Thoughts on #CHAtweetup2015

It’s become somewhat of a tradition to share a few thoughts on the Chattanooga Tweet-Up and Cigar Festival in the days after the event has finished. Usually I end up waiting until we’ve had a team meeting so I can get feedback from other sources, but in this instance, I’m shooting first…

Appearances Matter

Nothing’s perfect, especially if you dig much below the surface, but when you have lots and lots of moving parts to manage, part of the trick is to not let the customers see when something doesn’t go according to plan. Over the years, some of that kind of thing was impossible to hide…like the “No Smoking” signs in the outfield of a baseball game where they had guaranteed us the right to enjoy a cigar…after they sat us next to the children’s asthma society group. Or the time we did a boat ride with the understanding that it would be “heavy hors d’ouevres and smoking inside on the second deck, only to get to the boat and be told “no smoking inside anywhere” and the food was far less than expected.

To be sure, this year there was some “fun” issues that came up. We set up for the Cornhole Tournament and soon found out that the custom boards we paid pretty big bucks for were waaaaaay too slick. Drop a bag and watch it slide as gravity took effect. We panicked for a few minutes, then turned to Google, where we found an easy solution that got us through the tournament.

Our last event of the weekend, the Lip Sync Contest, was supposed to start at 8:00 p.m. on Saturday. I’ll go on record as saying that when the DJ wasn’t in the house at 20 till 8, I was nervous. When it got to 5 till 8, I was getting a little frantic. But when he rolled in at 5 after, I was very relieved. We got started late, but that’s okay because it took some time to get everyone in the room, anyway. And it turned out to be the biggest hit of the weekend, so everyone quickly forgot about how it was a little late to start.

The point is, our team—both the Burns Crew and CBC Crew—are experienced enough in these weekend-long events now that we can handle things without it getting completely out of control and without panicking. We have pretty well learned to deal, adapt and overcome without things letting it become apparent to everyone else that a problem has arisen.

Redemption and Vindication

Without going into detail, the story of the past year has been one of wide-sweeping changes at Burns. Personnel changes, ownership changes, directional changes…lots of stuff going on. I know there were some doubts about whether this event could be pulled off again…doubts that were reflected in some weak ticket sales, at least at first. The final product couldn’t have made us happier, though.

I heard from several Tweet-Up veterans that this was, “The best Tweet-Up ever” or that “the people who came this year WILL BE BACK next year.” Even heard one person remark that the atmosphere this year was “Much better than last year.”

The truth is, the number of ticket buyers was down…the number of sponsoring companies was, too. And yet the sales weren’t far off of last year’s overall (I haven’t seen final numbers yet and can’t post them publicly, anyway). The leaf enthusiasts that walked through our doors this time around were serious folks.

Every year we do this, in the weeks leading up to the event, I feel “I’m done…this is the last time I’m doing this.” This year was no different. After getting such a great reaction from the participants, though, I’m ready to think about next year…

Planning for the Next Time

And I even had an idea for a theme for next year already…but I’m not telling you here. Truth is, the theme will probably change or at least be refined in the coming weeks and months. I’m still recovering from this past weekend at the moment, but once I’ve caught up with rest and sleep, I’ll be diving in and getting ready to do it all over again.

“Thank You”s

Way too many people to thank for everyone to get a specific mention, but I’m going to try…

Mike Hunter, Burns owner, and Brandi, his wife, were perfect hosts for this event…and Brandi made our registration table look better than ever.

Kim McCoy, the office manager, makes miracles happen every day and this Tweet-Up is no exception.

Burns Crew and Volunteers: Charlie, Jake, Hal, Holloway, Jason, Jen, Ziggy, Amanda, Jon, Aaron, Brandon, Keith, Chip, Erin, Mike…as well as anyone else who’s names have slipped my mind or who I just don’t know a name for: you guys rocked it.

CBC Crew: Donna, Michelle and everyone at CBC…fantastic food, great drinks, absolutely couldn’t have done it without you.

The Cigar Guys Radio Show and Cigar Mike…these gentlemen all helped with some key ideas and great promotion in the Atlanta area.

Vendor Representation: the brand owners and reps that were there from companies we carry as well as those we don’t…Eddie Tarazona; Gorden Crippen and Ryan Johnson (Dissident); Willy Marante (Miami Cigar); Robert Caldwell; Clint Aaron and Kyle Davis (262 Cigars); Pete Tyndale, Sheldon Posey, Greg Morris, and Tracie Southern (Kings Cigars); Jaxx Guevarra (Villiger); Tom Person (Commonwealth Cedar Spills); Gabriel Alvarez (Maya Selva); Fred Rewey (Nomad); Matt Booth and Garrett Calhoun (Room101); Sean Hardiman (LFD); Nate McIntyre and Lawrence Miltenberger (Cubanacan); Enrique Sanchez (1502); Shannon Baxter (House of E); Seth Baxter (Cigars for Warriors); Patrick Carr, Peter and Cat Foglesong (Cigar Rights of America); Bob and Colin Murphy (Jordan Alexander III); Robert Moreno (La Palina); Taven Johnson and Stefan Mayer (My Father Cigars); Kelly Enter (Xikar); Michelle Enter (A.J. Fernandez); Tom Lazuka, Justin Richards and Jason Robnett (CLE); Oscar Rodriguez (GTO); Bryan Jackson (Jaxsin); Jeff Tinnell and the DE Phantom (Drew Estate); Jonny Nelson (Oliva); Chris Harper (Perdomo); Stacy Cross (Rocky Patel); Sean Williams (Primer Mundo); Ricky White (General Cigar); Noel Rojas (Guayacan). And there were others…if I didn’t get you listed, please don’t feel left out…just drop me a text, email, DM or whatever to let me know and I’ll get you added to the list.

Finally…

I took the photos that are with this blog post, but I didn’t take nearly as many as I would have liked and I couldn’t carry around the “good” camera with me to do so. But we had 423 Imaging taking pictures the entire time. Those should be available for purchase and download soon and I’ll post about it on the Burns website.

Until then, enjoy some of the other photos I took on the way…

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