 PestWorld 2017 Recap
WSPMA Vice President, Tony Wurst
This year, Pest World was held is Baltimore, Maryland. We took part in great sessions, heard a great motivational talk from the Commanding Officer of the USS Cole, Kirk Lippold, made some great new contacts and further nurtured those long term relationships with vendors and colleagues from around the world. Connections were far reaching and right back to our State members. I had a coffee break with some great PCO's from Thailand, and spent some quality time with WSPMA members to deepen those ties.
Dr. Bobby Corrigan and Dr. Dini Miller topped the list of Educational Sessions. Those sessions provided interesting looks ahead into how pest control practices are being challenged and shaped for a smarter, electronic future. I attended several sessions given by Dan Gordon who always seems to have a new perspective on how to make the business of Pest Control more profitable. I also attended a session given by a law firm discussing liability issues which was very informative.
Probably the highlight of the sessions portion of Pest World 2017 was the State Associations Meeting. During this meeting, we had round table discussions with other State Association Board members regarding how each State conducted the business of its Association. We discussed such topics as Membership, Non-Dues Revenue Generation and Administrative Issues. This sparked a lot of great conversations with other Board members from around the country. These ideas will help form some of the agenda for my term as President next year.
Kirk Lippold was the Commanding Officer of the USS Cole in 2000 when it was attacked by a waterborne IED during a refueling stop at a friendly report in Yemen. He told us his story and encouraged us to have contingency plans for catastrophes that might arise. Commander Lippold's experience was a 40ft by 40ft hole in the side of his boat accompanied by injuries and some deaths while away from home. Our experience might be the loss of a service technician or manager to injury or other reasons. This talk had great content for companies that have 20+ employees. It was interesting to hear his story and see the before and after pictures of the ship. Which, bye-the-way, was repaired and is still in service today.
Pest World 2017 was an enriching experience. We mixed it up with the rest of the world, learned new things, had our concepts challenged, met new people and deepened relationships with our Vendors and Members. The WSPMA will experience direct and long term benefits from our attendance in 2017.
Tony Wurst
Dominion Pest Control
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