ASTAA Conference Recap

By Chris Bell

The Atlantic States Telephone Answering Association (ASTAA) held its annual conference October 10-12 at the Wyndham Resort Hotel in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. The property also adjoins a nearby Courtyard Marriot, two restaurants, and the Gateway movie theater, which is within easy walking distance to the hotels. There were fifty-three attendees. Sponsors included Agility Recovery Solutions, Amtelco, Professional Teledata, Startel, and Telescan.

Events began on Monday afternoon with a group tour of the battlefield, complete with a volunteer historian to fill in the details of the three days of fighting along the battlefields. Three days of intense fighting would result in over 50,000 casualties, making this field the single deadliest of any American war.

 The opening reception Monday night, sponsored by Startel, featured a surprise guest speaker (compliments of Telescan). An Abe Lincoln reenactor and look-alike visited the reception. He gave a brief thirty-five-minute presentation, answered questions, and then posed for photographs.

 The Tuesday morning keynote speaker was Professor Carol Reardon, the Harold K. Johnson visiting professor of Military History at the U.S. Army War College in nearby Carlisle, Pennsylvania. Professor Reardon gave a spellbinding presentation on wartime communications between Lincoln and his generals during the time of the Gettysburg Campaign. She often tied in interesting side stories about military leadership and how these qualities relate to business. Amtelco sponsored the opening breakfast.

ASTAA had a dual track conference, with content for owners, managers, and supervisors. Content included sessions led by Donna West of Focus Telecommunications, titled “It’s Not What You Say, It’s How You Say It,” followed by “Monster Accounts – Mission Creep,” presented by MedCom’s Katherine Reinholt and Peter Brousseau. During lunch, Civil War speaker Ed Guy provided some interesting commentary on those often-seen black-and-white photographs of soldiers.

Vendor presentations were interspersed between speakers. In the afternoon, Jannemieke Keener spoke on “Selling Custom Service to Your Clients” and Joe Waldholtz and Patty Smith from Teleplex held a session on “How to Go from Friend to Boss” for supervisors and managers. After the evening wine and cheese reception, the contingent walked over to the Gateway Theatre to see the Fields of Freedom movie.

 On Wednesday, ATSI and CAM-X presentations were held, along with the ASTAA business meeting. Heidi Black will be the incoming ASTAA president and Gary Edwards will replace Jannemieke Keener, who is rotating off after many years of dedicated service. Debbie Bibber was elected vice president/president elect.

After the business meeting, Tom Sheridan of MedCom presented “Growing Smaller: Getting More Out of Your Existing Clients in a Difficult Economy,” and Doug Robbins gave a session titled “Cut My Bill” to discuss how to handle the difficult conversation many of us have been experiencing lately.

 After lunch at Garabaldi’s, Heidi Black presented a session titled “Managing Stability 24/7” and Debbie Bibber spoke on “The Logistics of Remote Locations.” Following that, Lee McAteer of Focus Telecommunications spoke on “Managing and Training Remote Staff” and Chris Bell of MedCom concluded with a session titled “Best Practices to Next Practices.”

Heidi Black and Chris Bell were the conference cochairs. ASTAA board members Doug Robbins (president), Lee McAteer, (secretary), Jannemieke Keener, and Debbie Bibber worked throughout the year with the conference chairs and Dan L'Heureux to make this conference a “one-of-a-kind” event. The Gettysburg theme was on prominent display throughout the conference, with attendees learning many facets and facts about the great battle at Gettysburg.

Be sure to check out the photographs taken from the conference and the battlefield tours.

[download issue]