January 7th to 10th, the American Bus Association celebrated its annual Marketplace event at the Gaylord Texan Resort, in Grapevine, Texas. Betterez’ Mike Van Horn, Senior VP, and Marketing Manager, Fernanda Garcia joined some of the Bus & Coach industry’s top executives, entrepreneurs, bus operators, and suppliers as well as tour, event and city/state visitor bureau professionals.
The four-day event included 40+ educational sessions, 30+ speakers, and abundant networking opportunities. During the event, the Betterez team had the opportunity to enjoy a few remarkable sessions:
- National Bus Traffic Association (NBTA) where we learned more about the Flix Bus Greyhound acquisition
- “Women in Buses Council Day” and WIB’s accompanying “Solutions to Tackling the Nationwide Driver Shortage
- Educational sessions such as “Get Found on Google! Strategies to Get More Customers from Search Engines” and “How Live Content is Key to Building a Successful Business”
- The first Hispanic Motorcoach Council in person in 2+ years
- The State of the North American Motorcoach Market where we heard perspectives from the industry’s leading OEMs
The Betterez team also walked the show floor and had the opportunity for several impromptu meetings with partners, customers and numerous industry influencers.
Grapevine’s Marketplace marked Betterez’s 6th year as an ABA member, and 4th year having Betterez user group sessions at the event, during which we share company and product updates and take feedback from current and potential customers.
Several Betterez team members come from a Software industry background where user groups are a vital and dynamic part of the combined supplier, customer, and partner ecosystem. We plan to continue to try to increase participation and elevate the impact a user group can have on our customer’s combined success.
ABA’s annual Marketplace 2022 was filled with great insight, speakers, and the opportunity to reconnect in person as part of the Bus Industry’s continued rebound.
We want to thank the ABA staff for their continued support of Betterez, our team is already looking forward to next year’s conference in Detroit, Michigan!