Inspirational speakers, a wet but fun golf tournament, a cocktail reception held in a beautiful Tea Garden and a must-attend Industry Award Dinner. Sleep Savvy and BedTimes have it all for you. Editorial Director Beth English and Managing Editor Waynette Goodson share the highlights from an exciting #ISPACon23.
Transcript
Waynette Goodson
It’s Waynette Goodson. I’m the managing editor of BedTimes and Sleep Savvy magazines and here today with Beth English. She is our editorial director, and she is, in fact, my boss. And we are so excited to be here in St Petersburg. It’s our end-of-day wrap for our ISPA conference. We’ve had such a dynamic day, haven’t we?
Beth English
It’s been amazing.
Waynette Goodson
It’s been amazing. We’ve had a slate of speakers all day long. We started with Nicole Malachowski. She was the first female Thunderbird pilot, and she talked about making decisions in a high-speed environment.
Beth English
She was dynamic.
Waynette Goodson
She was dynamic. And then we had David Kepron. He talked about how to remain relevant in a digital marketplace. We had a retail portion and a retailer panel; you have to stay tuned for our coverage coming up in April because we will be able to.
Beth English
Actually, it’ll be May.
Waynette Goodson
It’ll be in May. May, we’re going to talk about the retailer panel and this next speaker, Alexis Bateman. She talked about the path toward supply chain sustainability. And then we wrapped it up with the whole new world of work and how we’re in this hiring crisis, and just what we can do for employee retention. So it was a very meaty day, a very relevant, important topics for the industry.
Waynette Goodson
And now it’s the good stuff. Yes, the fun stuff. So, Beth, tell us about the fun stuff.
Beth English
Well, I have to say, everything kicked off yesterday with these really fun receptions. We had the Women’s Reception; we had the Welcome Reception. And it was it’s just so amazing to see everybody. And tonight, we’re out here having cocktails in the Tea Garden. And it’s beautiful. I mean, you couldn’t ask for a prettier day. We are so excited because we’re getting ready to go into our dinner, where we’re honoring four men from our industry.
Beth English
Ron Passagila, Adam Lava, Richard Diamonstein and our very own Dave Perry.
Waynette Goodson
Dave Perry, I can’t believe he’s retiring.
Beth English
No, absolutely not. But we’re tickled, and it’s so nice to have the awards at this event, which is such a fun networking social event. So I look forward to doing this again in two years. I guess I’ll have Expo next year.
Waynette Goodson
Expo next year.
Beth English
Yes, but it’s always such a joy to be around everyone.
Waynette Goodson
To get to networking, to get to see everyone. It’s a real community. So thank you so much for tuning in. Please look out for all of our social media, videos, and print magazines, and as always, have a great night’s sleep.
