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The New England Livery Association (NELA) welcomed a sold-out crowd of 65 members and guests to Ken's Steak House in Framingham, Mass., on Tuesday, April 2, for their Spring Membership Meeting. Highlights of the meeting included guest speaker CD President Chris Weiss as well as a panel discussion about fleet electrification spearheaded by Tiffany Hinton of MOTEV.
John Bradley of Colonial Cadillac with the Cadillac LYRIQ electric sedan
The evening began with John Bradley from the night’s Platinum Sponsor, Colonial Cadillac in Woburn, Mass., spotlighting the Cadillac LYRIQ electric sedan. During the evening’s cocktail hour, meeting attendees had the opportunity to check it out first-hand and chat with Bradley about the vehicle. During dinner, NELA Executive Director Rick Szilagyi of Lexian Management welcomed the members, and introduced the evening’s sponsors, which included Gold Sponsor Grech Motors; Bronze Sponsors A&A Metro Transportation, Above All Transportation, Boston Chauffeur, Freedom Assets, Great Bay Limousine, Leros Point to Point, and Park Avenue Limousine; and Raffle Sponsors Anastasi Insurance, Center Insurance Agency, Chauffeur Driven, Pat’s Car Service and WIA Insurance.
CD President Chris Weiss, CD/NLA Executive Retreat pass winner Becky Laramee of All Points Limousine, and NELA/NLA President Brett Barenholtz of Above All/Boston Car
NELA President Brett Barenholtz of Above All/Boston Car, who was recently elected president of the National Limousine Association, was then invited to speak, providing updates of his two associations.
The NELA Board of Directors
Next, Weiss was given the podium. Introduced by Szilagyi as “the rock star of the industry,” Weiss talked about the success of March’s CD/NLA Show in Las Vegas and provided some information about the upcoming CD/NLA Executive Retreat in Miami. He highlighted the event’s Problem-Solving Interactive Roundtables, which will see peer experts on-hand to resolve a specific issue introduced by the operators. Weiss also took the time to compliment NELA as one of the preeminent associations in the industry.
L to R: Anna Vanderspek of Green Energy Consumers Alliance, Hugh Reese of National Grid, Tiffany Hinton of MOTEV, and Joel Barrera of Massport
Szilyagi then thanked board member Alicia Hayes of American Classic Limousine for positing the idea of a special session on devoted to EVs. He offered the historical parallel that the move from horse-drawn vehicles in the early 1900s was a gradual one until there was enough quality technology and infrastructure. Thus, horse-drawn vehicles were still on the streets 25 years after the first car was built, and well after the Model T and the assembly line came into existence. Then, Barenholtz introduced the EV panel members— Joel Barrera of Massport, Hinton, Hugh Reese of National Grid, and Anna Vanderspek of Green Energy Consumers Alliance—and led a lively conversation from the panel members covering topics like infrastructure, incentives on vehicles and charging stations, as well as questions from attendees. Hinton was particularly invaluable to the session, sharing all that she has learned electrifying MOTEV’s fleet.
Andrew Tighe of RMA Worldwide, Michael Callahan of Able Limousine, and Chris Weiss
Before the evening concluded, several items were raffled off, including a pass to the CD/NLA Executive Retreat, which was won by Becky Laramee of All Points Limousine.
The next NELA event is the association’s 21st Chauffeur Appreciation Day on June 6 in the Boston Logan Airport Limo Pool. Each year, NELA honors the “most important people of the industry” by holding a barbeque where chauffeurs can stop by for a free lunch in between runs for the day. Chefs include the NELA Board of Directors along with volunteers from the membership.
Visit nelivery.org for more information.
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Things are looking good for meetings and events as the latest Meetings Industry PULSE Survey, co-produced and sponsored by Cvent, reveals that business is booming worldwide and industry indicators are trending upwards. Data for the study was collected in March 2024.
For the first time ever, the survey polled planners across North America; Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA); and Asia Pacific (APAC).
Per the results, nearly two-thirds of North American planners say their events are considered more valuable to stakeholders than before the pandemic. While optimism levels are high around the world, planners in APAC are the most hopeful compared to the start of the year.
Confidence levels have bounced back up from a more guarded perspective at the end of last year and the beginning of 2024. There are considerably more optimists now than there were two months ago (57 percent), and a lot fewer pessimists (14 percent). Although most planners say networking and education are the two most important factors driving demand for their face-to-face meetings, budget constraints and higher costs remain the top challenges worldwide.
The study does report that the challenges with hotels and venues vary by region. The most notable sticking point for North America is that food & beverage costs are reported as being higher than expected. For EMEA and APAC, however, the cost of nightly accommodations is the biggest issue. Although planners’ comments focused somewhat negatively on hotels (rates and service levels), planners rank hotels, convention centers, and venues higher than they did last fall.
Sustainability differences vary starkly by region, with North American planners lagging far behind their counterparts and EMEA leading the way. One area where North America surpasses EMEA is in aligning operations with the UN’s sustainable development goals (14 vs. 11 percent).
Don’t delete the Zoom app off your phone yet, though. More than a half of EMEA and APAC respondents (54 percent and 56 percent, respectively) are planning to produce events that are either fully virtual or hybrid this year, more so than their North American peers.
Click here to see the full results.
[04.08.24]
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The US Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with MetLife, has released its latest Small Business Index (SBI) for Q1 2024. The SBI is a survey of small businesses nationwide on numerous topics that have been impacting them during the past few months, including fiscal issues and other challenges.
According to the quarterly survey, small businesses continue to feel that the economy is stable, slightly more optimistic than last quarter (62.3 for Q1 vs. 61.3 for Q4 2023). For reference, the highest SBI in the past four years was Q3 2023 at 69.2, while the lowest occurred in Q2 2020—the height of the pandemic—at 39.5. The score has remained in the range of the low 50s to the low 60s most of that time.
With no surprise, most small businesses (52 percent) continue to report—for the seventh straight quarter—that inflation is their top concern. However, they were also more likely to say that the overall US economy was in good health—32 percent versus 25 percent from last quarter—and that their local economic outlook was good (38 percent versus 30 percent in Q4 2023).
Some additional points of data:
- 71 percent of companies said that they are adequately prepared for future threats, although 27 percent said that they are one threat away from shutting down their business.
- 80 percent said that they have a plan on how to change their business if a struggle arises.
- 62 percent reported having a rainy-day fund, with 61 percent claiming it’s adequate.
- A new threat emerges: 60 percent of companies claim that cybersecurity is among their chief issues, although 73 percent said they felt prepared should an attack happen to their business.
The full report is available here.
Visit uschamber.com for more information.
[04.09.24]