This year’s AHRA took place at the Gaylord Opryland Resort and Convention Center in Nashville, TN. Our team, Pete Saufferer, Gary Smith, Cheryl Adams, K.P. Singh, and John Madrid, arrived a day before the event and started the festivities at the Canon kickoff reception.

Monday, 8/1/16, was the first day of the convention. There was a lot of excitement in the air as we gathered with salespeople from different dealerships around the country; sharing stories of success and failures while learning more about new products. Early Monday morning was the Shimadzu kick-off meeting where we learned more about their new Mobile X-Ray machine the MX7. This product is integrated in three different ways providing customers with options that will suit their specific needs. The trade show itself, started at 11:00 AM and went till 2:00 PM. The first day was definitely the most active with lots of Directors of Radiology, Directors of Imaging, and lead Radiology Technicians from around the country visiting different vendors and catching up with old colleagues. After the show, we attended focused sessions on the Shimadzu cardiovascular Trinias system.

Monday night ended with an excellent event – our customer appreciation dinner. Our team had a wonderful Italian dinner filled with good stories and newly forged friendships. The evening only got better with a surprise entrance from Tsuneo Imai, the Vice President of Canon U.S.A. Inc., who joined us for drinks.

Tuesday was very similar to Monday, but presented an opportunity for our sales team to explore and interact with our other vendors that we represent, including Del Medical, Canon, and Konica. Like an exhibitor, we walked around the convention learning all about new products and it was easy to see the wealth of innovation in Radiology, specifically in X-ray, with advancements in workflow, ease to patient, user experience, and image quality.

Tuesday evening was a grand event hosted by Shimadzu at the Wild Horse Saloon in downtown Nashville. Along with our customers, we enjoyed a memorable night of live music and square dancing! Overall, AHRA 2016 was as much of an experience for our customers and vendors as it was a learning opportunity for our team.