Last Flight Of 2019 – Thoughts From The Air
As I sit in seat 2F, returning home from the ISM holiday party on what is happily my last flight of the year, I keep thinking about how 2019 was a year of building. The highs weren’t as high as years past, but happily the lows weren’t as low either; this was your average grind it out kind of a year where we developed processes, streamlined communication, and installed our digital network all around the country.
The team has many accomplishments to be proud of this year, but here are a couple of the highlights:
The Allegiant Airlines Network Powered by ISM Connect: When our contract with Minor League Baseball was finalized in Q4 of 2018, the mission sounded simple: Install 25 permanent screen networks at baseball clubs around the country before the first pitch of the season. What wasn’t as simple is that we had no clue what we were doing. ISM had been largely operating mobile screen networks and only completed three permanent installations in our young company’s existence. In large part, and because of the help of our partners at Peerless AV, we were able to ease the learning curve and quickly get the team up to speed. After four conference call-filled months discussing topics like how we were going to deal with the snow in Omaha, the new stadium construction in Las Vegas, and a super tight timeline, we were able to complete all 25 clubs on time and on budget. The learning we experienced as a team was invaluable and has now set us up for success as we install more new stadiums prior to the start of the 2020 season.
NASCAR: 2019 marked our third consecutive season traveling the NASCAR circuit and I am happy to report that we finally had all the right people in the right seats on our bus. At the beginning of the year, we added two full-time staff members that jelled immediately and quickly helped us find our stride. The grind of getting a national experiential tour launched and dialed in takes countless hours of thoughtful work—and I am proud to say that we are finally there.
ISM South: Two years ago, I rented what I believed to be a ginormous warehouse that had shelving for days. I believed that I wouldn’t ever outgrow it. It had no heat, no Internet, and no coworkers to fill the ample space. Last week El Hefe (Kent Heyman) came to visit an office that was bustling with activity. Fifteen team members call ISM South home, the warehouse is busting at the seams, and our heat works like a champ. We took the team to dinner that night and I was extremely proud of the quality of the professionals gathered around the room. I never imagined this possible two short years ago.
