August 2022 - Message from Your CAMA President

It’s time to climb out of our shell

After more than 2 long years of living through the pandemic we now must deal with what I refer to as the “turtle effect”. When turtles feel threatened, they climb into their shell to hide from their surroundings. This provides them with a feeling of security and safety. In the past 2 years much of our workforce has resorted to the “turtle effect” by not going into the office and working from the comfort and safety of their home. For operators like ourselves this poses a major concern as it has a huge negative impact on our business and the services that we provide. Our services are not required if our customers are not at work to use them. It will take some time but I feel confident that people will once again feel the need to socialize and will want to get back to the old normal of actually going to work!

Our association can also relate to the “turtle effect” as well, as CAMA had cancelled all in person events for the past 2 years. But now it is time to climb out of our shells and start meeting face-to-face in person and not on a zoom call or even worse a phone call!

I have been in this industry a very long time and strong relationships between operators and suppliers are developed at in-person events, not online or by a phone call. Being able to meet face-to-face, shake hands, or sitting down and having a drink together only strengthens the relationship between operators and suppliers. I have been attending our CAMA events for decades and I know that it has been an investment in our business that has provided us with financial and business rewards many times over.

Our first post-pandemic trade show will be held this September 13th and 14tth at the Toronto Congress Centre. I encourage everyone to climb out of their shell and make plans to attend and start networking and reinvesting back into your business. We all want to get back to a pre-pandemic business model and this will be a great opportunity to start rekindling our business relationships or for some to start developing new business relationships.

For those of you that attended our CAMA golf tournament this past June, it was great to see all of you there and it provided encouragement and an optimistic outlook to a post pandemic world. If you were unable to attend, then please keep it in mind for next year as it was a good time for all.

Through E- Blasts and previous communications, you should all be aware of our CAMA financial recovery program. The program is now live and is loaded with great prizes that were donated by our supplier members. I encourage you to help support CAMA and buy your tickets now.

Take care and I hope to see you all at our Trade Show in September.

Regards

Jim Jackson
CAMA President