What Makes ELEVATE Different?

In this special live episode of TMSA’s On the Move, Jennifer Karpus-Romain previews this year’s ELEVATE Conference, coming up quickly June 7–9 in Denver, Colorado. Don't miss out on your chance to attend, there’s still time to register. 

Joined by special guests and industry voices, Jennifer explores what attendees can expect from one of transportation and logistics’ most anticipated events, from networking opportunities and breakout conversations to emerging trends shaping sales, marketing, and business development across the industry. 

The episode also shares practical advice on how to engage more intentionally at the conference, maximize connections, and make the most of the ELEVATE experience. 

Whether you’re attending for the first time or returning as a veteran attendee, this live preview offers an inside look at the energy, conversations, and community waiting in Denver.

Check out the Transportation Sales and Marketing Association (TMSA) website or engage with us on LinkedIn.

Transcript

Live Welcome And Guest Introductions

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 0:28

Hello, everyone, and welcome to On the Move, a show where we share transportation, sales, and marketing success stories. I'm Jennifer Karpis Romain, Executive Director of TMSA, a trade nonprofit, educating and connecting marketing and sales professionals inside transportation and logistics. And today we're doing a live show, which we haven't done in a while, and we're working on some technical situations. But on the show today, I have some of our key players that we have inside of TMSA and Elevate. So we have Kyle McNaught, he's with Five Tool Productions. He is our A B and video partner. We have I literally, I'm gonna move you out because we can hear you. There you go. Okay. And then we Eileen Debrowski is our member uh and um programs director. She is having all kinds of tech issues, so I have removed her from the screen for now. We'll bring her back, hopefully. We have Whitney Cowell, she is with Night Swift Supply Chain, and she is also who coordinates our community give back program at TMSA, and then we have Brianna Irwin, marketing manager at TCW. Uh both Whitney and Brianna have been part of TMSA for years, and they also then coordinate different parts of what we have in our programming. So Brianna, this year, is coordinating our Future Forward Volunteer program. So I wanted to get everybody in here to talk about our perspectives of the show, what we're looking forward to, and how we come to this collective team effort to put out

What Each Leader Is Building

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 2:05

Elevate in such the fashion that we do. So really fun mix of people here for you today. I will actually make sure I pull up the chat so that if people do ask us questions live, I will see them. Um and happy to jump in. So I've given you guys some openings, but before we fully jump into all of the questions, I would love for you guys to kind of talk about what you're working on this year, what's taking up most of your brain space lately in terms of TMSA as we head into the show. I will popcorn it to Kyle to get us started.

SPEAKER_00 2:41

Oh, well, I'm happy you told me that. It's what's ticking my brain with TMSA because there's so much other stuff that's just running around up here. But Kyle McNaught, I work for FiveTool Productions. I am the A V partner for TMSA. So this will be our second year fully producing the event. Uh, and then in 2024, we went there and kind of captured. That's actually what one of these videos behind me is right up here. Uh, but yeah, A V partner, which means I'm in charge of everything that you look, hear, and see, which is what look means, Kyle. Way to go. That's why I stay behind the camera because I'm not great at talking. Uh, but yeah, uh coordinating with the speakers, making sure we've got the videos, making sure all the sponsor slides, making sure that uh when you're in the lounge area, you can hear when the show's starting. So you know as an attendee, I need to finish my food so I can go hear the keynote because we have a schedule to keep, folks. I'm the one who's running all those things on the ones and twos. And uh yeah, super excited about the event this year. Love Denver. Love that we're not in a hot area for the first time. So setup day. I'm not gonna be the stinkiest person in the room. Hopefully, knock on wood.

SPEAKER_03 3:44

Yay!

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 3:47

Uh Whitney, what about you?

SPEAKER_05 3:49

Well, I am, like you said, managing the community give back. It's been very nice. I had um I had a lot of help and support this year doing so, um, which was a great change of pace. Um, and I'm also excited, I keep trying to, it's already been submitted, so I can't go back and put my fingers on it, but I'm hosting a workshop about key messaging um and a framework that you can actually take home. And of course, every time I look at it, I'm like, oh, I should have added that, or like, how many pages are too many pages? So I'm I am officially not overthinking it. And um here to to do what I've been doing for most of my marketing career and just share a little bit of knowledge. So I'm excited about it. I'm excited about the give back. I know we're gonna get to that, but it's something that's near and dear to my heart. Um, something that I've done both like at organizations that I've been a part of for my job, as well as something that I've been able to implement here at TMSA.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 4:55

Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 4:58

And then lastly for me, uh as you mentioned, I am part of the CSR committee, and I have been thinking about that, very excited to be there firsthand and give back to the community, especially Denver, since we will be there. And then along with that, is working with the future Ford volunteers and making sure they feel welcomed, excited, and prepared to help out this conference. So I'm very excited.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 5:25

Awesome. And I'm going to try to bring in Eileen from the back. Can you are on mute? So unmute. Yeah, so Eileen Debrawski is our programs and member director. Um, she got tech support, and so now she's able to be on the show. Yay! We're talking to her. Yes, we are talking about um that, but we're excited for Elevate and what's keeping us taking up our brain space about TMSA specifically as we head into Elevate,

Creating Tracks For Targeted Growth

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 6:03

what you got for us.

SPEAKER_04 6:05

Um so a couple things. So, first of all, when I was a corporate member, being connected with the folks that are part of TMSA in the community is one of the not only fill my brain and education and learn from some amazing industry thought leaders, but it's connecting with so many phenomenal people in transportation across all levels who are willing to share so openly. That literally created so much value for me when I was a corporate member. So now I'm excited to be able to serve TMSA in this way. And uh the thing I'm most excited about, not only for us being in Denver, which I absolutely love that city, um I am so excited to see our track program come to fruition. So we've been working on this for so long. It seems like years it hasn't been, although almost a year. And um to see it happen. And uh, you know, we made this shift to create intentional value for members in a really specific way that's specific to where they are today and where they're looking to grow into. And uh, I would have loved to have that in my own career. So the fact that we're creating this for members uh has me fired up. So seeing my favorite humans and then seeing our tracks come alive, two most important things.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 7:18

Yeah. And as you talk about, we have the track program and it's kind of coming into fruition for the first time for people to see it. You've been balancing the education, strategy, speakers, timing. What is one of the biggest goals for you in shaping this year's Elevate agenda?

SPEAKER_04 7:34

So I'm really big on tailored ROI for our members, and that's kind of hard to do because usually what people like to get out of a conference is very personal and subjective, not only to them as a professional, but to the organizations that they represent, whether it's their own or another organization that they're uh a member of or employee of. So when we built the agenda and lined up speakers, we tried to think about that. How can we create value at the individual level? And how can we also create ROI for the organizations? Because we want people, when they attend our shows, to not only feel like they grew as a human, but to also go back and take what they've learned, take the knowledge. We have some phenomenal like industry thought leaders that I'm a huge fangirl for across the board. And we do speaker prep sessions to not only ensure that we have as smooth a run a show as possible, but to ensure that our speakers are also set up for success. So, as somebody who attends a lot of conferences and trade shows and events in the industry, what I love about ours is all the thought and the time that we put into curating a truly meaningful experience from the moment you arrive at the Hilton Inverness till till you catch your flight or drive home. Uh, we want you to create value. So I'm really excited to see that all come to uh hopefully fruition.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 9:00

Yeah. Me too. It's it's so exciting to watch all the pieces line up, like especially at this point, we're like a week and a half to go, which I don't I don't like to think about. But there's so many pieces that align and then now seeing it together. I mean, one thing that I'm really proud of TMSA holistically is that we are always trying to think about that member

New Session On Broker Liability

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 9:22

experience, that conference attendee experience bringing value. So much so that we are doing a special announcement here on the podcast today, that we are launching a session because as we talked about uh what's been going on in the industry, um the session for ruling about border liability ruling and what it actually means for great has been a hot topic for many people over the past whole week, what it actually means, what we should be doing about it. So we got to um really hit the ground running and trying to put together a session that's going to be meaningful and valuable, but also provide all the kinds of content and let people in the room discuss what this means and how we could be moving things forward. So we are announcing on the show the ripple effect, what the Supreme Court's broker liability ruling means for freight. We are working with Matthew Leffler, who is a transportation attorney. He's recording a video that will break down the key components from a legal aspect of it. And then we have a couple other key players that we're locking in to provide these videos from different perspectives of what this means. And then we'll have a facilitated conversation in the room at Elevate with the leaders in the space, what they're doing, what they think about it, where we should be going, what we should care about, questions we should be asking your internal teams. So I'm so excited for this session. Um, when it was first brought up to me of like this is absolutely something that we should be doing, I was like, but why? We have a full agenda and everything. But one of the things I love about TMSA is that because we are a smaller show, it's you know, 150, 200 people, we're able to move and pivot and provide the best value we can all the way up to the final moments before we land at show. So I'm really excited about that and proud of the team. Um, I like immediately called Kyle and was like, um, how do we do this as effectively as possible in a way that's going to be meaningful for the people in the room? While also understanding that we want these key players to give perspectives and it's two weeks before show and they might not be able to come travel. Um so with that, Kyle, like you see a sign of elevate that attendees never think about, or rather, they only think about when it goes wrong or amiss or something. So, like, what is something that you think people would be surprised goes into the making of the event and making it feel seamless?

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Oh, I mean, I mean Eileen's work in general is something crazy. I mean, the fact that she keeps her mic unmuted so we can hear ourselves when we talk on this is awesome. Uh, that's sweet, Eileen. Uh, truly, the speaker management is something that you really do need to pay attention to, especially as we become a more connected audience. Every attendee like has the information at their fingertips. So, why do you go to these events uh is really to have something that's more tailored to you. You don't want to kind of Google or kind of hope AI is giving you the right stuff. It's kind of the trusted source that is TMSA. So the amount of work that Eileen does and making sure that the speakers understand the audience, understand the attendees, understand the knowledge and kind of what they, their day-to-day grind and kind of what their thinking is is so important and it really does kind of help shine and make that these presentations uh great because the networking at Elevate is already amazing. So it's like already at the place where, like you say, you're seeing old friends, get to meet new ones, especially in the transportation with sales and marketing, you tend to be a little bit more siloed, a little bit solo, um, especially kind of the the marketing side. I know I sat on the marketing side for uh logistics and it was just me. So it is awesome to kind of see the people and whatnot, but then when the education's there to really help you out, because you don't have that, like you're not being able to like tap into people on your at your work and stuff like that. Or if you are, you're tapping into your director of operations or some of the brokerage or something like that, where you're kind of trying to understand it. But when other marketers are explaining something to you, like the Supreme Court ruling and helping you understand it in the way that your brain works, that's huge. And I think it really goes into the work that we do leading up to everything. Uh, so that would be my short but sweet answer.

The Hidden Work Behind Seamless AV

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 13:27

I do think the collaboration between the different components is what I hope makes a seamless experience. Like people wouldn't know this, but like me, Eileen and Kyle and our MC Coleman have been together all day today because we were on our pro like our prep call making sure all the pieces, making sure there wasn't any big holes. And then we like bring in our admin admin, Tiffany, who um is so behind the scenes and all this stuff. And we are like, these are all the these are where the holes are now. We need to make sure that we don't have them at conference. And whether it's so that we're creating that seamless for the attendees, but also for us as much as possible, because we want to make sure that because if we're running around like crazy people on site, that's not a great experience for the audience either. And you can pick that stuff up. So we want to make like Eileen does look really silly. How can we create the best experience for speakers? She sits in a prep call with every single speaker that we have and like making sure that they have she even was like, please give me the maps of the rooms like four months ago before she started the calls because she's like, I know they're gonna want to know the size of the room and the space and how it's all that stuff. Like, we try to really provide all that stuff so that everyone is comfy.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

I mean, talk with the meeting today. I we're like, Eileen, how does this presentation go? Is it two people talking back and forth? Is it one person presenting? Because that led to a bunch of other things. So, what type of microphones are we doing? What type of things are we gonna set up? Like, all that is how it creates this seamless event. So, again, it starts with great speaker management, which Elevate has, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_04 14:54

And I would argue great tech partner, right? The fact that all of us work so seamlessly. So the cool thing about TMSA, we're a small but mighty staff, right? A lot of people don't realize Jenna's the only full-time human that TMSA has. And I think it's pretty profound the amount of work for us to execute a show like this, but we couldn't do it without each other. So Kyle mentioned speaker management. Do you know how helpful it is to me to have a tech partner who gets it and knows the tech questions to set me up for success and the speaker's up for success? I've never had that before, any show I've attended, that that true collaboration and support. So it's it's pretty phenomenal. Um, and we're as grateful for Five Tool as as we hope we make it easy for them.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 15:39

Yeah, and just from like the event management side too, like every everything, every technical thing goes to Kyle. Video, photo booth, photos.

SPEAKER_00 15:50

Where's the beer pong table?

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 15:51

Yeah, I'm always like, like, even with people, I'll be like, oh, this is our tech partner. Here he goes. Like, and so it makes it really easy. And sideline's point, like, as being the full-time employee here, like having to explain that year over year, over year of like this is exactly our technical needs, and like starting from the ground up, like that's really complicated. And so having Kyle makes it a lot easier to um maneuver through those pieces. So I do think that that is helpful. And Five Tools also a member of TMSA. So when you and like Whitney and Brianna are here as volunteer members of TMSA, they are not paid to be here and do all the work that they do for us. They do it out of the kindness of their heart and their love of the community, but having your partners also be a part of the membership, like Kyle is one of our most active education committee members that we have. Like he also comes in and like building um our keynote this year, which is the the Mike Tech Drop Award, where and he he was actually one of the original people like, why don't we just talk about tech and AI, but like in a way that other people aren't? And I'm like, yes, let's do that and let's make it a competition because then people will be fierce on the stage. And so then it like took off from there. But like having everybody in the room really understand like the power of the community, bringing it together, I think is part of what creates that experience. And one of the things I'm most proud of that TMSA has really gotten involved with over the past couple of years is our partnership with Next Generation in Trucking, doing the future forward, because now we're not just helping our community, we're helping the up-and-comers in the community. So I um talked to Lindsay Trent over at Next Generation Trucking. We started this program last year and then kind of doubled down on how we did it this year, but I knew I needed a really strong person to take this on and really be able to spearhead this, and that's where Brianna came in. So, what made you want to get involved with helping and create the experience for newer professionals in the industry?

SPEAKER_01 17:48

Well, first and foremost, it was the easiest yes I could have said. Uh Elevate was my first conference ever. I graduated college, then got started in my job at TCW, and Gary brought me and introduced me to so many industry leaders from day one, and it was just beautiful that they wanted to get to know me, not my resume. And that I could easily not forget. And the fact that so many people genuinely said, Come to me if you have any questions. Um, just phone call away. Here's my contact information, and so that stuck with me. And I want our future Ford volunteers to have that same welcome that I received, and I am so honored that I get to play a part of that.

SPEAKER_00 18:37

And she's getting married the weekend before, so that's crazy. The easiest yes you oh you're sorry, you're married. So the easiest yes she had was TFA, not saying yes to get married.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 18:48

She answered before she got married. She was, but yeah, sex easiest yes. Yeah. Yeah, he he was the easiest yes. And um to us and marry us. Um, but we but it was great. And I um you were so passionate about it, and you're such in your um in your life, volunteerism is a big part of what you do. And so, and check out her full edition of On the Move from a few months ago if you want to learn more about that, because it's really cool what she does. Um, but I I was so excited, even after our first prep call with you, both Eileen and Kyle was like, she is so excited to do this. I'm like, yes, and like that's what you want. You want people that are passionate about it and that love it because they'll crush it, and that's what we'll bring forward

Community Give Back And Community Hub

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 19:33

and really show the true community. And I feel like part of that you saw how Whitney took over, not even took over, Whitney invented community give back here at TMSA back in 2023, really wanting to create a stronger culture of community in a different way for TMSA. And what I also loved about it is because I feel like one of our first conversations that um me and Whitney had about like why we liked the community give back or why we could do this, is because we're always like, what do you do with your hands when you're networking and like talking to people? And so the concept of like doing something together made it feel um more organic in conversations and less stressful. Yes, now we're all like hands. But Whitney, I would love for you to share that perspective. So, this is for people who don't know, Whitney started community give back in 2023 as a board member. This has been her primary, I mean, she's volunteered in almost every committee, but this is the primary thing that she does here. Um, and it's picking a local community group that we um that Whitney finds and then we coordinate with them to do some type of give back in the community that we are. So this year we're in Denver. So tell us about it.

SPEAKER_05 20:42

I mean, it it was a passion project because I had started at TMSA uh attending the year before that, and that was also my first industry event. I was a lot further along in my career, but not so much in my marketing career. And so I had and I was just catapulted into a management role. And so I had a lot of questions, and um I I think I was shocked at how open-handed people were with their answers and their suggestions and their recommendations, and I left and just had, I mean, I had half a notebook full of just like phone numbers that I could call, of technology to look into, of ideas to implement. Um, and you know, my thought was I loved being able to do that, but the networking itself was kind of like a there was like this speed networking, and and I've been, I was uncomfortable a little bit, and it was a me problem, not an other people problem. But I was like, what if we did something that I I like to do and I was able to implement at a an organization that I worked at, and that was like maybe give back at the same time because we can we can talk and do things. We're we're multitaskers. Talk and do things. And um, I was really surprised that I was just told, Yeah, if you want to plan it, like you run run with the wind. And I said, Okay, and did. Um, but the the idea of giving back, I guess I didn't realize how important or valuable it was. It's just something that's kind of always been a part of like my personal life. And so I didn't think twice about that being as big of a deal as it kind of turned into. Um, but I love being able to do the research and find organizations um that are supporting, you know, underserved members or underprivileged members of their community and the fact that we are able to band together and give in some form or fashion. So um the tie blankets for the children's hospital, I believe, was the kickoff. And it was kind of fun because it was a drivable distance for me. So then we just loaded my car down with blankets and um I got to go to the children's hospital and nurses in tears, and it was just it was really beautiful. Um, and now we get to continue doing that, and we hop from city to city, so it also allows us to participate in communities across the country, which I think is a really unique experience for us.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 23:19

I agree, and I think it's been a beautiful way to give back. Like we are a trade nonprofit, so we're all about like the education and the networking, but being able to like really extend that nonprofit piece and being able to give back to the community. Oh, look at Kyle pulling up here. I can make I can make it yeah, let's see.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Let's see if I can figure out how to make oh it's gonna, it's the video, so we could don't have to do it. We can go back to me.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 23:47

No, okay, now now keep it going here. Keep it going.

SPEAKER_00 23:51

I'll try to fix it. Stand by. It's also the mirrored thing. Hold on.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 23:55

Yeah, so but um well, the this is the 100-year video, it'll get there. Um, so this is just all things TMSA, but so this is the community give back um where we made Thai blankets. This was 2024, so we made uh more than 50 items were donated, and 17 blankets were made. So we also sometimes have done like a holiday gift drive for the this was for the Covenant House in New Orleans. Um, and we've done it for the Savannah Children's Hospital, as Whitney said. Last year we did the um with Latinita.

SPEAKER_05 24:29

So it was young girls that were interested in them.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 24:32

I was like, we didn't do blankets the one year.

SPEAKER_05 24:37

Well, and that was a fun experience because then we got to support people that young people um that were in like the elementary to middle school age that may end up in our field one day um and provide items for their summer camp, which was a fun little pivot from from the Thai blankets. But you know, it's the blankets, they're easy. Um, it's you can fit a lot of people together to do it. So it's whatever the community has to offer is what we'll take them up on. And you know, we've looked at doing something supply chain adjacent, and for some reason, we just keep ending up in not those organizations, and I'm a fan of it.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 25:18

Yep. And one thing that we then did do because we decided to like keep it community-based for this, is that we now have a community hub this year, and with that, we then have truckers truckers against trafficking, we have blended, we have next generation in trucking. Pretty sure Reeks Across America is gonna come too. And so anyone that is coming to conference can they will have tables set up at community give back, and you can learn more about them and hear more from them, hear their stories. I live show. My my questions are not popping up anymore, so we just may roll through this even better. But I do think one of the um, so adding that community hub was really cool to me because we do such a good job to Whitney's credit of going into the communities and supporting the um the community-based programs. So I was like, we have really great nonprofits inside our space, and so many of the people who are coming to our conference are going to be the people that are coordinating with them or working with them, and so we wanted to give them a place to um showcase and talk about people, so they'll be at community uh give back as well.

Newcomers Welcome And Buddy Program

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 26:31

So, since this is the live preview of Elevate, we kind of walked through pieces of what Sunday is going to be. We do have um community give back is how we kick off conference, and then we have a newcomer's welcome. One of the things I love about our newcomers welcome is that I then this isn't to like poo-poo on other shows, but like I get I don't do well going into a show where I don't know anyone. Like walking in for the first time, I don't know anyone, and then they'll have this newcomer's welcome or reception, and it's just a bunch of people in a room. And I'm like, I don't know, I don't know anyone, so I don't know how to talk to those people. And so when we started to do a newcomer's welcome a couple years ago, we've changed the format every year to like find the sweet spot. But it's been about like connecting people, having like facilitating those conversations. This year we're actually going to have six different tables where you can learn more about TMSA, getting involved, how to maximize your time at Elevate, tools that we offer that you might not know about, all kinds of things. Because we actually the feedback for the newcomers welcome was like we actually wanted to learn more. Like at first, we did like an opening and then we would do some trivia. We would have some, we did a scavenger hunt one year. Like it's been a lot of like fun and engagement, but we try to set those up because we know how nerve-wracking it could be entering a space that you've never been before, where you don't know anyone. We also have our buddy program, so any first-time attendee gets matched with a TMSA veteran. I was laughing. Um, Tiffany, the administrator, was like, Oh, I have a veteran for him. Like, oh, I just assign them now because the veterans get so excited about it. And honestly, Buddy Day is my favorite day of when I set up the emails to go out to all the buddies because then they get so excited and they start setting up their meetings. And I think that's just such a sweet way to make sure that everybody knows at least one person that walks in the door. Um, I'll admit the amount of brain I actually sit in to match people is probably unnecessary for this point of conference planning, but I do really try to find people that have like uh similar vibes to them or similar roles or like could really benefit from that. And it's not, it's not, it's either like a reciprocal friendship too, like maybe this person is at a similar point of their career, or this is a person who could potentially be a mentor or just sit in it for a while. But I love it, and just that going forward into community is a key component of elevate and TMSA.

AI Tech Mic Drop Keynote Battle

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 29:01

Um, Monday is when we then start the education. So all Tuesday or all Sunday is our big networking time, and then going into Monday. So we've kind of mentioned this, but this year we're doing a different kind of keynote called Beyond the Buzz, the AI and Tech Moves that actually works. We have four people that are competing on stage to win the tech mic drop award. Um, they do get like a WWE style belt if they win, which is awesome. That was um a joke I made on an education committee call and it stuck. And so we have that in production and we'll be at conference, which is funny. But one of the things I we really wanted with this session was to talk about technology and AI that's actually happening now that people couldn't be inspired to utilize at their own companies in their own lives. Like, I feel like AI is used everywhere, but it's a but but what can it actually do? Like, how do you actually use it to be effective? And that's that was a key component for that. So I would love all of your guys' feedback on like what about that? Are you excited about? And have you ever seen anything quite like that? And are you excited to see the results? And you all get to vote live. Audience votes live for the winner. Isn't that fun? Brianna got really excited.

SPEAKER_01 30:27

It does sound fun. I'm excited for it.

SPEAKER_00 30:30

Sounds like Brianna's votes for sale. I think she's already trying to find a little yeah.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 30:35

That's I made sure I was like, we need to make sure that because I've been to like uh when I worked in the tech space, we did something kind of like this, but you could vote as many times as you wanted. And I feel like whoever's team's paying the most attention is gonna be who wins. But so what do you guys think about opening conference like that? Like typically there's that opening keynote that is your traditional keynote style. We kind of got away from that this year. Open it resonates.

SPEAKER_04 31:01

I'm excited. I'm gonna jump in. Um, I attend so many keynotes, and I think keynotes fall into two buckets crush it, hit, or train wreck. And and there's no way to make everybody happy. And what I like is first of all, TMSA is big on showcasing members and showcasing what people in the transportation community do. So I think this is first of all a really fun inventive way because AI is kind of the same way. People love it or they're scared of it. And then there's sort of the Grand Canyon of Gray in between, kind of like our industry. So this is a fun and creative way to for our members to hear from four people, all using tech and AI in different ways and in a competitive way. Because let's be honest, we all love that. And right, any type you can engage. And and the fact that we're doing it kind of micro style, so we're gonna have four people present between eight to ten minutes. That's it. And we we have some fun music queued up, we're gonna make it kind of game show vibes um and all of that. But I love it because I you know, you can only attend so many keynotes that don't resonate with you, and then you check out, you start working. We didn't want that. I told you we're intentional about that value, and I think this is a really fun way. I'm pumped.

SPEAKER_05 32:14

Yeah, I I mean, I agree because I've I've seen so many that go wrong in so many different ways where it's like it's a little too data heavy, and you start just glazing over, you know. Like I've also seen the ones that flop, and I think we've had a lot of success in the past. I mean, the one that stuck out to me was in Savannah, but you know, when you have the Savannah bananas coming in, you're gonna have a honestly part of the problem, if I'm honest, there's nothing in the world that gets all the Savannah bananas.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 32:46

And I'm like, why did I ever like why did we do that?

SPEAKER_05 32:49

Like, I mean because it was amazing, but I think that's what we're about is if if we claim to be sales and marketing people that are pushing the boundaries, that are staying relevant, that are I mean, that's what we do in our roles is we try new things, we pivot when we need to, we're very in tune with our audiences. We have to be. And so I think having the type of keynote that we're planning to have this year is an exact representation of that, right? Like we've listened, it's a good representation of what we have to offer because we're starting with learning, but learning that our people specifically care about is not a generic inspirational speech. Um, and it's not just something that's addressing the industry. It is very niche to what we're doing. And we do have, like, you know, we do talk about the economy and we do talk about what's happening in the industry, but as an opening, I think that it kind of sets the tone for what people can expect for the rest of that day and the day to follow.

SPEAKER_00 33:49

I also think it speaks to TMSA, right? Like the idea is like competitors openly talking about what they're doing. Like, this is the exact same thing. AI coming up on stage, being like, yo, I'm using AI in this or technology in this capacity. And I'm willing to share this with everyone because that's what everyone cares about. Like when I'm producing all these shows, AI always gets brought up and it's always off-handed. Someone being like, Oh, I'm using AI to answer my emails. And then, like, they weren't even thinking about what they said with that. But all questions immediately go, tell me how you did that. I need to know this. How are you doing that with AI? So the fact that like I haven't seen a conference yet, bring it in like this, be like, yo, let's have a competition, let's have fun with it. But at the same time, it's still the idea that you can share what you're doing and it's all open, it's all fine because like that's what TMSA is. It is a sandbox to go, hey, group, like my fellow beings. Like, I'm trying to do this. Has anyone done this thing before? Like, how do we work together? And I think that's gonna be so much fun to like kind of kick off the day with, really set the tone for what Elevate's all about of just networking, talking, sharing ideas, that type of stuff.

SPEAKER_05 34:51

And I think that's what makes our conference different, right? Is like that's why I keep coming back, is because people were so open-handed with exactly what they were doing. I mean, I'm hosting a workshop about key messaging, and it's not just things that I made up, these are things that I actually do and I actually use. Um, and I I don't mind sharing those things, just like everybody that's gonna get on stage for the keynote. They don't mind sharing these things because at the end of the day, you know, we do want to see each other win.

Why TMSA Networking Hits Different

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 35:22

Yes, I think that we've talked about Elevate and TMSA feeling more personal relationship driven than a typical conference. Um, even Whitney talked about the workshop she's doing, um, and Eileen talked about the tracks. Like each track has its own workshop, its own breakout, and its own networking session this year, on top of all of the like full conference stuff. And the big reason why we made that shift is because we had a lot of people in the surveys being like, I love conference, I love being able to network with everyone, but I would also love time to just kind of talk to people in my trenches and like how do I do this? Um, and so we pivoted because that's what we wanted to do and still give those whole things. Like Whitney was like, speed networking wasn't my jam. It's coming back though, and we're doing community give back and speed networking now because other people asked for it back. But I was like, I we're not going to get rid of community big back, community give back to bring it back. That was a tough sentence. Um, but how can we incorporate both sides so that you know the people who really liked that, like speed networking, being able to meet people so that you um are able to have that conversation right away, we'll be doing that and then still doing community give back. But I'm curious, like of all your you've all been to TMSA for years now, you've been a part of the community. Why do you think that TMSA is different in that way? And is there a specific moment in your own TMSA journey that really stood out for you as that like community-based? I know Whitney, you kind of touched on it earlier, a little bit of like the first time you came and just your notebooks of notebooks of people and stuff. But um, anything else you guys want to add to that?

SPEAKER_01 36:57

I would love to touch on what Kyle and Whitney both said about learning and having those real-world examples being shown to you. And that's beautiful. I mean, that's not common, and you automatically feel that. And along with the community, you also get real friendships out of the members that are there and the attendees. And it's fun to go back to another Elevate conference and pick up right where you left off with these same members and attendees. And I treasure that. So I find that very unique.

SPEAKER_04 37:33

For me, it's the fact that we incorporate voice of member at like right. Like a lot of people don't do post, you know, event feedback surveys because they're like, oh, this is gonna go in the space vortex or right in the trash can. Um, but at TMSA, like we take everything to heart. So not only, you know, we were just talking about the keynote. So not only do our attendees get to vote, but people voted on who made the cut to present, right? So we had almost a competition to identify the four people who really stood out. And again, that's all member driven. So everything we do is not because we think it's cool, although we do think it's cool, but it's because our members suggested it to me. And that's what I loved. Um, you know, I was kind of a veteran when I started attending TMSA, but what was missing for me was that specific focus on marketing and sales. And as everybody mentioned, the conversations that I was able to have with folks who were at a different juncture in their career or who gave me tips. And I still can reach out to any of these humans years later and say, hey, can you review this for me? Did I miss on this? Does this suck? What could I do better? And and I don't, I mean, I I think our industry is pretty great as a whole, which is why we all kind of sign up for the cult and never leave. Um, but it's not wrong. It's kind of true. But I think TMSA, because it is a more intimate approach, it didn't feel like, oh my God, I gotta navigate 8,000 people to get to the one human who's gonna get what I'm talking about. It's it's a few hundred, but all meaningful conversations. And I was able to take those meaningful conversations back to what I was doing and make what I was doing for my organization better. That matters.

SPEAKER_00 39:20

I mean, I've said the story before. When I was working in logistics marketing, I felt like I was taking crazy pills because I was like, is this normal? But I had no one to talk to. So unfortunately, I was the one who escaped the cult. I guess I'm kind of just like an insider just doing a podcast for this. Yeah, back from a different thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Brought me back. Uh, but yeah, I mean, listen, that first one I attended, I was like, wait, I wasn't crazy. Like running a company store does suck. And like, why am I the one who's randomly in charge of like making sure everyone gets the right size shirt, even though I already had them email me what the right size shirt was, and then they got the shirt, and then they're mad that they got the shirt and the size that they asked for. So if I would have been at TMSA and realized that, I probably still would have been in logistics, uh, kind of doing all this stuff just because it was like, oh wow, there are, I'm not just like living this weird existence by myself. There's so much more that I could have been learning, and it wasn't just me Google searching, like, what else am I trying to figure out here? It would have been so much more helpful. So I'd still elevates awesome.

SPEAKER_04 40:21

Can you tell that Kyle has been harboring feelings about the company store? Yeah, really. I love it.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 40:27

Really, I'm like sure, man.

SPEAKER_04 40:31

Um, and I do appreciate that. Like, I'm gonna give an example of how TMSA is beautiful. So I have a very strong, mainly negative relationship with our signs at TMSA. Like for anybody who's ever set up a trade show, a booth, a banner, right? Everything is different. You forget it's I'm 5'3 on a good day. So I'm not exactly the tallest person in the world, makes tall signs hard. I almost lost a battle to a sign a couple years ago. And literally an award winner helped us put the sign together. People will help. And I think the fact that we all come together to kind of, I don't want to call it mobilize, but kind of, oh, something's on fire, we got it. And it's like a team, it's a group, we're gonna fix this. We don't, we don't even have to ask. I feel like other other places you may watch somebody going down in flames and be like, oh, that person's going down in flames, but you sit there. TMSA is the total opposite. People are like, you will not go down in flames alone. Either we're all going down or we're gonna fix this together. Um, so I'm hoping this year we're not gonna have that issue, but yeah, you know, we we we come together as a community to to prevent that.

SPEAKER_00 41:43

Oh, you're hoping there's no big riot outside of the hotel this year?

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 41:48

Things you can't control, but yes, we have a bit of that. That was never on the bucket list and would never like to deal with it again. Thank you.

SPEAKER_05 41:58

Well, I guess I I mean I can share, you know, my experience and yeah, I share the same sentiment that everybody else has from their like different viewpoints of why TMSA truly is different. And I think for me, so going from the practitioner side and coming in and being able to ask questions and learn, you know, I have this present, I have a presentation coming up and I don't know what the C suite cares about. Can you help me? And and having that poured in. So through TMSA, I found a mentor, somebody that I checked in with regularly, asked questions, got feedback, was able to then like use some of the stuff that we did together to justify, you know, asking for more responsibility in my job, um, asking for more money in my job. Um, and then as somebody who's now kind of on the leadership side of things at this point in my career, I'm able to still sit down with other leaders and learn. But I like that I can so there was one of the shows I sat down at a table during lunch and we had a topic, and we didn't talk about the topic, um, which is great because everybody had other questions. So it came up and then that just evolved into other things. And I had a lot of questions about sales processes because the sales environment that I came from was massively different than the one that I was trying to support now as a marketing leader. And so I just asked, like, okay, if I were to tell you this, how would you interpret that and where would that breakdown happen? And then we had a really open dialogue about it, and I was like, I am approaching this conversation the wrong way from the sales brain that is receiving it. And I was able to kind of take that back and implement some different verbiage because we talked about sales and marketing alignment a lot. Um, and then I feel like it's it's one of those like ambiguous kind of topics. But when you can sit down, like we were talking about with people that are in the trenches with you, but People that are in their own trenches, and it's like, why are we screaming at each other from our different trenches when we have the same goal? Um, and so we're able to kind of like dig that tunnel in between our trenches and like come to, I guess, more of like an understanding of how the other brain thinks when we are working towards revenue goals. Um, and that's honestly the success in being able to do that is how I'm in the job that I'm in now, where my entire marketing role is focused on revenue, and I still get to have those open conversations and help other people that are at that same block point that I was at, because it happens to all of us at some point, um, trying to have like the sales mindset and the marketing mindset, but they're just they're different.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 44:50

I love all of these stories, and um, it's fun to watch people grow in their careers and shift. And like Winnie didn't touch on this, but you went from like practitioner side at like more of a corporate member, you've been more of a partner member, like on the vendor side, you're back to the practitioner side as a leader. So, like that's when we think about those tracks and how we build professional development, like you're one of the people we think about. Like, who is somebody who has grown inside of TMSA and used this? And why aren't we explaining that story more? Like, and why aren't we catering more to those people so that we can they grow with us?

SPEAKER_05 45:26

And the and the people that I've met have supported me along the way through each of that, right? Like anytime like a new job or a new position would pop up, people from TMSA would message me, text me, call me directly, want to talk about it, ask how they could support me. And I haven't walked away from many other shows with that level of support. Friendships, yes, new people in my network, yes. Different people to hug the next time around, absolutely. But it's just it's a little different. I mean, when we say we support each other, like I have seen that come to fruition, and not just with me, with others as well. And I get to be that person for other people, and I like that.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 46:05

So

Track Trivia And Awards Night Details

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 46:06

we really do focus on the networking, but like specific networking, like that will advance um your professional development, things like that, all the education. Do you want to talk about one of the things? So we've talked about competition and how fun it is and the keynotes and stuff like that. But this year, at the end of Monday, before we head into awards night, we are doing the great track trivia showdown, which we've never done before. And I am honestly super pumped about it. So, what we're gonna do is you're gonna break up in teams of probably six-ish people in your track. So there's more than six people in a track, but like you'll find six people, you'll each be on a team, and then we'll play live trivia. Um, and you'll answer trivia questions. Some of our sponsors get to ask some of the questions. Um, uh, me and uh Coleman RMC will ask some of the questions, and you guys will fully compete to see who the best trivia team is. And the winner of Track Trivia gets a spot. I need to speak to the last minute, I need to buy the buttons, but you will get a button for your lanyard that will allow you not to wait in line at awards night for drinks or your food. And I think that is just the most amazing prize one can have, along with the bragging rights. I honestly not gonna lie, I want one of the practitioner tracks to win because I think what a big kudos for them if they crush the leaders in the space and get to win their bragging rights. But I'm so excited. I think it's a really fun way for people to come together. Um, it's the end of the day, it's rough. I was like, we could do another session, but like let's be engaging and thought-provoking in a different way and let people compete and have fun. So begin Monday with the keynote competition, and then we end Monday with the great track trivia showdown. And then, of course, over tonight is Monday night. And I will say, for the people in the comments last year who told me where did the dance floor go? It is back this year. Sorry, last year we didn't have enough space in that ballroom. It was small. We tried, we couldn't, but I loved my two favorite comments of survey was last year is where was the mocktail specialty cocktail mocktail is back this year. And I love that people asked where the dance floor was, it is back as well. So these are all super like random details, the things that we care about. And to Eileen's point, like, yes, if you in fact answer your post-company survey, we do write it and we will accommodate as best we can for everybody.

SPEAKER_00 48:30

Also, uh, can we set an over under how many questions Coleman messes up during the trivia? I want to say two and a half. We think he messes up. I think he gives away an answer on accident. Uh I won't give him the answers. He's gonna guess. I think he messes up two and a half questions over if I win. Brianna's gonna get me the first drink.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 48:53

We'll see. But I'm really excited. Um, so excited for that. I think it'll be cool, fun, different ways to engage and continue just to like be part of your track in a way that is fun and compete. Um, I've been to, I was actually with Eileen. We were at a show and we did some type of trivia, and that was just fun. And we also shared stories and things like that. I think it just engages in a different way.

What We Are Excited About

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 49:17

Um, so we have a couple more minutes and I spend a lot of time asking other people questions on the show, but I did want to, which I never really do, but give time for you guys to ask me any questions that you would like to know about Elevate this year because so much of it stays in my head until the very end. And I will gladly share anything that you would like to know live here on the podcast today.

SPEAKER_00 49:44

Do you have your slides ready for me?

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 49:47

I do not have my slides ready for you, Kyle, but I will buy hopefully. I will get by the end of the week. I'll do my best. I know. I'm sorry. I'm the worst. Don't I'm the worst when it comes to speaker slides because a lot of the things that I have I don't have yet, but I'm working on getting the components so that I can get it in. I will for sure have my keynote slides today. How's that? Because I feel like that's the most important one. So that you guys can be done with keynote planning. Perfect.

SPEAKER_04 50:23

And I want to know um when you think about you asked us what we're most excited about, and you sort of in a roundabout way shared what your so I have a two-parter. What are you most excited about? And then what, if anything, is making you nervous going in the show.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 50:42

So most excited about for me is definitely um the tracks. Like the tracks are something um at the after last year's elevate, I really sat and thought about how can we bring the most value to our members and our conference attendees, and then immediately called you at like, I think it was probably like nine at night. I was like, sorry, but I'm like, let me float this idea by you. And how do we build this? And how do we build this in a way that we don't bury ourselves, getting prepared for elevate, but can still provide meaningful interactions and engagements and not take away, because as a former member, when I was there, I actually didn't want to talk to the people in my same trench. I wanted to talk to everybody else, like to like Whitney to your point where you were like, Oh, I was approaching the sales process wrong. Absolutely not. This is why me and Holly Loboda like became fast friends because she was like, I don't really understand the marketing side. I'm like, I don't understand sales. If I say this to my sales team, do I sound stupid? And she would nicely tell me no, but then tell me what to say instead. And so I feel like those interactions were most important to me because I was a journalist who then switched to marketing, who then all of a sudden was in charge of marketing and then had to create sales materials. I'm like, this is so far out of my scope when I was starting as a member of TMSA. So having those conversations were important to me, but I also understood why people wanted to interact. So I didn't want to take away the core of what the show was and also add more value and then add more value in the membership too, not just at conference. But the way we were able to really dissect and put it together, even just like then getting those call for speakers in and being like slightly terrified we weren't gonna have enough speakers to field all five tracks. Um, but then seeing that we did, I was like, okay, this is this is gonna work, we're gonna do this, and um getting to do that, so like being able to work with the education committee, being able to work with Eileen, being able to really put together, even like thinking what okay, we want tracks. What are the tracks? What tracks do we build? Like, because you don't want to build eight tracks and there'd be no one in there, but you don't want to build two tracks because that doesn't seem specific enough. That was part of the problem. So, like, really all of the work that we did as a community behind the scenes, I'm so excited to watch that go live and hopefully that it resonates and sets up the way that we want it to. Um, the most nervous is that I will drop a ball that I don't know exists. That's always number one, no matter how long I do this, no matter where I go, there are so many balls in the air. And you just hope that you don't drop one, or if the one you drop is like something stupid. Like last year, um, we ran out of, not that this is stupid, but we ran out of first-time ribbons, first-time attendee ribbons. And so, like from the board meeting, I was messaging the sound. I'm like, okay, I am door-dashing the chocolates for the wellness room and gold star stickers that we can put on the badges. Like, so we were able to, but I was like, of all the things, of all the balls to drop, to miscount, I can't apparently I don't know how to count. Um, and so, but like that was an easy fix. Something bigger, you know, you just hope it's something that you can you can make up without disrupting the attendee experience.

SPEAKER_00 54:03

Yeah, it delights me that you have different voices for when, like, well, here's the questions I was gonna ask, and then you're like other voice. It's so brought me so.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 54:10

You should hear me read books to my kid. I can do all the voices. So that is that. Okay, a couple more minutes left of this.

How To Prep For Elevate

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 54:22

I would say question for the group. If anyone's listening and they're coming to Elevate this year, whether it's their first time, their repeated time, or we're still getting registrations in folks, so there are people still considering whether they want to come or not. What advice would you have to give them before they walk into the conference?

SPEAKER_05 54:46

Well, if you're like me, bring a pen and paper. Um, because I it is one of those types of conferences where you walk away with a lot more ideas than you came in with. Um and I I would say to prepare, come in with some questions, like some actual questions that you want somebody to answer. Um, whether that's sitting at a lunch table, whether it's a session that you plan to attend. And if it's not answered in the session, that's that's the question that you want to ask that person because you just um do I like to research the people. So like I remember when uh Charlie Safra was speaking and I did a lot of research and figured out some things, and I was like, I have questions specifically that I think she'll be able to answer. Um and it was incredibly helpful. So I I'm a fan of bringing a pen and paper. And yeah, if you can find I would also, if you do know at least one person, if you have which if you're new, you're gonna have a buddy. Your buddy should be introducing you to people. So you might need to write down who those people are and what they do because I also am a forgetful person, so I'm I'm one of those like scribbles on business cards as I get them, so I don't forget who I've talked to.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 56:01

That's just a top-notch tip, period, because you meet so many people, and your brain is so like do it and write the note on the business card right away. Don't wait until the end of the day. You won't want to jump in with that.

SPEAKER_00 56:12

Yeah, touch up your LinkedIn too. Make sure you have a good photo of yourself, like they are going to follow you, they're gonna connect with you, have a good LinkedIn, make sure it's all up to date, and like make sure you kind of look like the person in that photo that they saw the event. So that way when they come back from elevate, they're like, I'm not sure if that was Kyle. He had the beard, but he's clean face there. That's the type of thing to kind of make sure you have it touched up.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 56:33

I wouldn't know what to do if you showed up without a beard, don't you?

SPEAKER_05 56:38

That would stress me out so much and be like, who was this guy? It's like the year I showed up without blue hair and nobody knew who I was because they were used to me too.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 56:46

Here, so you were so easy to spot in the crowd with blue hair. Yep. More so like when we were at manifest, like that's how I would find you, and then when you lost your blue hair, you were way too hard to find.

SPEAKER_04 56:59

One of the things I'm supposed to do about about TMSA is we just launched our app yesterday, I believe. So for for TMSA attendees who are coming to Elevate, look get the app, you can get it through GRIP. Uh instructions were sent out yesterday. You can also reach out to John or myself or Tiffany. We're more than happy to help you. But look at who's attending. You have the ability throughout conference. Something we didn't talk about was setting up meetings, but also get to know people who are attending, people you could fangirl for, people who are in a role that you want to be in, people who can fill a gap, people that you just think are cool and want to get to know. Um, but reach out ahead of time so you can go in with like a it's no different than prospecting. Get your people you want to connect with ironed out before you go and do what you can to connect with them ahead of time. And then attend stuff. Don't just hide in your room. We curate networking, we curate, you know, optional things. Spend time with these folks because we only have a limited time together face to face, maximize and and and get some FaceTime with uh a variety of folks.

SPEAKER_01 58:06

Yes, this is such a welcoming group. Don't be afraid to start the conversation. Everyone was a stranger to someone else at some point, and so that was that might that would be my advice is you know, don't be afraid to start the conversation.

Jennifer Karpus-Romain 58:20

I love it. My advice is bring a sweater or a suit coat or a jacket. Sometimes it's cold, sometimes it's not. And please tell us if it's too cold in the room. We'll do our best. Those are the comments that I least like in the surveys. I can do nothing for you two weeks later, but we can't adjust the temperature as needed in the room. But uh, so excited to see everybody. Thank you guys for coming on the show today. I did put the link up here if you need more information. Denver, June 7th through 9th, if you want all kinds of sales and marketing, networking, education, and team bonding. And to hang out with us. Yeah, so exciting to see everyone in Denver. Catch you next time. Thanks everyone.