By Rob Koepp

I recently attended the URG Annual Training Conference in San Antonio, Texas. Meetings were held April 29th, and 30th. Being the avid golfers we are my crew, and I showed up a day early to play in the golf tournament. A great time was had by all at a beautiful course located right at the resort.

We started Friday morning off with a key note speaker named Danny White. Any of you NFL buffs would know him as an ex quarterback for the Dallas Cowboys from 1974-1989.

He talked about surrounding yourself with good people (your team). This always results in a better outcome.

He also spoke about even when you are surrounded by good people, you being the quarterback (manager/owner) could make an “audible” or “quick decision” and change the outcome to bad.

Work together!

This was followed up by a many other meetings to choose from. I recommend always bringing other people to sit in the meetings you can’t attend to take notes.

There are always multiple seminars at the same time you should attend. I also attended a seminar by our old friend Dj Harrington. He is always good. He makes it fun, people are always laughing, and he is changing it up.

The next morning I attended the key note speaker which was a man name Jimmy Morris. If any of you have seen the Disney movie named “The Rookie” you saw his a glimpse of his life.

Jimmy is the real life Rookie.

He spoke of not giving up on your dreams and that your whole life could change due to stupid bet with some kids. When the crowd wasn’t laughing during this you could hear a pin drop in the room. I highly suggest hearing him speak if you ever have the chance.

This by far was the highlight of the weekend for me, and the people I brought with. Other than the seminars the tradeshow was excellent. There were user group sessions from all of the management systems. Informational sessions from URG. You name it. It was there.

For me the best part of these things is still the networking.

Growing up going to these things like the Upper Midwest, ARA, URG, and I even attended the IT Convention years ago when it was in Chicago I realized you learn so much from talking with other owners, managers, salespeople, or any other employee. There is so much knowledge and information in this industry that the easiest way to learn is by talking with other people in it. Things change so fast one person cannot keep up.

All in all if you have never attended a URG Conference you should put it on your bucket list.