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The event brought together more than 1,700 representatives from the motorcoach industry, including Chauffeur Driven and its partner company Premier Products, both of which had booths on the show floor and were represented by CD Publisher Chris Weiss, Sales Manager Darren Saat, and CEO Eric Alpert. Other familiar faces included Grech Motors, Turtle Top, Advantage Funding, Lancer Insurance, FleetMatics, and Century Business Solutions.
According to Maggie Vander Eems, UMA’s meetings and operations director, more than 180 exhibiting companies occupied the show room floor’s 200,000 square feet. This year’s event saw an encouraging hike in both exhibition and registration numbers.
“There was definitely an increased attendance over last year, so we’re really happy about that,” Vander Eems said. “It was really great to see some of the best attendance numbers we’ve seen in years.”
Vander Eems added that the expo’s seminars “had a really great turnout,” including a few new programs that aimed to keep the educational component fresh and all-encompassing.
“We added a track to our education seminars, which was for small operators,” Vander Eems said. “It had multiple sessions with a focus on sub-topics that would be of interest to a small operator, and touched on things like ADA and insurance. That session was really well-attended.”
It wasn’t all business, and many of the expo’s events brought attendees to New Orleans landmarks and hot spots like Bourbon Street, the French Quarter, and The Big Easy’s many local dining establishments and watering holes. This year’s launch of the Motorcoach Mardi Gras fundraiser, an initiative spearheaded by the Motorcoach Marketing Council with support from the separately operating UMA, looks to raise public awareness of motorcoach travel’s benefits and held its fundraising event at Razzoo Bar & Patio.
While UMA is already looking ahead to 2016’s expo in Atlanta, Ga., the organization’s next big event will come with its annual Capitol Hill Days from March 17-18 in Washington, D.C. Owners and senior management of bus and motorcoach companies across the country are invited to meet with elected officials to discuss the industry’s most pressing issues. Chief among these concerns are the possibility of motorcoach insurance limits skyrocketing from $5 million to between $20-$25 million and the potential of disappearing private-sector protections that prevent publicly funded transportation agencies from dipping into private charter work.
Completed registration forms for Capitol Hill Days, which can be downloaded from uma.org/capitolhill, are due no later than February 19.
Visit uma.org and motorcoachexpo.com for more information.
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Plainview, N.Y. — After rescheduling its January meeting on account of a blizzard that swept the Northeast region, the Long Island Limousine Association (LILA) met up February 3 at Race Palace.
The meeting, which saw a turnout of more than 50 people, was sponsored by Peter Hayes and Gin Kato of Bird Bus Sales, Mike Marroccoli of Capacity Coverage, and Doreen Marino of Forest Hills Financial.
Topics included a mix of industry and association-specific information, with guest speakers Marroccoli discussing insurance and Marino talking about retirement planning and exit strategies, while changes to the LILA website were discussed among members. Marroccoli’s presentation about insurance costs led the association to both discuss and put together a training program for members’ chauffeurs.
“Mike Marroccoli was telling us that these insurance carriers are really determining whether you stay in business or not,” said LILA President Robert Cunningham of Platinum Limousine. “I had a meeting with some members of the association, and I said that maybe we should come back with a driver training program because the chauffeurs, if they’re not trained properly, can put you right out of business if, God forbid, they get into a bad accident and somebody gets hurt.”
According to LILA Director Bill Goerl of Clique Limousines, the association is also re-examining how it will handle its mid-winter meetings in the future “because it’s just so hard to get people out in this weather.”
LILA’s next meeting will be March 31.
Visit nslali.com for more information.
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San Francisco — Gateway Global, an established Northern California-based company, recently announced the addition of Caroline Cua to the Gateway team. She joins the company as vice president of client experience. Most recently the company also announced the addition of Gina Amato-Bonelli, finance administrator, who joined to fill the shoes of longtime (and retiring) Corporate Administrator Rich Azzolino.
Cua began her career as a sales and marketing director for an assisted living community for older adults. She says that she found particular success facilitating multiple connections between organizations, building deeper personal and business relationships in the process.
This led to her next position with Silverride, a transportation company aimed at helping seniors maintain active and independent lifestyles after their driving retirement, which she joined in 2007. In her role, she provided assisted transportation, engaged drivers/companions, and offered concierge services for individual and group events. Cua, vice president of client experience, crossed paths with Gateway Global in 2010, developing a partnership to encourage group outings for senior clients and managing larger events.
“Caroline’s high standards of integrity and first-class service set business and ethical standards for the industry. With Caroline’s outside experience it allows her to bring new ideas to the table with a fresh perspective,” says Sam Amato, president of Gateway.
Visit gatewayglobalsf.com for more information.
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