One for the History Books – The GCLA Live Spring Conference Is a Huge Success
It’s a wrap folks! The spring conference, held this past Tuesday at the Hyatt Regency in Huntington Beach, was the “it” place to be for every serious-minded transportation professional from around the state of California and beyond and boy did it pack a punch!
The event was the first business convention to be held in California, which is a state that is still largely shut down and where the hospitality and travel industry has been the hardest hit in the U.S. I’d like to recognize the fearless leadership of Mo Garkani, owner of The COTS Group and the GCLA president. He was the primary influencer to making this event happy. Mark Stewart, principal of Ground Logistics International (GLi) and the Event Program Chair created the session content which included experts from the meetings and convention industry, the luxury and bespoke wedding industry, incentive travel and tourism world. On behalf of the GCLA, I’d like to recognize and express our sincere gratitude to those experts who generously shared their advice (and precious time) in the spirit of helping the GCLA membership:
o Lisa Meller, owner of Meller Performance Events Group
o Alisa Walsh, president of EventWorks, Inc.
o Lee Palmer Turner, president-elect of the Los Angeles GBTA/Travel Manager for MGM Studios
o Victoria Zindell, owner of Luxury Ventures Travel
o Katie Webb Brundige, owner of InterTwined Events
o John Ehlenfeldt, Director of MPI/Executive VP of Visit Huntington Beach
In addition, our experts including Gregg Cook, GCLA Lobbyist, Matt Daus, managing partner at Wendels-Marx/president of the International Transportation Regulators Association along with the Electric Vehicle leadership team at Cadillac including Mark Leddy, Brad Beauchamp and James Hunter joined us for the State of the Industry presentation, hosted by ‘yours truly.’
Our sponsors are the ONLY reason we were able to put on this event. We only charged GCLA members $50 to attend and we made this decision based on the hardship we know everyone is enduring due to the pandemic. The rest of the event costs were totally funded by donations, so we wish to congratulate those fine companies and encourage our members to BUY from those who support YOU!
Cadillac – Leading the way with luxury vehicles (All Electric is on the way!)
Chosen Payments – Experts in Credit Card Processing, Check Processing, Financial Services
Amerifuel – All-in-one fuel management programs and discount solutions
Century Business Solutions – Experts in Credit Card Processing and Payment Integrations including EBiz.
Motor City GMC – NEW GCLA PARTNER! 4th largest GM dealership in the country, based in Bakersfield – ships to your door!
Limos 4 – The GCLA Zurich/European Transportation Partner who keeps us connected to the world.
BMW – Luxury Executive/All New Fleet Incentive Program
Ecko Transportation – San Francisco-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Motev – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
KLS Worldwide – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Windels/Marx - #1 Transportation Law Firm in the U.S.
First Class Customs – the Premiere Coach Builder + Sprinter Upfitter
Beau Wine Tours – Northern California-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Best-VIP – Orange County-based Luxury Transportation Provider
MCI – Motor Coach Industries sells new and used buses; manufactured in the U.S. with offices in CA.
Davey Coach – Shuttle buses; recently acquired Nations Bus and now officing in Los Angeles.
TIB Insurance Brokers – Insurance brokerage firm specializing in commercial transportation.
Norton Medical Industries – Drug testing for employees in transportation
D.W. Ferguson & Associates – Insurance for business covering the Western United States
The COTS Group – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA President
Avalon Transportation – Los Angeles-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA board director
Ground Logistics International – Orange County-based Luxury Transportation Provider, GCLA director
The LMC Group -
In close, I would like to offer a very special shout out to Chris Weiss, principal of Chauffeured Driven Media for making the huge trek across the country to spend the day with the GCLA members and help bolster our event and fundraiser. I thank our board of directors who presented at the event and to those special people who played host to our attendees. In particular, Mo Garkani, Robert Gaskill, Tom Buck, Adrian Davis, Chris Hundley, Alex Darbahani, Maurice Brewster, Harry Dhillon, Jack Nissim, Mark Stewart, Steven Wolfson and Sarah McKee.
And last but certainly not least, thanks to Tammy Carlisle owner of Action Limousine of Atlanta for spearheading our Volunteer Team and the Fundraising Committee. Tammy is one of the most gracious people in this industry and is the epitome of “service with a smile.” She went beyond the call of duty for all of us. A special hug got out to all who came to the event. I trust you got your money’s worth since the take home value was over the top. We can’t wait for the September EXPO coming to the Portofino Hotel and Conference Center and are already hitting it hard on the planning front!