This year, Metro Delivery Operations and Business Development Managers went for Education and Networking with the MCAA at the fabulous Westin Diplomat in Sunny Hollywood, Florida.

This location gave us a wide range of acceptable attire, from Tropical to Business Casual, as modeled here:

Now, it is true that the place features palm trees and Jacuzzis, but we’re really focused on business, honest. That’s what we keep reminding our coworkers who imagine us lounging on the beach drinking from coconuts.

We had informational sessions on Home Delivery, Using Metrics to Achieve Results, the Supply Chain in 2012 and Beyond, a panel on How the Industry has Evolved in the Last 25 Years, and lively roundtable Focus Groups on Marketing and Technology. We networked ferociously with hundreds of other regional and national couriers, and with vendor representatives from companies focused on our industry.

We attended a speech by Congressman Erik Paulsen, an advocate in Washington for Independent Contractor Legislative Reform.

(If you’re wondering, no, Metro doesn’t use Independent Contractors; we have 100% Employees, so that’s not our business model, but a lot of our friends in the industry do use IC’s, or a combination of IC’s and employees, so the subject concerns us.)

We learned a ton! We made IMPORTANT BUSINESS CONNECTIONS! Me met interesting people from around all around the World, and talked to them for hours about things that would bore the socks off our social dinner guests.

And then we went to lounge on the beach and drink from a coconut.