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NPMA Executive Vice President Rob Lederer (right) presents Syngenta’s Ashish Malik (left) with an award in appreciation of Syngenta’s ongoing sponsorship of NPMA Academy. (Photo: Jodi Dorsch). The red team was the winner of the NPMA Academy Oympics. (Photo: Jodi Dorsch) Another Olympic team-building activity was creating a banner to represent each team. Here, the light blue team calls upon its creative side. (Photo: Jodi Dorsch)
Among the speakers at NPMA Academy was Republican strategist Kellyanne Conway. (Photo: Jodi Dorsch)
Mental workouts — as well as phyical ones — are an integral part of Academy. Here, attendees compete to see how many push-ups they can do. The winner was Justin McCauley, The Bug Man, Benton, Ark. (Photo: Jodi Dorsch) |
TUCSON, Ariz. — For the twelfth year in a row, pest management professionals gathered for the National Pest Management Association’s Academy, a meeting that enabled them to learn more about their businesses, work on team building and have a little fun in the process.
The two-and-a-half day meeting, which began Thursday, July 18, was sponsored by Syngenta Professional Products and presented by NPMA’s Leadership Development Group.
About 200 attendees heard from such well known industry speakers as Gary Curl, Specialty Products Consultants and Jean Seawright, Seawright & Associates. Other speakers included Kellyanne Conway, the Polling Company; Terry Brock, Achievement Systems; and various pest management professionals, who participated in several panel discussions.
Conway, a noted political strategist who’s been interviewed on numerous television networks, presented a sort “State of the U.S.” report to attendees. As part of her presentation, she noted:
More than 200 attendees heard Conway tell them not to abandon traditional advertising (i.e., the Yellow Pages). “Do both,” she said, regarding traditional and newer types of advertising. “You’re taking a big chance if you advertise on TV,” she said, because if a pest management professional’s commercial runs while the viewer runs to the kitchen or TiVos the program, the message will be missed. She recommended low-tech, grassroots types of advertising, such as: placing flyers on cars. “There are more cars in the country than there are people,” she said. And even though a consumer may miss an advertising message that’s on TV, “if it’s on your car, you saw it.”
Jean Seawright gave pest management professionals a sneak peak at NPMA’s 2007 Wage & Benefit Survey, which will be published in October 2007. Click here for more information on this research.
Industry consultant Gary Curl gave a review of the pest management industry, based on his firm’s 2006 research. In 2006, Curl reported there were 19,200 pest control companies and those companies generated $6.73 billion in revenue. Fifty-seven percent of the respondents to his company’s research regarding the 2006 termite swarm season said the season was much weaker or weaker than normal.
In addition to pest control-related presentations, Academy attendees participated in “Olympic” events, including musical competitions, banner making, paintball, bocce ball, Frisbee golf and more. The final Olympic event was a “great debate” which asked attendees to discuss how they would make changes to and tailor their advertising arsenals as online (and other) mediums become more mainstream.