the IHOP next to the hotel.
  • 25 (approximate): The number of appetizers unintentionally ordered by Wayne for Saturday’s team meal at P.F. Chang’s (with 13 Pointers present).