Blue Ocean Conference: Why I’m Excited for the Best Fleets Event Next Month

In 2004, W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne published Blue Ocean Strategy, outlining how a series of disruptive businesses created new markets (“blue oceans”) by redefining existing product categories. The disruptors did this by reducing or eliminating the parts of an existing product/service that customers didn’t value, and increasing the parts they did value, in the process creating something different with a much wider appeal. Cirque du Soleil’s redefinition of the “circus” experience is one example cited frequently throughout.

Four weeks from today, at our inaugural Best Fleets Education & Awards Conference, we’re borrowing from that excellent book to create an industry event very different from others on the regular schedule.

We’ve been planning this conference for nearly 18 months now, but it started by looking at the things we like with other events, and the things we’d like to change, then building a new model unlike anything I’ve seen at other industry conferences.

It probably won’t be as exotic as Cirque du Soleil, but I am really excited about how it’s coming together so I thought I’d share some of the reasons why.

Why are they winners?

I love how much this industry celebrates people and companies that are doing interesting and exceptional things, but I find that I’m always curious about why those people won those awards when they did. What were they doing that made them stand out? What were they doing that others weren’t?

Best Fleets has always been about sharing the “why” as much as the “what”, and we’ll be spending a lot of time discussing what the winning fleets are doing that separates them from the pack. There are always clear differences between the fleets that win, those that are on their way to winning, and those that are still figuring out who they are. By highlighting what the winning fleets are doing, it’s much more useful for those that are trying to get there as well.

Deep dive into content

At a dedicated event, we’ll also have a lot more time to get into the details of what’s working in different fleets. In the past, we’ve shared our findings through breakout sessions at other conferences, on webinars, and through stories, but there’s never been enough time to really get into it. We always end up just scratching the surface of what we’ve found, and I always feel like we’re just getting started when we have to wrap up.

Here, however, we’ll have the time to dig into all the relevant details. We can discuss the broader trends, share the stats (both this year’s numbers and comparisons with past years) and look at what we found across all the categories we evaluate each year. We’ll also have more time to review the driver survey results, and talk about how to use that data most effectively.

Actionable takeaways

One of the things that I’ve noticed when I’ve attended other conferences is that the attendees are generally looking for specific things they can do when they go back to the office. While many of the sessions focus on higher level concepts, the Q&A sections at the end are always much more specific – “okay, what do I do with this info?” kind of questions.

Recognizing that, we’re going to have a dedicated session that focuses on how to use the data. The conference will share a lot of information, and it can be overwhelming trying to figure out how to make good use of that back at the office, so we’re going to spend some time working through it and discussing how to build action plans.

The fleets that make it into the Best Fleets Top 20 year after year (and certainly those that have made it into the Hall of Fame) all have a defined process for reviewing each year’s results and acting on key takeaways. We’ll share those processes so that all attendees are better positioned to get to work once they return to the office.

Something different

Anyone who attends industry events regularly knows that the normal circuit of event spaces gets a bit tired after a while. I completely understand why people book their events in Orlando, Nashville, etc., but it’s nice to go somewhere off the beaten path once in a while.

It’s also nice to get out of the hotels. When we first started planning for this event, one of the first things we decided was that we wanted to pick a venue that reinforced the celebration of greatness that is Best Fleets. We wanted to really underscore that these fleets are doing some exceptional things for their drivers, so what better way to do that then by recognizing them inside a physical Hall of Fame?

We’ve got other ideas for future iterations of this event, but an underlying theme will continue to be “surrounded by greatness”.

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Put it all together, and this is going to be a very different kind of event. I’m really looking forward to it, and I hope to see some of you there!

Get more details and register here