{"id":50378,"date":"2022-06-16T10:01:52","date_gmt":"2022-06-16T17:01:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/?p=50378"},"modified":"2022-06-16T13:03:39","modified_gmt":"2022-06-16T20:03:39","slug":"dealer-executives-offer-their-impressions-of-kyocera-imagine-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/the-week-in-imaging-twii\/editors-blog\/2022\/06\/dealer-executives-offer-their-impressions-of-kyocera-imagine-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealer Executives Offer Their Impressions of Kyocera REIMAGINE Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Magic Johnson (left) and Coordinated Business Systems’ Jim Oricchio share a moment<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The REIMAGINE dealer conference hosted by Kyocera June 1-3 represented the largest dealer-hosted event since the onset of the pandemic, with approximately 850 attendees representing 225 partner organizations at the JW Marriott San Antonio. Many dealers echoed a common sentiment that it was good to get out of the office and see many familiar faces that have been relegated to emails and video conferencing meet-ups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While other OEMs have hosted road shows and hybrid virtual\/attendee events, the Texas conference was a most welcome networking event of such grand magnitude. Kyocera pulled out all the stops to make it a memorable one, from Magic Johnson\u2019s inspiring keynote address delivered mainly within the audience to a fun evening of barbecue and a Lone Star-level rodeo at the local Knibbe Ranch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ENX Magazine<\/em> had the good fortune to bump into a number of dealer executives on hand who were gracious enough to share their views on the overall experience in San Antonio. One was Jim Oricchio, founder and CEO of Coordinated Business Systems in Burnsville, Minnesota, who had an amusing up-close exchange with Johnson during the keynote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oricchio was elated to hit the road; personal scheduling conflicts didn\u2019t allow him to attend a BTA event, so the only venture he\u2019d made outside of Copier Dealers Association meetings was a trip to Arizona in January for the Executive Connection Summit. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good information to be had in the industry; you can\u2019t just sit on your hands and watch the world go by,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The CEO was impressed by Kyocera\u2019s e-commerce push, and he commended the manufacturer for its concerted foray into inkjet technology, which he felt was a long time coming. \u201cMore importantly, Kyocera is committed to the independent dealer,\u201d Oricchio said. \u201cIt\u2019s important today to make sure that they have our back.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oricchio was particularly surprised by Johnson\u2019s presentation. \u201cMagic was dynamite. He delivered a great message to the dealers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Chip Crunk, RJ Young<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Chip Crunk, president and CEO of Nashville, Tennessee-based RJ Young, felt the main takeaway was Kyocera\u2019s realization that the business and the industry are changing, and that they\u2019re willing to change with it. He noted that Kyocera is going upstream with its products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey also realize a lot of their dealers do not have the capacity to handle some of the production products, and that\u2019s a reason they\u2019re having to work on some of those things,\u201d Crunk said. \u201cTo me, the important thing is that leadership and the organization understand that. It\u2019s not waiting for the problem to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Joe Blatchford, Image 2000<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The aspect that impressed Joe Blatchford, CEO of Image 2000 in Valencia, California, was Kyocera\u2019s willingness to address the biggest factors impacting OEMs and their dealers. \u201cThey\u2019re not sidestepping or skirting anything, they\u2019re discussing the subjects of shortages and supply chain issues,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought Kyocera did a great job overall.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, Blatchford was excited about the opportunity to meet Johnson and have his picture taken with the NBA legend. He was also impressed with Johnson\u2019s message to the dealers. More than anything, Blatchford saw REIMAGINE as a step toward normalcy. \u201cI hope this is a good sign of things to come,\u201d he said. \u201cThis feels so normal to me, and I have to say that I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The REIMAGINE dealer conference hosted by Kyocera June 1-3 represented the largest dealer-hosted event since the onset of the pandemic, with approximately 850 attendees representing 225 partner organizations at the JW Marriott San Antonio. Many dealers echoed a common sentiment that it was good to get out of the office and see many familiar faces that have been relegated to emails and video conferencing meet-ups. While other OEMs have hosted road shows and hybrid virtual\/attendee events, the Texas conference was a most welcome networking event of such grand magnitude. Kyocera pulled out all the stops to make it a memorable one, from Magic Johnson\u2019s inspiring keynote address delivered mainly within the audience to a fun evening of barbecue and a Lone Star-level rodeo at the local Knibbe Ranch. ENX Magazine had the good fortune to bump into a number of dealer executives on hand who were gracious enough to share their views on the overall experience in San Antonio. One was Jim Oricchio, founder and CEO of Coordinated Business Systems in Burnsville, Minnesota, who had an amusing up-close exchange with Johnson during the keynote. Oricchio was elated to hit the road; personal scheduling conflicts didn\u2019t allow him to attend a BTA event, so the only venture he\u2019d made outside of Copier Dealers Association meetings was a trip to Arizona in January for the Executive Connection Summit. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of good information to be had in the industry; you can\u2019t just sit on your hands and watch the world go by,\u201d he said. The CEO was impressed by Kyocera\u2019s e-commerce push, and he commended the manufacturer for its concerted foray into inkjet technology, which he felt was a long time coming. \u201cMore importantly, Kyocera is committed to the independent dealer,\u201d Oricchio said. \u201cIt\u2019s important today to make sure that they have our back.\u201d Oricchio was particularly surprised by Johnson\u2019s presentation. \u201cMagic was dynamite. He delivered a great message to the dealers,\u201d he said. Chip Crunk, president and CEO of Nashville, Tennessee-based RJ Young, felt the main takeaway was Kyocera\u2019s realization that the business and the industry are changing, and that they\u2019re willing to change with it. He noted that Kyocera is going upstream with its products. \u201cThey also realize a lot of their dealers do not have the capacity to handle some of the production products, and that\u2019s a reason they\u2019re having to work on some of those things,\u201d Crunk said. \u201cTo me, the important thing is that leadership and the organization understand that. It\u2019s not waiting for the problem to happen.\u201d The aspect that impressed Joe Blatchford, CEO of Image 2000 in Valencia, California, was Kyocera\u2019s willingness to address the biggest factors impacting OEMs and their dealers. \u201cThey\u2019re not sidestepping or skirting anything, they\u2019re discussing the subjects of shortages and supply chain issues,\u201d he said. \u201cI thought Kyocera did a great job overall.\u201d Being a fan of the Los Angeles Lakers, Blatchford was excited about the opportunity to meet Johnson and have his picture taken with the NBA legend. He was also impressed with Johnson\u2019s message to the dealers. More than anything, Blatchford saw REIMAGINE as a step toward normalcy. \u201cI hope this is a good sign of things to come,\u201d he said. \u201cThis feels so normal to me, and I have to say that I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":166,"featured_media":50384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[80,1650,82,1638],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/166"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50378"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50388,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50378\/revisions\/50388"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.enxmag.com\/twii\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}