Bennett’s 38th annual Symposium, a recognition and networking event for freight agents, field offices, company employees and Drivers of the Year was held on a rainy weekend January 26th to 29th, but the spirit in the building at the beautiful Chateau Elan made up for the weather. This year’s theme concentraed on three Wildly Important Goals: Safety, Capacity, and Accountability.
Throughout various networking events, business unit break-out sessions, and agent advisory board meetings complete strangers from all around the world come together over a quick conversation about the industry and develop relationships that last longer than just a weekend. The BIT Circle of Excellence winner, Jennifer Powell, makes it a point to meet someone new every year at Symposium. She said, “this year I was able to connect with Daryl in Arizona; BIT will now be assisting Daryl with rates to import trolley cars to the United States from China and handle the returns.”
CEO of Bennett International Group, Marcia Taylor, delivers her speech during the morning general session.
Saturday morning, Bennett International Group CEO, Marcia Taylor delivered a powerful speech where she shed a light on some of the biggest accomplishments that we made in 2017 and the direction we’re headed in 2018. Lisa Pate took home the BME Distinguished Service award, but claims that Mrs. Taylor’s speech was the highlight of her entire weekend. She said, “I really loved Mrs. Taylor’s Saturday morning speech about her passion for the company and its successes.” Mrs. Taylor spoke on Bennett Motor Express contributions towards FEMA relief to Puerto Rico during the hurricane season, how BIL played a part in building the brand new Mercedes-Benz stadium in Downtown Atlanta, Atlanta Business Chronicle listing Bennett International Group as the largest women-owned firm for a 14th consecutive year, and ranked #6 on American Crane & Transport 2017 top 50 Transport companies.
Saturday is the day we commemorate agents, drivers, and employees for their outstanding service during the year. During the afternoon awards, Brandi Skinner, took home the first ever Safety is Priority One Impact Player Award. Following her win, she said “I was shocked, I didn’t even know this award even existed.”
Saturday night was the big event themed “Winter Wonderland”, where agents and drivers are commemorated for their outstanding individual achievements throughout 2017. During the show, over 100 agents were recognized for revenue awards across all divisions and one driver across all divisions was named Driver of the Year. James Collett took home the Summit Award Saturday evening and was shell-shocked during Danny Lowry’s speech. He said, “everyone that was involved in setting this event up did a great job of keeping the information from me so that I would be surprised; I will always remember this Symposium as being one of the best.”
To conclude the weekend, Sunday morning, the Camp Bennett band and Pastor, Kevin Hornsby, concluded a great weekend by providing our worship service. You can watch the full worship service video on our Facebook page here:
Check out our video showcasing some photos from the weekend here:
