Extreme BLAST is coming!
National Association of Blind Merchants
Business, Leadership, And Superior Training 2007
BLAST 07
National Training Conference for
Merchant Vendors, Program Staff, and Corporate Partners
March 7-10, 2007
Now more than ever, the planning, deliberation, and focus on legislative and regulatory actions happen at BLAST. Get out your 2007 calendar and mark the dates of our Business, Leadership and Superior Training (BLAST) conference scheduled for March 7-10th at the Adam’s Mark Hotel. Travel to Denver for a truly rewarding experience and receive unbelievably low room rates, which are good from Sunday, March 4th thru Tuesday, March 13th, based on availability. This means you can visit with merchants, agency partners, and suppliers and even give yourself time to relax and enjoy all that the vibrant city of Denver and the beautiful Rocky Mountains of Colorado have to offer. Conference activities BLAST off on Wednesday afternoon March 7th and conclude midday Saturday March 10th. So, if you wish, you could travel to the beautiful mountains of Colorado on Sunday March 4th thru Sunday March 11th and experience a Mile High BLAST and mini vacation.
Training sessions and meetings will begin Wednesday afternoon. We will be in meetings all day Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning. We are planning receptions, a leadership breakfast, and a luncheon banquet. We are developing a first class training agenda. Those who attended our Nashville BLAST say that they gained much from the innovative, interactive, and informative training. We are working now to develop the training curriculum for BLAST ‘07. Your suggestions are welcome and appreciated. The goal of the Business Leadership and Superior Training (BLAST) Conference is to target training to meet the specific needs of blind entrepreneurs and our agency partners. It is also to plan the concerted action necessary to protect and expand business opportunities for the blind under Randolph-Sheppard.
What is extreme BLAST?
Ÿ Targeted classroom training designed specifically to meet the educational needs of the blind in business and our agency personnel
Ÿ World class entertainment and music to include surprise special guests
Ÿ Excursions for skiing and other outdoor recreation
Ÿ Traveling to the mountains with your friends and colleagues for an evening of gambling in an historic mountain town
Ÿ Extreme special deals found at an expanded tradeshow event
Extreme BLAST takes it to the limit with a full range of curriculum designed to heighten your awareness, teach new concepts and inspire each of us to reach for greater achievement, teamwork, progress and profit. Extremely talented instructors will make BLAST 07 worth your time and your money. Experts in Randolph-Sheppard, top government officials, financial planning seminars, business opportunities beyond Randolph-Sheppard, extreme BLAST will have more options, be more hands-on, more engaging and more interactive than ever before. The National Association of Blind Merchants, BLAST organizers, pay close attention to evaluation forms and comments submitted after each of the foregoing BLAST events. Extreme BLAST, this is what you have said you want. Come, enjoy the competition of the Pepsi machine challenge, the customer service slam, the indoor rock climbing wall, go bowling with us (human bowling, that is).
The Coach is back. Many have asked that we bring back Coach Joe Gilliam. In 2004, Coach Gilliam taught one of the most informative, funny and motivating sessions we have ever had at BLAST. His sessions teach coping and succeeding, powerfully motivating strategies for business and life. Coach Joe will wrap up our Extreme BLAST with an extremely important three hour training session on Saturday morning, March 10. But why not stay on Saturday and into Sunday and enjoy all that the Mile High City of Denver has to offer?
Many of us believe that we are at an extremely critical time in the history of Randolph-Sheppard. Extreme measures and coordinated effort by all of us is necessary to protect our roadside rest businesses, our GSA and USPS vending and food services, as well as our DoD facilities. BLAST has indeed served as the principle information sharing and planning conference. The Business, Leadership and Superior Training, the networking, the socializing, the camaraderie found at BLAST lead to greater collaboration in defense of our priority and helps to focus our commitment to expand not only Randolph-Sheppard but other business opportunities for the blind. Extreme BLAST can be an extremely important networking and training tool for you and your business associates and partners, and its extreme good fun in the Mile High City.
Working with our partner suppliers and purveyors, we are planning an even more extensive product and services showcase of exhibits during Extreme BLAST the afternoon of Thursday March 8th. New products, special pricing, accessible technology and more will make this showcase one you can’t afford to miss.
This year registration is $175.00 and will cover all conference activities and training materials, except for tours and the side excursions we are planning. Those who register prior to February 15th, 2007 will pay only $100.00, receiving a $75.00 discount for early registration. Checks should be sent to NAMB, 1223 Lake Plaza Drive Suite D, Colorado Springs, CO 80906. Please include name, phone number, and best mailing address and e-mail if available for each person you are registering along with your check. You can also register online at www.blindmerchants.org. Remember that the registration fee also includes tradeshow, receptions, leadership breakfast, luncheon and more surprises.
The Adam’s Mark Denver offers luxurious lodging at tremendously low rates. Rates for our Mile High Blast are even better than last year’s event, $76.00 for single and double, $89.00 for a triple and quad per night all week long. All rates quoted are net per room, per night, plus the current 14.85% tax. The Adam’s Mark is conveniently located on the 16th Street Pedestrian Mall with free shuttle to all downtown shopping, dining and entertainment venues. The hotel is adjacent to the Pavilion Complex featuring dining, theaters, shopping and more. Area attractions include the Rocky Mountains and world class skiing, convenient downtown RTD light rail, more than 70 golf courses nearby, the gaming towns of Blackhawk and Central City less than an hour from the hotel, Denver Center for Performing Arts, Denver Zoo, Denver Children’s Museum, Ocean Journey, Coors & Anheuser-Busch brewery tours, Dinosaur Ridge in Morrison, The Butterfly Pavilion in Westminster, Denver Art Museum, Denver Museum of Natural History, National parks, scenic and historical tours, and the Colorado Center for the Blind. Tours will be available for the Colorado Center for the Blind, one of America’s leading training centers.
For hotel reservations, call The Adam’s Mark Hotel at 1-800-444-2326. Inform the agent that you are booking for the group rate for BLAST or the National Association of Blind Merchants. MAKE YOUR RESERVATIONS NOW!
Working together, we can build a new Randolph-Sheppard Program; it can start with Extreme BLAST! As those of you who have attended previous BLAST conferences know, we are not planning the usual blind vendor conference. It will be a BLAST of fresh air with real take home ideas blind entrepreneurs and agency partners can use to build careers. BLAST will feature electrifying upward mobility training seminars taught by this nation’s leading motivators in the fields of human resources, marketing and retail management. Join us as these scintillating speakers walk us through dynamic approaches to develop rapport with customers, building management, SLAs and colleagues. You’ll go home with a pocket full of tools and techniques that will reach customers and keep bringing them back; methods to anticipate, understand, embrace and manage change in the marketplace. You will be energized by practical strategies to manage, teach, lead, profit! There will be formal and informal opportunities throughout BLAST to network and build strong personal and business relationships.
To listen to and view a five and a half minute video presentation highlighting previous BLAST events, go to www.blindmerchants.org. At the bottom of the home page, “play BLAST introduction video”.
BLAST ‘07 is the National Training Conference for you! We want your input and ideas as we develop the specifics of this high caliber conference. For further information and to offer your suggestions contact Kevan Worley, President National Association of Blind Merchants at
719-527-0488 or 1-866-543-6808, or email kevanworley@blindmerchants.org. Make Plans Now to join us in Denver for Extreme BLAST!