2003 NAEO Convention Report

April, 2003

The 2003 NAEO (National Amtelco Equipment Owners) Annual Conference was held February 23-26 in Carefree, Arizona at the Carefree Conference Resort.  The Sunday evening opening reception was preceded by a pre-conference supervisor workshop presented by Angus Campbell of H-Link On-Call, Libby Bell of Universal TeleResponse, and Gary Kerner from Amtelco.

The Monday morning session began with welcoming remarks from NAEO president Mike Leibowitz and Amtelco's Joe Everly and Tom Curtin.  Kevin Beale from Amtelco shared the new developments from Amtelco, in general, and Infinity, specifically.  Lisa Olson and Gary Fergunson, from Notify MD shared how they handle medical accounts, while Mike Leibowitz, from Professional Answering Service, communicated the power and flexibility of UltraComm.

After lunch, Joe Sameh, from American Mediconnect, communicated a personal case study, encouraging others to seek and pursue untapped specialty niches.  Meanwhile Jim Marchbank, Available Communications, discussed his experience migrating to a Web-based call center.  The complex and confusing issue of the new HIPAA requirements were detailed by Chuck Boyce of Appletree Answering Service, Shane Burleson of Fariview Health Services, and Mike Friedel from Amtelco.  Kevin Beale and Mike Leibowitz followed by sharing their perspective on the past, present, and future of report generation.  That evening, attendees were treated to a reception sponsored by Amtelco.

The Tuesday sessions were kicked off with a contact management presentation by John Ratliff of Appletree Answering Service.  This was followed by a panel presentation on internal communications by Cheryl Campbell, Michigan Message Center, Corrin LeVasseur, SW Texas Medical Hospital, and Renee Dunn, Professional Answering Service.  Bill Smith, of Answer One, led two different breakout sessions on EVE.  After lunch, eCreator was highlighted by Amtelco's Tammy Seggerman and then aptly discussed by the panel of Denver Davis (Stenocall), Robert Denman (Message Plex/Callogistics), Kelli Harrigan (Spectrum Communication Services), and Amy Kritzman (American Mediconnect).  The education session were concluded by a remote agent panel that discussed different technological options for connecting remote workstations.  The panel consisted of Mike Eastwood of Time Communications, Joe Miller from Checkpoint, and Kimberly Moore from Executive Systems.  An evening "Soiree" concluded the day.

Wednesday began with the business meeting where three new directors were elected.  They are Joe Miller, Checkpoint Communications, Greenville, NC, Laurie Blow, Advanced Answering Center, Rutland, VT, and Clayton Robinson, A-1 Answering, Las Vegas.  NAEO president Mike Leibowitz passed on the gavel to president-elect Allan Fromm owner of An-ser in Green Bay Wisconsin, who will serve as president for the next year.  Following the business meeting, Jamey Hopper from Dexcomm and Mike Burkinshaw from Comm-Link discussed sales and marketing in a sluggish economy.  This was followed by Kevin Beale heading up the ever-popular "wish list" session. 

The convention ended with an awards assembly.  Tom Curtin, Kevin Ryan, Gary Kerner, Steve Diels, Stan Gardner, and Alan Fromm were inducted into the NAEO Hall of Fame.  Greg Beale had been previously announced as the NAEO-Amtelco Employee of the Year.  Gregg Chartier, Time Communications, St. Paul, Minn., was awarded the Curtin Scholarship and Lorena Calderon, Aamcom, Redondo Beach, Calif., was given the Collins Scholarship.

 Amtelco's theater presentations ran at various times throughout the conference, addressing outbound dialing, hosted services, disaster recovery, and IVR (interactive voice response).

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