NASP Annual Conference 2014

Rosen Shingle Creek in Orlando, Florida hosted the 16th Annual National Association of Subrogation Professionals (NASP) Conference. Being in Florida in November is always a good thing, but staying at Rosen Shingle Creek was a real plus. The hotel and staff, led by Harris Rosen, was top notch. This was no surprise. My wife visited this hotel a year ago and when she heard the NASP Conference was going to be there, she immediately requested to tag along.

Several of the Wilber contingency made travel plans to get down to Florida a couple of days early to enjoy a day or two before the conference started. This usually leads to a hurricane hitting, but this time we were blessed with a very nice Saturday. Some of the Orlando tourist opportunities were taken in.

As usual, Sunday started off with the annual NASP golf classic. Our client base of golfers has grown to require two foursomes. No trophies were won, but a good time was had by all. We finished up with a wonderful lunch buffet, the turned to the reason for being there, the conference. The construction of our new booth went very smooth thanks to our support staff back in Normal, IL. Practicing putting it up and taking it down a couple of times in the office really reduced the time it took to put it up in the exhibit hall. Our booth received many glowing comments from clients, NASP officials and competitors. There is even more of a reason for exhibitors to fight to get a spot near us. The exhibit hall opened at 6:00 pm and we had non-stop conversations until the 8:00pm.

Monday morning always comes around too fast. Booth duty starts at 7:00 am to meet with clients and prospects that are enjoying breakfast. The conference kicks off at 8:00 with the General Session. This includes swearing in of the Board, honoring the CSRP designees and annual anti-trust reading, which has become a yearly challenge to be the most unique. This year, Marty McFly, of “Back to the Future” fame, read the warning. The keynote speaker was Doug Lipp. Doug grew up working for Disney. He started as an intern at Disneyland in Anaheim and moving through the ranks to open Disneyland Tokyo. He was even the voice of Donald Duck for a while. The Wilber team then moved back to our booth for the rest of the day. We had a constant flow of visitors that made the day enjoyable.

Tuesday started a little later, at 8:00 am. This was the long day at the booth. Our giveaways always have the best attraction for the attendees. This year was no exception. We passed out Subro Diva pens, Subro Diva and Subro Hunter cookies, pink fortune cookies that gave people a chance to win a Subro Hunter shirt. The Subro Diva flip flops were a hit and we had a drawing to give away 2 iPads. Almost everything we brought was given away. The night ended with taking several clients and Forwarding Attorneys to dinner at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville. 

Wednesday was travel day: Orlando was 80 degrees, Bloomington/Normal was 20 degrees. At least it wasn’t snowing. Next year is Reno/Lake Tahoe. Planning starts in January.