Carin’s Corner By Carin Garaghty, CMCA, Keller Property Management
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t could be my inner child that loves fun and free stuff, or a practical side that knows a useful thing and will take and give away as many as I can, or the possibility of winning a gift basket, a TV, a dice game, Hammerschlagen, a gift certificate or a bottle of carpet cleaner — these are just a few of reasons I enjoy the CAI-MN Annual Trade Show. (Be warned, if there’s a chance of winning something, I’ll try my hardest to take everyone else down. Hard. I even try to cream the competition at baby shower games, I like winning this much. I’ll grind nice ladies into the ground for a gift bag.) It is a wonderful thing when I get to do all of these while meeting and greeting people that I currently work with and with whom I might like to work in the future. The Trade Show is an opportunity to help me forge a most-thankful and trusted relationship between property manager and business partner. It is a blessing when we find a craftsman we can trust and rely on. The biggest problem for my coworkers and I was trying to talk with all of the vendors between educational sessions. Putting a face to a name and to a voice over the phone is an invaluable
thing. It makes me wish there was time for every good vendor to meet all of my board members. When we all trust someone, maybe next time we won’t need to “get three bids” but instead have the board members say, “Just call Company XYZ and have them do the needed work.” That is a big part of the reason I love going to the CAI-MN Trade Show each year. It is a mixture of education, fun, interaction with CIC comrades, lovely food and drink service, and a large stack of business cards collected at the event. (I look forward to your emails in the coming weeks since I dropped a business card to win your best prize!) Congratulations to the CAI-MN Trade Show Committee for an excellent day last month. I happily received a bottle of wine early in the day, so by the end of the event, my little blue bag felt like a trunk full of luggage. Dumping it out and sorting through stuff, I felt like a kid digging through my Halloween loot. Thank you to everyone who planned and participated in this year’s event.
This is one way to toss rings into a basket for prizes!
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Minnesota Communit y Living