Final Thoughts
Final Thoughts
Written by John Packard
August 23, 2019
Temperatures in Atlanta were in the high 70’s today under cloudy skies. The forecast for the next few days is for temperatures to be in the low 80’s on Monday and then climbing to the high 80’s by Wednesday. There is a chance of showers/thunderstorms on Monday and Tuesday, but they should be gone come Wednesday. The bottom line on the weather is this, it is going to be comfortable to travel from the hotels to the convention center and later in the evening to the restaurants around Atlanta.
As I write my Final Thoughts, the work of putting the convention center floor, audio/visual effects, chairs and tables for our largest audience ever (you will want to come early to get a seat – we will be standing room only on Tuesday morning) is in full swing. There is an army of people from APAV, the convention center, CRU Group and a few of us from Steel Market Update running about like ants feeding the queen….
I have seen the notebooks that are going to be given to our attendees. I have reviewed the printed program and seen many of the other items that will truly make this conference stand out from those that we have
done previously. The CRU Group Events team has been exceptionally helpful and productive in turning this conference into the largest steel conference outside of China in the world…
Yes, we will have record attendance. We will be larger than last year’s 912 attendees. The exact number is still fluctuating as we receive new registrations and last-minute changes. The hotels are booked solid. There are no renovations ongoing this year. The bars have been stocked and the hotels have been warned to expect a record bar crowd.
A couple of housekeeping notes for those of you who will be attending the conference.
Coming into the Atlanta International Airport – you do NOT need to rent a car, taxi, Lyft or Uber to get to the Gateway Hotels (Marriott Gateway, Renaissance and SpringHill Suites Gateway). There is a FREE SkyTrain that runs from outside the airport doors (exit from baggage claim area either north or south side of the terminal) directly to the Gateway hotels and the convention center. This is the first stop for the train. It then goes on to car rental. Those going to the Westin or Airport Marriott Hotel will have a banner with the shuttle times to the GICC. The shuttles begin at NOON on Monday and continue until 6 PM (cocktail party ends at 5:30).
A reminder the CME Managing Price Risk Workshop is going to be held at 10:30 a.m. until noon on Monday. We suggest you go to the convention center first to pick up your badges. However, you will not need to have your SMU Steel Summit badges on you for this program, which is being held at the Atlanta Airport Marriott Gateway Hotel. The hotel is located right next to the convention center.
To pick up your badges and registration materials, you go to the south entry (closest to the hotels) of the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC). We are advertising registration opening at 10 a.m., but I will let you in on a secret, they will be there earlier than that since there will be quite a few people registering all at once. Registration will be open throughout the day.
Brett Li
nton will be set up near registration to assist those who need help with the SMU Events App. You will need the app during the conference as we do have a very popular interactive program. For those of you who already have the app, please take a moment to complete the “poll” questions, which are already up and running. We will go over how everyone responded to those questions as well as add new “real-time” questions and we will look back one year to see how accurate our audience was in their predictions for 2019….
Dress is business casual and we highly recommend logo golf shirts with your company name on them. This will make networking that much easier.
As I mentioned earlier, the crowd will be quite large for our most popular speakers. This includes the opening on Tuesday, Alan Beaulieu and Ari Fleischer on Wednesday, the steel mill CEO’s late on Tuesday, and Tom Gibson of the AISI shortly after the Tuesday opening. When I talk about “opening” I am referring to what has become our tradition of doing something different on Tuesday as we announce our attendance, and I will talk a bit about the history of the conference and what it means to the industry today.
Reminder there are networking cocktail parties on both Monday and Tuesday at 4 p.m. Each will last until 5:30 p.m., which gives you plenty of time to go out to dinner and then make it back to the hotels to meet more people involved with the industry.
Can you register for the conference in the registration area? Absolutely. The CRU team will be happy to assist you.
There will be tables at the entrance to the exhibition area and main conference hall for Steel Market Update and the CRU Group. Please take some time to introduce yourself and to learn more about the products we have to offer you and your company. Paige Mayhair will be manning the SMU table. She can help you with newsletter subscriptions, pricing, Steel 101 workshop questions, etc.
I will be floating around the hotels and conference area and meeting as many people as possible. Don’t hesitate to stop me and introduce yourself.
I think this will be the best SMU Steel Summit Conference we ever put on… I have already begun discussions with our GICC, APAV (audio/visual) and CRU partners as to how we make 2020, which will be our 10th SMU Steel Summit Conference, even bigger and better than this one.
I am looking forward to seeing you in Atlanta. If you didn’t make it this year, try to inform management that this is the ONE EVENT during the calendar year where you can meet your customers and suppliers, find new customers and suppliers, learn something about the business and receive pricing and economic forecasts for the following year. We have quality and entertaining speakers, reasonably priced hotels, easy to get to venue (great food for a conference) all at a reasonable entry fee. Forget Vegas, New York, Chicago or other expensive cities – plan on attending SMU Steel Summit 2020 on Aug. 24-26 of next year.
As always, your business is truly appreciated by all of us here at Steel Market Update.
John Packard, President & CEO
John Packard
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