Talk With Your Hands

In early March, 2024 I had the privilege of emceeing Bennett Family of Companies 50th Anniversary Symposium. I have been involved with Symposium, an annual event for our high-achieving freight agents and employees, since I started at Bennett in 2012. At the time, I was working with leaders who had done the event for 25 years prior - and boy was it a learning curve. Together, we have written scripts, made themes, built signage, chaired breakout sessions, ordered decorations, booked hotels and meals - the Full Monty of event planning. I was behind the scenes, and then a few years ago, started taking a bigger role in front of the audience.

This year, was a milepost in my career. I knew how important the celebration was to our family-owned company leadership. Marcia Taylor , David Lowry , Danny Lowry , Lynette Mathis , have created something truly special in our industry, and I wanted to help them get across how proud they are of their past, but more importantly how energized they are for the future. I always want my words to be perfect. So I script, and I script, and I script. It's just one of those things. I'm not a bullets on a notecard kind of guy when you are walking people through multiple hours of content.

The problem is...I tend to read. I like those words I'm comfortable with. If they were on a teleprompter, my eyes would probably be more toward the crowd. But, alas all 6'3" of me spends a lot of time reading his words on the podium. So...what does one do to keep the crowd engaged? Loosen up. Pause a lot. And get those hands moving. When the pictures came back from the event, I found those were key moments of connection. It doesn't hurt, having a great partner like Katlyn Foulks, our Culture Ambassador and third-generation in the ownership family, who has taken on the emcee challenge, too. We have learned some things that work - and a lot that doesn't. We'll continue to work on our technique, because we owe it to those who give us their time. To those who did this job before me, like Lee Gentry , Jodi Penn , Christopher Barrett , Danny Lowry . Thank you for the care and effort you put into doing this so well over the years. Only you know how hard it is to be the "Greatest Showmen".

Cheers to the Bennett Family of Companies - and to those who watched me continue to learn.