The last three years we have been an invited guest and participant of the annual Mac Tools Fair. It’s a chance for us to spend some quality time with all the distributors and their families, as well as, the Mac Tools team. I think I write about it each year, because we are always so inspired and excited during the Fair. I haven’t looked at the other blogs yet, but I bet Hillary already wrote about it. She’s good at that.
As usual it was a “who's who” of the drag racing world. Hillary Will, Morgan Lucas, Doug Kalitta, Brandon Bernstein, J.R. Todd, Tommy Johnson Jr., Melanie Troxel, Ashley Force, Robert Hight, and Mike Neff were just a few that enjoyed the weekend with the tool gang. The highly anticipated and regular “co-emcee” for this event, John Force, was not in attendance but all the distributors understood and wished him well.
The recent rule changes for the fuel teams required that a handful of racers make an early exit on Saturday, but most stayed the entire time.
This year we were in sunny Orlando, Fla. Yup, home of the famous mouse, Mickey. Mac Tools did a fantastic job at welcoming and energizing the ever-growing tool family, and between all the concerts, banquets, dancing, shows and celebrating we were able to spend a few hours riding some of the roller coasters with everyone. Mac Tools had the MGM Park to themselves and we all took advantage of it, even through the thunderstorm and rain showers. We just put our Mac tools, or Goofy, or Mickey or Minnie, hats on and continued to mingle with everyone. There may be a few pictures floating around on the other blogs, but just in case there isn’t, Carla wore the Minnie Mouse hat, Hillary had Mickey’s (as the sorcerer from Fantasia) hat, and I sported the Mac Tools. I was looking for a Pluto hat, but never found one. Morgan Lucas was one that had to leave early, but he did happen to let it slip that he was a Donald Duck fan, so we searched for one for him too!
The whole group rode the “Aerosmith Roller Coaster” together, and you know the cameras that take the picture when your just about at the peak speed of the ride, your mouth open, eyes closed, and hands clenched to the handlebar or, if your the daredevil type, up in the air? Got those shots! I won’t post the pictures, because ”what happens in Orlando stays in Orlando,” but I will tell you that the one that was cool, calm and collected on camera was Brandon.
We all had a great time and, as usual, it was a great kick off to a new season with Mac Tools.
While on the East Coast I had to make a stop in Atlanta for a quality summit with GE. It’s similar to the Mac tools Fair in the fact that we are networking and energizing the team, however the Quality summit also provides an application and execution style learning session. As a team of 70 or so, we tackle, understand and propose a solution for a problem.
These last few weeks have been pretty busy, and I think it’s a taste of what the ‘08 year will be like. I have 10 days here at home and them off again to the East Coast.