AAHOA Annual Motel Convention

Team MotelGita woul like to present the summary about the AAHOA Annual Convention held at Chicago.

Trade Show Date : 17 and 18 June 2010.

Devotees Attended : H G Akruranath prabhu, H G Ghadi Prabhu (Prabhupada Disciple from Florida), Rohininandan Prabhu, Dilip patel prabhu, Jitendra Prabhu, Milan

Total orders Recd : 10,000 Books (Approx)

Inquiries (Need follow up to convert leads into orders) : 6000 Books.(approx)

1. Due to great contacts and efforts from DilipBhai, the AAHOA booth, that has a retail price tag of $4500 was made available to us completely free. Last year we paid $2500 for the same thing. The Chairman of AAHOA , Mr Tarun Patel, personally came down to talk to us and thanked us for the good work we were doing. On behalf of AAHOA he assured us all support possible.The treasurer already confirmed our free booth for the year 2011 as well!

2. H G Ghadi prabhu came for the convention from Florida.He was not aware of our participation and booth at the convention. We too had no clue that anyone from Florida wanted to distribute books to Motel. Nityananda Pran prabhu told me about him on phone a couple of days prior to the trip. He than joined the bandwagon and became a part of 'Team MotelGita'.

3. The number of visitors at the convention this time was a little dissapointment. Maybe the weak economy, coupled with low real estate prices has now shown it's affect on the hospitality industry. Not sure. But neverthless, this was a great platform to make new contacts, espescially as this our first ever convention in the Mid West. This was also a good platform to strengthen our relationship with AAHOA.

4. As expected many moteliers have placed orders.Many moteliers with multiple proerties have palced order for only few motels (rather than all motels) as they still want to 'try it out a little' before going 'full scale'. Thus, if we execute the orders well and in a timely manner, we can get many more orders from the same people for their other motels.

5. Many AAHOA Directors came forward and helped us in our efforts to create contacts with other Moteleirs and directors. Rohininandan Prabhu was able to meet many directors of the East coast region. He actively persued the long term vision plan for Team MotelGita.

6. I met a person named Kantibhai Patel.I explained the program to him. He listened to it very attentively and then told me he has NO motels. But he very charged up by this idea. He was actually a Loan broker in the Motel industry and he started calling few of his motelier friends around. He literally 'Ordered' them (sweetly) to place orders. Within fifteen minutees, Jitendra Pr and myself got orders for around 10 motels (approx 500 books) due to Kantibhai. He is a local to Chicago and the plans are to introduce him to Nityananda Pran Prabhu (Temple President Chicago ISKCON) to see if he can take it up further. Kantibhai was so charged up that he committed to help place books in 100 motels in Chicago!

7. Many people from Press and publications were interested in interviewing us and getting more detils about the project. Sahara TV interviewed Ghadi Prabhu and the small clip will aired on Sahara TV. They will mail me the dates. Gujarat Garvi( A Gujarati Newspaper Magazine) has tied up with Akruranatha Pr for an article which they will publish once it is made available to them. Another request for an interview was recd by from ... and that will be held live at San Jose temple sometimes soon.

7. I would take this opportunity to thank ISKCON Chicago for their wonderful help! It would NOT have been easy without the huge stamping exercise conducted by H G Jitendriya Prabhu and his team of Devotees from Chicago.The accomodation was arranged at the temple and the love and concern shown by the temple president was very touching! He even arranged to deliver stumptous LUNCH Prasadam all the way at the convention on both days.The Mangal Aratis and the morning program added to our already wonderful 'Chicago Yatra'.

7. There are many more GNABs and I would request all attendees to send an email. H G Akrurantha Pr has very kindly agreed to send a detailed report to press , publications and of course to all of us.

More details on the orders to follows.

Thanks and regards,

Ys,

Milan