Collectively, we’ve been through a lot these past 22 or so months. We’re still struggling with lingering effects from the impact of the pandemic - supply chain issues, hiring enough people so we can effectively run our businesses, and providing the exceptional experiences our guests have come to expect. And speaking of guests, they’ve returned in numbers well beyond what many believed possible, but not always with the best manners – videos of “Guests Gone Wild,” are just a Facebook click away…
And yet, here we are – still optimistic about the business and excited about what’s next. We arrived here in no small part due to the industry’s unique spirit of collaboration and community and for that, I am authentically grateful.
I’m grateful for being able to attend trade events again and meet up with the many, many friends I’ve made over my 41-year career in this amazing industry. We’re an industry blessed with an overabundance of characters and larger-than-life personalities. Being in the room with them is so much better than seeing them on Zoom….
I’m grateful for my team – Tina and Alex who, like all the rest of us were scared to the core when the pandemic first arrived, and yet, in the face of all that adversity and fear, managed to launch the Member Connect Webinar series, bringing together experts from the medical and bio-hazard industries along with some of our industry’s best and brightest leaders, who freely shared ideas and best practices to deal with the myriad challenges we were all confronting, and get us all to the other side.
I’m grateful for our hundreds of volunteers who have inspired me time and again with their spirit of possibility. Those who know me have probably heard me say the job of PTA is to provide a space for our members to show up and be great. What I now realize is that’s exactly what our members have provided team PTA, the space to show up and be great.
I wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas and a Happy, Safe and Prosperous New Year. I truly believe the best is yet to come.
Play more,
Pete
