Local companies gather to learn and share ideas at the Today & Tomorrow Conference
By Joshua Wolfe
Delaware Technical Community College held the 21st annual Today & Tomorrow Conference at the Owens Campus in Georgetown on Oct. 29.
People from local businesses were invited to come and talk at conference about their experiences with the theme, which was “SELLebration.” SELLebration focused on the fine art of selling – both in traditional sales environments and in nontraditional areas.
The Today and Tomorrow Conference's mission statement is to provide insight and identify opportunities in Sussex County to promote economics, partnership and collaboration. Its goals are to promote understanding, showcase initiatives, identify needs, and stimulate action.
Highlights included Bryan Simon from Laurel, a YouTube star who goes by the username BrySi. Simon writes songs and makes music videos about video games.
“I picked up my guitar and wrote a little song about this game called Halo,” Bryan said. “I uploaded it to YouTube and the next day I saw it had 20,000 views.”
From that, Bryan now has 450,000 subscribers and over 100,000,000 views on his videos.
Charles Burton, 5th Generation Owner and President of I.G. Burton, spoke during a panel about how you are not only selling a product, you are also selling the business and yourself.
“There's a saying in the car business,” Burton said. “Sales sells the first vehicle, but service and parts really sells the next.”
After the panel, the conference offered three workshops where representatives from local businesses shared insights. Dennis Forney from the Cape Gazette talked about print media selling, Felecia BenZakan from E-Revolution spoke about internet selling, and Dave Speicher from WBOC-TV talked about face-to-face selling.
The keynote address was delivered by Scott Kammerer, President of Matt Haley Companies. Kammerer talked about leading Matt Haley Companies after Matt Haley passed away.
“I realized the only person I had to sell was myself,” Scott said. “I knew there were these families relying on me, there were these charities, there were these people, and I was the guy that had to make it happen. The only person I had to convince was myself, and I will deliver.”
Haley was a restaurateur, chef, and the founder and CEO of Matt Haley Companies. He won the 2014 James Beard Foundation award for his humanitarian efforts.
In closing, Kammerer shared advice that Haley gave him.
“The biggest thing I learned from Matt Haley; live the life you deserve, believe in yourself, build something great, and don't be afraid to sell.”
For more information about the Today and Tomorrow Conference, call 302-259-6090 or email Jackie Berger at jberger2@dtcc.edu.