Earlier this week, we experienced a little trauma at our office: our a/c had broken. Actually, the entire building had no a/c and mind you, the temperature in Atlanta was topping out in the low 90’s.

We are glad to say that on Wednesday, things started looking up and we felt the cool air once again.

Well, just when things cool down, we decided to have a cookout in our parking lot – yes, we finally get a/c and decided to spend Thursday afternoon outside in the sun.

Either way, we had a great time and here is a little video of our day:

It’s become somewhat common for Chris and Tyler to wear either the same color (or in today’s case, the same style shirt), but then we realized that we had a plethora of Orange as well..

We celebrated Sasha’s birthday earlier this week and halfway through the party, I decided that we needed video evidence of the craziness that was taking place. Among others, the hula-hooping CEO really stood out…Happy Birthday, Sasha!

It’s the second week of my “Tour de baseball,” officially known as the Colonial Life broker marketing events and I can’t determine if I love baseball more or less after surviving my travel schedule. To give you an idea of my the past couple of weeks, I’ve mapped out a quick rundown of events (or as we like to call it, my “run of show”)

5/3 – Fly to Philadelphia for the Phillies-Cardinals game
5/4 – Work out of hotel in Philadelphia
5/5 – Drive to Pittsburgh for the Pirates-Cubs game
5/6 – Drive back to Philadelphia for my flight home
5/7 – Day in the office
5/10 – Fly to Boston for the Red Sox-Blue Jays game
5/11 – Fly Home
5/12 – Day in the office
5/13 – Fly to Miami for the Marlins Mets game
5/14 – Fly from Miami to New York for the Yankees-Twins game
5/15 – Fly home

Now, I’m not going to lie, baseball is by far my favorite sport, but I think I’ve seen enough hot dogs, nachos and bud light to last me a few months. However, as much as I love to complain about traveling, I will say that the program could have not gone any better.

The local brokers received tons of on-site experiences, ranging from a meet-and-greet with Phillies legend Jim Eisenreich, to being on the field for batting practice at both the Marlins and Pirates games. Maybe I’m biased, but I’d be doing back flips if someone offered me any of those experiences. Oh and did I mention that the 2007 World Series trophy was in our suite at Fenway?

While all of the events went off without a hitch, I can’t say the same about my personal travel experiences. It never ceases to amaze me that there’s always one thing that goes wrong when I travel. Maybe that’s user error, but I highly doubt it. This time, it was the fact that the parking garage outside of Fenway Park took my keys to move the car throughout the game, but never returned them to me after (I.E. they lost them.) After 30 minutes of trying to figure out a solution with the attendant, I noticed that my driver side car window was wide open and the keys were in the ignition! I can’t imagine telling my boss that I couldn’t get home from the game because my rental car stolen.

Until next time, stay classy, Internet…

Schnitty

All the way from the small town of Alton, VA we bring you the third Grand-Am hospitality event of the year at Virginia International Raceway (VIR). This may sound a little cliché but honestly, VIR is an experience that you would have to see firsthand to truly appreciate the type of atmosphere surrounding the race. The 2.5 mile road course is cut out in the middle of the woods with a picturesque setting to accentuate the track. Think Little House on the Prairie meets Days of Thunder. In all seriousness, the rolling hills and antique barns offer a very unique setting unrivaled by any other track that you may have visited. All in all, it makes for a very relaxed at-track environment which, as anyone who works in racing will attest to, can be a rarity and is certainly appreciated.

As with any business trip we take here at a|i|m, we like to enjoy ourselves while we’re away. I mean, who says that our events have to be all work and no play? Unfortunately, as you can probably imagine, there is not all that much going on in South Boston, VA (where our hotel was) so we have recently come up with our own little VIR tradition to help keep us entertained: bowling. This marked year 2 of the bowling extravaganza in South Virginia and, sadly, it did not quite live up to the enjoyment that we had year 1. Although the competition and the company were definitely enjoyable, something about a bowling alley that has no music playing makes for a fairly dull experience. Bowling without music is kind of like being the only person out on the dance floor…it makes for some awkward moments. As always though, we made the most of it and ending up having a pretty good time. At the very least, we were able to take this picture of some pretty amazing shoes so that alone made the trip worth it’s while.

Race day is here and we’re all set for a day of good racing and a solid hospitality program on behalf of SunTrust…that is, if the rain holds off. Needless to say, the weatherman’s prediction of heavy thunderstorms was not quite accurate as the day ended up being pretty nice (I’ll take partly cloudy and 68 degrees at the track any day of the week). Despite a few minor hiccups related to equipment malfunctions (I don’t want to bore you with the details), our elite hospitality team of Debbie Golden, Brooke Young and yours truly was able to pull off a successful day full of plenty activities for our guests to enjoy. Based on the feedback received, it seemed that all of our guests thoroughly enjoyed themselves and, at the end of the day, that’s all that it boils down to. I like to think that the guests based all of their positive feedback on the excellent job that Debbie, Brooke and I did and that it had nothing to do with the fact that the #10 SunTrust team ended up with a 3rd place finish (do you sense a little bit of sarcasm?). In all seriousness, a BIG congratulations goes out to Max, Ricky, Wayne and the rest of the Wayne Taylor Racing Team for a very impressive race! It was the first podium finish for Ricky as a member of Wayne Taylor Racing and we all expect many more in the future. Well done guys, well done.

A big thank you goes out to anyone involved with our event at VIR and especially to our excellent guests who made our job pretty easy. We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves and we look forward to seeing you again!

It’s been a few long months of planning for Family Circle Cup (FCC) and the time has come to depart for Charleston. All of the hard work from the a|i|m and SunTrust team will come to life over the course of 11 days at the WTA event in which we will entertain clients and prospects, execute a display and on-court promotion to support the retail line of business and also host a player party to help facilitate relationships for our Sports & Entertainment Specialty Group bankers. A lot of moving parts on different programs all supporting one initiative…..grow the SunTrust business.

8am on a Friday morning is an early day to meet Rachel at the office to leave, but that’s nothing good conversation, lots of laughs and a to-go breakfast can’t cure. Rachel and I prepped the display area for the next day’s events and gift bags were finalized for player check-in early the next morning. The display was set up with LiveSolid.com branded ping pong tables, paddles and balls and was a big hit amongst participating fans. Based on the number of visitors, it is safe to say that our display was easily the most popular of the week.

SunTrust Sports & Entertainment Specialty Group (SEG) hosted the Player Party Sunday night with branding, sponsorship of the SunTrust “candy station” (always a player favorite) and player gifts that helped welcome them to Charleston. The Player Party always offers a great opportunity for players, coaches and other tournament participants to relax and enjoy themselves before a week of intense competition. Needless to say, it was definitely fun to see players such as Jelena Jankovic away from the tennis court enjoying themselves, shopping and just hanging out.

The suite got off to an early start Tuesday with action on stadium court and a house full of guests and bankers. Player visits all throughout the week offered a unique experience where our guests could ask questions, get autographs and post for pictures. This is definitely the highlight of the day for some of our guests.

Game. Set. Rock! was a new addition to this year’s event in which SunTrust clients were able to play tennis with the likes of John McEnroe, Monica Seles, Jim Courier and my personal favorite…Anna Kournikova. These four players were going to participate in a unique mixed doubles event as an add-on event for this year’s FCC. Everyone in attendance enjoyed the playful “competition” between these legendary players.

The clock rolled over to Sunday and I had been in Charleston for 10 days, working long hours and was pretty ready for things to come to a halt. We finished the event strong to a response of all smiles and compliments from the client, which is what you always want from an event. A huge sense of accomplishment for our team of SunTrust Sponsorship members as well as a|i|m – we really bonded during the planning of this event and it’s nice to look back at one of the better events we have ever done. The a|i|m team packed up everyone else and got them to their flights on time and finalized everything Sunday which included an afternoon nap, an excellent dinner at Coast and a famous Vanilla milkshake from Hall’s to close out the trip.
Another job well done to everyone involved.

We took this HDR picture from the top of our building earlier this week – it was too cool not to share!

For the second time in a few weeks, we had yet another shower at the aim office. This time, it was a baby shower instead of a wedding shower.

Mark and his wife, as well as Kara and her husband, are both expecting little ones in the coming weeks – so for the rest of us, it meant an hour to eat high-calorie food and drink Kristi’s famous punch (sans alcohol…or so she says..)

Either way, we want to congratulate both couples!