Matthew Weitzel: 0:07

Celebrating 10 years of trailblazing, in ground support exceed marks a decade as your leading partner in ground support equipment leasing at the forefront of both short term and long term leasing solutions exceed adapts to your unique operational needs. Whether you're ramping up for peak season or planning for long term growth, we provide the right equipment to keep your operations running smoothly. This anniversary we renew our dedication to empowering your ground operations with efficiency and innovation. With exceed you're equipped for success today and prepared for the challenges of tomorrow. Exceed driving excellence on the ground year after year. Explore more at xcedgse.com.

Alice Clarke: 0:54

Good morning from Toronto J. This is Alice Clarke from GHI and you are listening to the GSE podcast the day after the Gala dinner.

Matthew Weitzel: 1:05

All right. Welcome to the GSE Podcast. I'm here with Scott Bellamy from Menzies and we are they 8th Americas GHI, America's conference in Toronto, Canada. And we just kind of finished up the week we're about to leave the conference and wanted to check in with Scott and see how his experience was.

Scott Bellamy: 1:25

So far. It's been great, Matt, it's, it's good to see you here again and make some contacts again at the GH i for me this year has been phenomenal. I think it's the busiest ghci for our company, we've made a lot of contacts on the GSE side, it's good to run into some old friends and meet some new friends here. But thanks a lot for having me on the podcast. And yeah, I look forward to working with you. And yeah, we're gonna do Yeah,

Matthew Weitzel: 1:50

we're gonna hopefully do like a full podcast and talk about Menzies and about how you got into the GSE space. But yeah, I agree. So it's been great. Like, as far as I got to see a bunch of the GSE folks here, all the major, you know, OEMs are here. And I got to see a bunch of our vendor partners as well as a lot of our customers and a lot of the ground handlers are here and airlines. So yeah, it's been it's been quite a week. And what did we do last night? I were you. You were you're with us last night. What do we do?

Scott Bellamy: 2:19

Yes, we had a very interesting dinner last night. I'm not going to name names, but some Yeah, competition. We all went out for dinner together. It was it was excellent. It's a small industry. So bringing competition together for meetings. It's always fun, exact little bit of ribbing. But yeah, it was a great, exactly

Matthew Weitzel: 2:37

a lot a lot of ribbing going on. But we had a great night. GHI always does a at these conferences, they always do a dinner for the delegates. So we went to the delegate dinner, which was in a great spot with a it's like a train station that had kind of converged in on this restaurant, right and really neat. Yeah, it was like a really cool atmosphere and all that stuff. Everybody was there. And we ended up leaving a little bit early in the day and then kind of went did our own thing. But we got to see all those people that we had seen at the at the conference at that dinner, and we're able to connect to all those people. So it's just they do everything here that you know, allows for to have those connections. And I think that's great. And then were you able to and this is going to be your biggest hard hitting question. Were you able to see my electrification panel? Yes,

Scott Bellamy: 3:24

that was that was That was excellent. It was good to see the industries moving forward with the electrification and the discussion was was really good. Got a lot out of it. It's good to see we're all aligned. And yeah, and we all are working towards the same purpose.

Matthew Weitzel: 3:38

Well, I know that you and I are gonna have a very lengthy discussion about Menzies and their electrification, and what they're doing to make sure that their fleet is ready. We'll do that on another podcast. But I really wish you would have been up there with us, because I think you would have had a lot to say, I'm

Scott Bellamy: 3:53

looking forward to maybe the next ahi and we'll be able to tie them in. We are doing what we have done. Yeah,

Matthew Weitzel: 3:59

exactly. I'm gonna have to pull some strings for you, you know, talk to some people that I may know, and we'll get you up there. You don't I mean, sounds good. Yeah. Yeah. This has been great, man. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it.

Scott Bellamy: 4:10

Thank you for having me. And thank you for all the contacts you made for me this week as well. Oh,

Matthew Weitzel: 4:14

you're welcome. Anytime, buddy. I appreciate it. All right. Thanks, Scott. Thank you. Alright. I'm here with two special guests from Textron GSE. Would you like to introduce yourself?

Raven Honsaker: 4:27

Raven, Honsaker director of aftermarket

Morgan Gresens: 4:30

and Morgan Gresens is vice president and general manager for Textron GSE. Alright,

Matthew Weitzel: 4:35

well, here we are. And we are at the show. We're in a conference room. And Morgan is brand new to GSE not brand new, right. I guess you've been here for a couple of months, right?

Morgan Gresens: 4:46

About five months now. But my first conference in this role, so I'm excited to be here.

Matthew Weitzel: 4:52

Well, we loved having you and we'd love to get to know you and meet you. So Textron is obviously one of our great OEM partners that we Have it exceed and it's always lovely to see you all. And Raven the last time we spoke with you, we were in Punta Cana. Yeah.

Raven Honsaker: 5:07

A year ago. A year ago. Yeah. What a difference a year makes.

Matthew Weitzel: 5:11

We did not have dinner on a beach this time. No, we didn't. But we did have it in a cool little brewery. Yeah, the brewery was really it was pretty neat. It

Raven Honsaker: 5:19

was very neat. View. And yeah, I

Matthew Weitzel: 5:23

liked the train yard. I thought I thought, yeah, trains, I like trains. You know,

Raven Honsaker: 5:27

that doesn't surprise me.

Matthew Weitzel: 5:29

Who doesn't like a good train? You know, is

Raven Honsaker: 5:33

that, you know, of trains?

Matthew Weitzel: 5:35

I don't know about that. You know, I'm not sure. I'm not sure that everybody would agree with that. But no, it was it was a great dinner. And we just, I mean, in my personal experience, I got to have a lot of great connections during the show, can you kind of tell me about some of that able to make,

Raven Honsaker: 5:49

I think, coming into the show, that's one of the things that, you know, Morgan and I talked about What I appreciate most about the GHI show, and I think this was last year was my first experience and just getting to have that networking time and building relationships. And now being one year further into the role, where I've worked more closely with a lot of the folks that I may be some of them met for the first time in person at gha last year, you know, just what a difference that has made. And I think being at the show, and and getting that time, has helped, you know, foster those relationships and make it easier to work. Yeah, yeah, just on all the things that we've got to do to get done to keep planes moving and keep people moving. I

Morgan Gresens: 6:40

would agree, I have to give a little bit of a shout out to the gha group, because I think this is such a well run conference. And I mean, the GSE industry is just so fascinating to me, I've really, really enjoyed getting to spend more time here. And I think what's so special is you have everybody here, kind of sharing thoughts, sharing ideas, and really just trying to better the ground support industry and operations for aviation partners. So it's been a really incredible conference.

Matthew Weitzel: 7:08

Yeah, I agree. And it's, it's just like, we get to these conferences, and you realize that it's, it's a community, I think, more than even in industry, I see these people every single year, and I've been seeing them for, you know, 10 plus years. And it's just, it's awesome to be able to like go, it's like going back to like a family reunion or something. And especially this conference in particular, because of the fact that we're all staying at the same hotel, which makes it interesting. You know, because you come down for breakfast, right there, you still have your glasses on, you know, because you haven't had time to put your contacts in, and you're like, Oh, I didn't want to see that person. Now I'm trying to grab coffee. So

Raven Honsaker: 7:48

I Morgan and I were talking about this as well, I mean, texture on as a whole is in a lot of different industries. And you know, between Morgan and I, we've attended events and shows in the helicopter space in the golf car space and the industrial space and the power sports space. And there is not an industry like the GSE industry, this is not that kind of we're all in this together feel and be able to sit down at dinner and the person across from you that you're hanging out with is the other your competitor right there the other OEM or the other leasing, the other ground handler, the other airline, that doesn't happen in a lot of these other industries and spaces where Textron participates. And so it is a really neat kind of thing to be a part of. Yeah, I

Morgan Gresens: 8:38

think communities community is a great way to say I, I was not expecting to get to speak to leaders with you know, of some of our OEM competitors here. And I've enjoyed just having those connections, having those conversations, getting to meet people from all different ground handlers and really learn the things that make each of us different and unique, but also the things that kind of bring us together. So yeah, it's it's been great, but I echo what you'd say Matt, it is a little weird to walk down to the lobby to get a coffee in the morning and you see your coworkers a lot of them really and you're not quite ready for that.

Matthew Weitzel: 9:16

I've learned very quickly I've learned to like not leave the room unless I'm ready. Right You know, because before I'd be like going down in basketball shorts, if you see somebody and you're like that all the time all the time, right? Yeah, and it's

Morgan Gresens: 9:30

always weird at these two you know if you want to go to the gym, I'm always I always struggle with that right because you know you want to go work out but I don't want to work out next to go work.

Raven Honsaker: 9:40

I went to the gym this morning and yesterday morning and I did not Yeah. And I did not run into anybody that I was felt awkward around. You know, I didn't stay up till one. Two o'clock in the morning like some people Yeah, no,

Matthew Weitzel: 9:57

I didn't either. I went to bed at 1130 last night. So Oh, did you didn't see through? Yeah, exactly right. That was the smart ones. Yeah, that was the first time though I think, this week. But I knew I had a big day today. So, I, Morgan, I think we'll ended by I'd like you to talk a little bit more about how I guess. So you've been in other industries before? And she mentioned it. Yeah. So do you feel like it's different in the GSE? industry as well? I mean, is that is that what you notice? Because like, we all think it, but I've only really been in GSE. So, you know, everybody wants to believe that you're unique, right, and the way that you operate, but I mean, is that what you've seen as well? Definitely.

Morgan Gresens: 10:36

I mean, I've just take, you know, different trade shows or conferences, for example. And we were talking about this yesterday, we had a competitor come up and introduce a new member of their team to us and just kind of talked about our different experiences. And, you know, if you think about some of our other brands like EasyGO, golf cars, you would never be at the PGA Show in Orlando, Florida in January and have your competitors come up and introduce their new team member that just doesn't have club cards.

Matthew Weitzel: 11:04

And anybody? Hey, let

Raven Honsaker: 11:05

us introduce you. Yeah,

Morgan Gresens: 11:06

just brought on. Yeah. And I think that's what is so interesting about it, because everything is so intertwined in the GSE space, so you really do have to be open to working with with different companies and different competitors. Because, you know, ultimately, we're all here to make sure that aviation operations keep running smoothly. I mean, that's the goal. So I think that's what's so unique about it. And so enjoyable, the similarities are obviously, you know, we're all here to make sure we're doing everything we can to support our customers. I mean, that's the goal. And so that's what I think is enjoyable, though, I feel like there is a sense of community here and, and I appreciate really getting to learn from everyone and and learn how, how we're all here toward the betterment of the same goal. So Oh, I

Matthew Weitzel: 11:47

love that. That's really good. That's great. And then I think you know, Textron is unique in the fact that you have the airport service centers is that we call them service centers, or port shops, airport shops, okay,

Raven Honsaker: 11:56

I probably should rebrand them. That sounds more professional,

Matthew Weitzel: 11:59

does it? Okay, I just, you're welcome. But, but you will have the airport shops, and you have to work on all of your competitors, equipment, and make sure that it's maintained and running, you're definitely in a unique space there. Yeah. So I mean, a does definitely make sense for you guys. Because, you know, you had to buy parts, sometimes properly from your competitors, and things like that. Take care of their equipment, you know, for the ground handlers and airlines. And that's, that's a unique place to be. It

Raven Honsaker: 12:23

absolutely is. And we got to take Morgan and our CEO. Last week, we went on a little east coast, airport shop tour, and all right, I think that was really interesting for them. And I think it was it was very eye opening, you know, for our CEO to just see what that looks like. And what it is that our technicians and our our frontline employees, I mean, what they're experiencing every day, right, and working on the airport and trying to keep operations running, and just that very tactical piece of it. But yes, I think these do, these are very helpful for that, because you're right, we're constantly working with pick up your competitor, right, you've got our we're working with Swissport, we're working with, you know, AGI we're working with, there isn't a company that we don't interface with, in some way, at one of the shops.

Morgan Gresens: 13:14

And I think that's what the airport shop is, it was so amazing, because you really get the firsthand look at what operators are dealing with on the ramp and to be able to bring that back to our factory and our engineering team and have that kind of at the front of our minds when we're looking at designing products and making them easier to service and making them easier to maintain that. That connection directly to some of these airports is so so valuable for us. Sure.

Matthew Weitzel: 13:41

Yeah. No, that's great feedback. And I'd love to have in more in depth conversation with you about the airport service center should totally do that. rebrand, yeah, there after the rebrand then we can have we can have that podcast in

Raven Honsaker: 13:54

time at that professional level. Yeah, exactly.

Matthew Weitzel: 13:57

Well, thank you all so much for coming on. I

Raven Honsaker: 13:59

really appreciate it. Yeah. Thanks, Matt.

Morgan Gresens: 14:01

Thanks for having us. I feel so honored to have you to be part of an episode. Oh, yeah. No.

Raven Honsaker: 14:07

All I have to say is how long is Brad been in the industry? Yeah. 29 years. 29 years it took for him to be on a podcast. Five months. And you're already past you

Matthew Weitzel: 14:19

got it. All right. Well, thank you all so much. This has been Matt and Raven and Morgan. All right. We're here live in Toronto at the eighth America's DHI conference. We're wrapping it up at the end of the day on Thursday. And I'm with George Lydon. How's it going?

George Lydon: 14:38

Good, man. Good, man. It's been a busy three days and yeah, pleasure to have to be on the world famous GSE podcast with yourself. And yeah, thanks for your support for a record breaking ghci America's event. Was this a record breaking one? Correct. Yeah. So I mean, we The Record prior to this event was the sick. America's in Miami. Okay, which was 535 delegates in that region. Yeah, we've gone to 550. And I'd actually be interested to see the final numbers now because it was 550 before we left but we've had a lot of people registering a day day passes. Everyone's seems very happy. It's been a fantastic event. exhibitors, ground handlers, airlines, overwhelmingly positive feedback. So the air we're really looking forward to next year as well in in Orlando.

Matthew Weitzel: 15:34

I know. Yeah. And you know, honestly, I didn't think we could ever top Miami and then Punta Cana, I gotta tell you, this has been my favorite of all America's Wow, this show has been unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, it's just the amount of people and I, you know, it's that doesn't sound like a lot, right? Does, you know, going from 535 to 550. Like, it's unbelievable. Well,

George Lydon: 15:58

funnily enough, so that was the post COVID Bounce. So that was like, we thought that could have been a bit of an anomaly almost. Yeah. Because pre COVID Panama record breaker at the time was just over 300 delegates, which was, which was fantastic. So that was only 2019. Then obviously, we had the COVID break, come back in 2022. With over 500 delegates, fantastic. Then Punta Cana last year, was in the four hundreds was a fantastic fantastically attended event. But yeah, back in North America this year, and we've managed to surpass it. 550. And I think it can grow a lot further. For next year. We had what was it 70 grand hardly organizations. We had 56 exhibitors that joined us. And over 50 Airlines. We had a really strong blend of aviation professionals looking to do business one to one meetings, discuss new solutions. And yeah, overall, the American summit as we've all GHL events, it's about having fun along the way. Of course, yeah. Which I've hope we've managed to convey in a delegate dinner, a steam whistle at the brewery tour, we should have a lovely backdrop on to the CN Tower, with a golf tournament, which you need to play in next year. But good things,

Matthew Weitzel: 17:16

you know what those things are wrong. But Asia

George Lydon: 17:18

is your golf as good as your GSE podcast.

Matthew Weitzel: 17:22

It's not as good as a silky voice now. It's not.

George Lydon: 17:25

This is the rolls worse stuff. But yeah, it'd be it'd be good. It'd be good to play with you next year, actually.

Matthew Weitzel: 17:30

Yeah, yeah. So it's in Orlando this year. And so I'm calling it right now. Go ahead and throw it on the table. This is gonna be by far and away the largest GH I America's ever. I think there's I think it's gonna be over 600 Like, maybe even seven,

George Lydon: 17:47

seven. I mean, that'd be fantastic. But I think Yeah, six, I

Matthew Weitzel: 17:51

wouldn't. Why wouldn't you want to go? Yeah, exactly. You get to bring your family with you. Right. And and the family that's not going to the conference that day, can go can go to Disney, they can go to Universal. SeaWorld Lego Land, we have it all in Central Florida. I'm from Central Florida. I'm not from there. But that's where I live. Let me tell you that there's everything to do. So you know, bring your family down, because they get their hotel room. Right? You get to go to the conference during the day. You can hang out with the family at night when you get back. And I mean, I don't I don't know why you wouldn't want to come and it's going to be the most well attended eighth or ninth Americans conference. Oh, yeah. I'm

George Lydon: 18:27

excited. I think you're right. It's a great location.

Matthew Weitzel: 18:30

It is really Yeah. And that I'm not just saying that because I'm buying bias because I live there. Right. But there's so much to do. Yeah,

George Lydon: 18:36

no, you're right. You're right. And I think it'd be great to incorporate some of those fantastic locations that you just mentioned into the event, whether that be that dinner or but yeah, I think there's I've

Matthew Weitzel: 18:47

already been having conversations about this that I can't I can't tell you about but I know there's things in the works right already that other Pete There people are thinking about doing huge events. Wow. It's because it's going to be it's gonna be so well attended. So I'm excited to hear what ends up happening with those plans. But yeah, people are people are already thinking about it. Yeah,

George Lydon: 19:06

off the back of it, you know, free really strong GHI America's events. So we had obviously, well rounded events as well like different locations in Miami, Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. And in Toronto, back to Florida. Yeah, to you know, not obviously we were at it in Miami in the past, but Orlando will be a fantastic location, great connectivity for you know, the North American market and in South America. Yeah.

Matthew Weitzel: 19:32

Nonstop flight into Orlando from from every country in South America. I mean, it's unbelievable. So yeah, it's gonna be easy to get there. People want to go, and

George Lydon: 19:41

it's great to see. Yeah,

Matthew Weitzel: 19:45

I'm gonna go and throw something out there though. Go. I don't know if you're gonna like it. Go. I'm going to say we don't need suits, though. In Orlando. Okay, so everybody can leave their suits at home. We're gonna go a little bit. We're going to dress it down. Now. Usually it's a suit show, right? We all know that I was in full suit. You know, you probably saw me Tuesday Wednesday. You should remember my light blue suit everybody. I got compliments all over the place but that's beside the point. Right?

George Lydon: 20:08

It's a great suit.

Matthew Weitzel: 20:08

It was a great suit. However, I It's so hot. I think we get used like Punta Cana, I remember the first day in Punta Cana, I showed up in my suit. And then I went back immediately to my hotel room and put on put on polo in the slack. So yeah, I think next year is gonna be a dress down year. I think everybody's gonna be okay with that, you know, just because it's so hot.

George Lydon: 20:28

I know. Yeah, I think Max is going to be dressing up as a Mickey Mouse one day as well. Oh,

Matthew Weitzel: 20:33

yeah. That we need that with the, you know, the big white hands. Yes. I'll provide those. I've got those at my house. Yeah, he can he can borrow mine. And yeah, I'd showed everybody would love that. Don't you think? That'd be fantastic. Yeah. So alright, so if I am an airline, I'm a ground handler or I'm an OEM or let's say leasing company. What do I do if I want to go to this GH Americas in Orlando. So

George Lydon: 20:58

the exhibition we're doing the rebook on site, really strong reboot process. Delegation. Information is now live on the website as well. So you've got you know, a good good ample time to get your early bird right. And secure that. And yeah, like Will we send in you know, information out throughout the year marketing information, follow us on LinkedIn for the church, I socials. And we will be just contact the team. Go online register at the earlybird rate. It will be great to see you and yeah, we look forward to as you say another record breaking GH riot America show.

Matthew Weitzel: 21:34

I love it, man. Well, thank you so much for coming on to talking about talking about the the GH Americans next year. So what do you have upcoming though, just real quick. Yeah, sure. We've already signed off. I forgot to ask you. So what's next? We should the annual so

George Lydon: 21:47

No, before the annual we got a free event. So your belief got GHI Africa, okay, which is October action health. First and foremost, the big one GSE. Expo Europe, okay, in Lisbon, September 3500 to 4000 qualified visitors mainly comprised of GSE buyers will be present over 150 exhibitors at the moment that's going really well. So a lot of time and resources obviously going into the expo. But in terms of chi Hai, we've got to try Africa off the back of a really solid Cape Town six, African GH five and we're now in Kenya, Nairobi. Wow, Safari Park Hotel from the separate African event. And then as you say, the big one, the GH five annual event, 25th year silver anniversary, which will be taking place in Barcelona. So yeah, we're really looking forward to that. And we do the I think you've talked with Max about it before we've discussed it the delegate football tournament as well. So it's a very special year for actually two milestones, we've got the silver anniversary, for the GH five event. So the first one actually started in 1999. We've also got the fifth year of the GH five delegate football tournament. Mr. teamtec Short and Vestergaard will be vying for the cup again. So that will be absolutely fantastic. I and yeah, we good to see you on the pitch as well, man. I know. You go against each other. So yeah, yeah, looking for some players on

Matthew Weitzel: 23:13

Team max or teams, George.

George Lydon: 23:15

I mean, let's see you got exactly. But when Max comes on, you'll say um,

Matthew Weitzel: 23:21

you know where my laces lie they lie with who's ever in front of me. Exactly. That's hilarious. Well, yeah. So and then I'm guessing availability is still open for all those events. Yeah, moment. And people can go on Yeah, and JH eyes, yeah, website and get all

George Lydon: 23:37

the lines in actually. So the earlybird rate for the GH five annual conference expires in July. So if you want to secure getting early, secure a preferential rate kind of ban get in touch with Francesca Sakina, who heads up hot audience development at ghci. She'll walk you through the process and give you information on how you can connect you with our audience of aviation professionals and obviously secure a better rate. And in terms of the exhibition with we've only got 30% left in terms of space.

Matthew Weitzel: 24:11

And that just means you've been doing your job.

George Lydon: 24:14

Exactly, yeah. It's a really strong reboot process. And yeah, I think there's a there's a lot there's there's a lot of excitement around the 25th year we had 950 delegates last year. So we're looking to more maybe over that over that 1000 mark. That's definitely the aim. And then yeah, bringing more airline professionals bring in more ground handlers, exhibitors, and most importantly, secure more one to one meetings for our audience. net worth was over 4001 to one meetings at the annual 2000 here this week, incred over two files if you end up with too big of 100. Yeah,

Matthew Weitzel: 24:47

that's really that's a lot. And those meetings are so valuable. Let me tell you, it's been amazing. So Well, thank you so much for coming on, man. I really appreciate it.

George Lydon: 24:55

Thanks a lot, Matt, and thanks for your support, and I look forward to seeing you and In Orlando next year, but I'm sure I've seen you before them.

Matthew Weitzel: 25:02

Yes, for sure. All right. Thank you. All right. Bye. All right. Welcome to a special edition of the GSE podcast where I am live at the eighth America's JGI conference in Toronto, Canada. And I am lucky enough to be sitting next to some wonderful women of GSE.

Abbie Hepler: 25:26

Thank you for having us today.

Karla Harrington: 25:28

That's a good one, Matt.

Matthew Weitzel: 25:32

So I'm here with Abby Hepler. And Carla Harrington. How are you guys doing today?

Abbie Hepler: 25:37

Feeling good. Yeah, a

Matthew Weitzel: 25:39

day four on day. I'm ready. I'm ready to have our little event this week. Yes. Good. To see everyone who's joining, what event are you having.

Abbie Hepler: 25:47

So are we are launching our first women of GSE event today, actually, day four. So we're having a mix and mingle at a local steakhouse here. And so we launched those here at the event. And the feedbacks been really, really positive from women and men and everybody here. So we're really excited to get this launched and have our event today. And we're, we're talking plans for the future. And and our next event will be the Lisbon show. So a while more more information to come on that. But yeah, we've got some exciting things planned. And I think it's a good opportunity at the Lisbon show to have our little showcase there. It's International, more than just North America. And I think there's so many other women and GSE that aren't aware of our presence. So this will be a great event for us to just gather a little bit and see where this goes right just to unite us no matter what part of the business we're in or who we're working for. It's just an event and a group of people to network with and encourage and help other youthful women grow in the industry.

Matthew Weitzel: 26:52

That's a great initiative. I I'm very supportive of it. And I can't wait to go to the event today and check it out and see how many people come it's going to be I people keep coming by the booth and like grabbing, they're so interested. And I think you'll really have something going here. And I'm very

Karla Harrington: 27:07

excited about it. Yeah. And I do have to give a shout out to give shout out to sure

Matthew Weitzel: 27:11

we oh gosh, yeah, we were a big fan of the shout out. Actually episode one. There's like a million shout outs. If you wait till the end, it's actually a little bit overboard. And we haven't really done him since. But I'm definitely open to a shout out. Go ahead. Well, I

Karla Harrington: 27:24

do want to shout out the men who are supporting the women of GSE. Because if they were not an active participant in our evolution, to some extent, we would not be here. So we're very grateful for those men who have supported us and are supporting us currently. And if you're willing to come alongside, please let us know. We're on LinkedIn.

Abbie Hepler: 27:42

Women of GSE on LinkedIn. Yeah,

Matthew Weitzel: 27:45

yeah, check them out women of GSE. And there'll be holding events, obviously. Today, we're about we are actually about 30 minutes away from this event right now. So it's hot off the presses. And then we're going to have one in Lisbon as well. So

Karla Harrington: 27:59

I can I just say so. Laura, Laura McGrath with Mallaghan has been such an intricate part of putting this event together for us, including our little koozie. So if you didn't get one, let us know in Lisbon, we might have a few leftover for you.

Matthew Weitzel: 28:13

Yeah, you got to stop by get a koozie and say hello to the women of GSE. So is there like a list of names like how does this work?

Unknown: 28:23

So the list of names would be Abby, Carla, and anyone else really who's part of it. So we were just we had the opportunity really to I should say I had the opportunity to come alongside Abby, after this entire women have GSE Inception happened. And I'm very happy to be part of it. Definitely not a founder, but I am definitely here to support it and help it grow. And just to reach out to whoever's in the community that wants to be part of it. So yeah,

Matthew Weitzel: 28:50

so Abby, when did you get your start in GSE? And how did that even come about?

Abbie Hepler: 28:55

So I started working with with a company in 2007 that produces manufacturers ground support equipment, actually, Kyle burners, how I got my start in the industry. So I worked for that company for 16 years, and they were in other markets, but obviously the ground support side. So I've been around it for a while, made that I've been with Malahat now for a year. And actually at the end of the GFC Expo in Vegas last year, Joe and I were just looking around and we're like, you know, there's so many women that are coming into the industry and and you know what, what, what can we do? So we talked about developing the women of GSE group and Laura and I and reached out to exceed and they jumped on board right away. So it's a journey and we're excited to see how it continues to grow and develop.

Matthew Weitzel: 29:47

That's amazing. Yeah, I just had Raven and Morgan on on the podcast from Textron GSE. And I think they're there. They love the initiative. They love the women of GSE idea, and I'm so glad you guys They're doing it. So anything I can do to support and help, please let me know. I encourage everybody to go into LinkedIn, find women have GSE follow them. And I'm sure you all be providing a lot of updates on there. Absolutely. Yes. Well,

Karla Harrington: 30:13

thank you so much, Matt, just for having us on the podcast. Oh, I'm digitally forever. You're

Matthew Weitzel: 30:20

this has been a long time coming for Karla to be on the podcast. She's also with Exede. And she's been my partner in crime for seven years. But she's been she's been an exceed far longer than that. So we celebrated our 10 year anniversary this year. And she's been with them. 10 out of 10 years,

Karla Harrington: 30:37

10 years. June 2014. I started so I'm very grateful for that opportunity. And I hope to be here for another another 10 years would be great. Yeah. Number three, employee number three employee.

Matthew Weitzel: 30:47

I got that right. Yeah, yeah, that's important. Yeah. Lucky number three is what they said. Yes. You

Karla Harrington: 30:51

know, three is a perfect number. Some would say seven. But you know,

Matthew Weitzel: 30:56

I love it made a tomato. Yeah, exactly. So Well, this has been a fantastic conference. I hope you all have enjoyed it as much as I have. I wish I could have enjoyed Abby singing as much as other other people have. It was not there. I hate to say I got invited last night finally and had to decline because I had to be fresh faced for today. Because I had to do podcasts. You know, I gotta look good for this kind of stuff, even though we're not recording. So. Alright. Well, thank you all so much for coming on. And we will, let's catch up with women of GSEC. And let's do a full podcast just just talking about women of GSE. Wow.

Karla Harrington: 31:32

I don't know if we can sell enough time. We'll try. Okay, sounds good. Thank

Matthew Weitzel: 31:36

you all so much.

Abbie Hepler: 31:36

Thank you. All right.

Matthew Weitzel: 31:41

All right. Well, welcome back to the final interview of kind of like, really closing down the show here at the eighth America's JGI conference in Toronto, Canada, and I am with Max gozney. How're you doing? Man?

Max Gosney: 31:56

Get off today, man. Fantastic to be with you. We both look still immaculate after three weeks. I've thought the same my hair our place. Backs under eyes. My

Matthew Weitzel: 32:07

hair is never out of place. Don't Yeah, exactly. So. But yeah, we no no, no, there's no bags.

Max Gosney: 32:13

No bags,

Matthew Weitzel: 32:13

no bags. Yeah,

Max Gosney: 32:16

I think the all that we wear with pride. Exactly.

Matthew Weitzel: 32:19

So you've been up on stage this entire this entire week. How's it been going up there?

Max Gosney: 32:24

It's been great. I really loved doing the session yesterday with yourself the electrification and sustainability panel, unbelievable lineup of experts from across the region. We have manufacturers, battery specialists, we had airports, airline handlers, very brilliant discussion about what lies in front. And it's been one of many, we've had some great content going on just been talking about PRM services this morning and the challenges here in the Americas and other to know the session on electrification and had a case study from Air Canada. So yeah, we've had some really good discussions going on. Alongside a lot, a lot, a lot of meetings, I think 2300 Plus, we're out. So it's a record, but has been incredibly busy. You've been part of them out here on the floor, in the meeting rooms. And then in the exhibition hall. Really, really busy three days with a lot of business being done, we hope. Yeah, I

Matthew Weitzel: 33:14

think and this is what I've been kind of talking about on this podcast is that, yeah, there may have been 20 301 to one meetings, but there was probably 10,000 or more, because because we're all in the same place. You get to see these people all the time, you know, you walk down stairs, or, you know, take the elevator downstairs to get a coffee in the morning, and you get to see your customer. There's a one on one meeting, you know, right there that has the best. Unbelievable, it really is. It's crazy. So you know what other conferences or other events that we go to throughout the years. They're not just in one hotel, right. And so you get those contact points and all the time. It was great.

Max Gosney: 33:52

We had a couple of presentations, where the initial contact between the business partners was made in Punta Cana last year, and now they're talking about meeting at ghci. And then delivering a really successful partnership to, you know, a tackle a challenge, like electrification, you improve business process, and the meeting has come about here. So that's what we're all about. It's just wonderful when you hear people who've met at the bar in the meeting room or in the exhibition hall, talked led to you know, serious business relationship and then an improvement in in in the industry. So it's great to hear Yeah, so

Matthew Weitzel: 34:23

I saw a lot of one on one meetings happening I was involved in a lot of one on one meetings and then then then when we all went upstairs, you take two escalators, up the stairs, right to the bar, you don't even get to go up to your room and change or anything before you go out for the night. You just because you have to walk right by that bar and everyone's there and they're there screaming at you to come over and you get to you get to see I tried to be pulling people in it really is we're

Max Gosney: 34:48

trying to load the coaches last night to delegate dinner venue but unfortunately the tractor beam or the bar or pulled a lot of delegates

Matthew Weitzel: 34:54

it was you right you like send people in there with signs they were holding up. Nobody was paying attention. I mean ever Everybody was just focused on the conversation that they were having. But you know, everybody ended up showing up to that, to that event. It was great. Yes. Great.

Max Gosney: 35:07

We had a brilliant night dance team was so it was a great evening.

Unknown: 35:11

It was such a cool venue, being so close to the CN Tower being to look up there, but then also in that kind of like the train yard. He hadn't look it was very, very nice.

Max Gosney: 35:20

Something for everyone trainspotters?

Matthew Weitzel: 35:21

Exactly, yeah. In beer and beer. Yeah. The beer was there as well. So yeah, so we got to see everybody there. And then I ended up, we left there. We went and had another customer dinner. We had couple customers out of dinner and saw a competitor out to the same restaurant and just ended up talking to them. And it

Max Gosney: 35:40

was I mean, and you still look like you've slept 10 hours. And Vince. You

Matthew Weitzel: 35:44

know what, I have not been to the gym. But I did get eight hours of sleep last night, which is the first time I've done that in a really long time. I was able to get to bed, you know, around 1130 In woke up at 730. And I feel I feel fantastic today. So

Max Gosney: 35:59

I need your secret. Yeah. Waking up early, but the jetlag but nevermind. Yeah, exactly.

Matthew Weitzel: 36:05

Yeah, this has been a fantastic conference, I

Max Gosney: 36:09

really satisfying to the growth in the event over the sort of six, seven years that I've been involved in running it here in the Americas from the second I think second America's in Miami, a couple 100 people and this year is a record 550 delegates attending to see that growth and the expansion in the audience. Milan's had the you know, the loyal originals like yourself, in essence, this thought is just superb. And we're off to we're going to Orlando next year. Rosen Shingle Creek. So the ambition is we've got this audience in to spread the word and to keep developing the event and expanding it.

Matthew Weitzel: 36:44

And yeah, have heard he got talked to George. We had George on the podcast, his first time ever on the podcast, who says, yeah, exactly this guy that works with you, apparently. And so George came up to me and I've already secured my my stand for next year in Orlando, so I'm ready to go. Exede will be there. I will be there. IHS

Max Gosney: 37:03

Global exhibition sales manager George Lydon. Yes. That's good to hear that these got you there. And then many other interested in them speaking to him and trying to grow that exhibition area. I think we did a brilliant job this year. And, George, I think we're up to about just shy of 60 exhibitors. So again, that's amazing, because that's where where we have the annual possibly 2022. So a couple years ago, we're almost at the same scale. This, this event might have 60 plus next year. So brilliant to see that.

Matthew Weitzel: 37:29

Yeah, I was thinking 700 That's what I've been thrown out there, Max. So just make sure you get there. Okay, we'll just

Max Gosney: 37:35

write this for George's target.

Matthew Weitzel: 37:36

Yeah, it's more of a jour exactly. I

Max Gosney: 37:40

don't know. Do we service the demand much like the industry that we're in but we're we're all catering to and the demand is there for our transport for passengers demand is therefore there for for attendant ghci we can make the business connections and expand your supply network and service that demand by speaking to the right suppliers.

Matthew Weitzel: 37:59

Yeah. And so everybody's gonna be coming into Orlando next year. Yeah, there's nonstop flights from from almost everywhere to into Orlando, from all the South American countries we're gonna have a large trend is North America, it's really easy to get there. And then we have a brand new terminal in Orlando that is absolutely beautiful. And there's plenty of great options there to eat and shop and all that kind of stuff. And then new terminal sauerberg gets to see that when they come in, and then we have all the tourist attractions in Orlando as well.

Max Gosney: 38:25

And I hear you by also rumor has it you're a big Disney fan as well. Yeah, yeah.

Matthew Weitzel: 38:29

So I can be taking people on private tours. Just reach out to me directly. You can book those, you know, with Matt, you know what I mean? And I'll take you out for a day for a small commission fee of Oh, yeah, well, large commission fee, and I can kind of show it show you the landscape, you know, and we can go see Becky and whoever it might be there.

Max Gosney: 38:47

Yeah, well, ya know, my kids will definitely be interested in coming. So we need to, you can discount me a little bit. Maybe we can,

Matthew Weitzel: 38:53

we can see what we can do. I know some people, you know, and then George has promised that you will have Mickey hands. Yeah. And that's Listen, that's just what George said. I don't know. I can't speak for you, but and I told him that you can borrow mine. Right? Because obviously I have those habits.

Max Gosney: 39:09

I'll be delighted to sport some Mickey hands. Yeah, so if George wears his Princess Elsa, we have a deal. We have a deal.

Matthew Weitzel: 39:18

Oh, yeah. So this is the American way. George listens to this podcast. So now we are gonna have the best time in Orlando. It's gonna be it's gonna be a huge event but it'd

Max Gosney: 39:30

be great. You have the hinge point around the Miami Florida area for the Latin American delegates to to attend and be there in force. And then we've gotten a really interesting one the following year because we got the FIFA Football World Cup. Yeah. Around the time of the conference date. So we'll be looking at where we where we moved to and where we go. Because it's held in USA, Canada and Mexico. So taking the show somewhat different in 2026.

Matthew Weitzel: 39:54

And then also just thought of this, but if there's delegates that are in Miami, they can take bright lines, we have a new train in Florida. It's called the bright line and you can take it it's a nonstop Well, it's not nonstop, necessarily, but to one way more or less, from Miami to Orlando, goes right into the airport. And it's like a two and a half hour journey. And it's really nice, beautiful, they have Wi Fi onboard and all that stuff. So they don't really have to fly up because they don't want to they can take the train up and take the train back. So you might want to do that yourself. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So yeah. And then you also have some other events coming up before before Orlando. So why don't you talk about those. So

Max Gosney: 40:34

no rest for the wicked, of course. So we'll straight on from this event to look up GC Expo Europe, which is coming up in September 17, to the 19th. And Lisbon, very busy. last remaining floor plan positions still available. And booking in attendees registering delegates up on our numbers where we're at for the launch show in 2022. Lots of exciting stuff going on, you know, equipment, demos, innovations. Yeah, so we're really excited about that one, be very busy with that over the next few months and working with the team Jen and the team IEMA, to deliver a growth event on the launch in 2022. And help the industry get to grips as we discussed on the panel with some of these big topics like sustainability, and you know, safety equipment, sensors, innovation and automation, autonomous vehicles that will be under discussion and be looking at the latest equipment in those fields. They're in Lisbon, then we have our African conference after that one, which is being held in October, and we're there in Nairobi, having that one sort of middle of October time, looking to grow it last year, we had around about 150 in Cape Town want to grow that one, expand it out. It's the first time we've held it since COVID. Last year. And then it's the big one, the annual the 25th anniversary annual. So it's a massive occasion for us in the industry. And we want to invite everyone who supported us over that quarter of a century to kind of join together and look back on not just the growth in the achievements in the scale of the annual but what the industry has achieved in 25 years. What are some of the innovations we're most proud of the development of the market? I mean, it's some names that have fallen by the wayside of the good airlines that were there in 1999. No longer with us. But yeah, so we just want to make that celebration really of 25 years of industry collaboration and inventiveness, new equipment and making it better sector and then look ahead to the next 25 years and how we think the challenge is going to change and what the ramp might look like by 2050. How different could it be autonomous vehicles robots, maybe. So yeah, we invite everybody to come along and we really extra special that one in Barcelona, on the third to the fifth of December. That's

Matthew Weitzel: 42:36

gonna be a fantastic event. And I hope I hope I can make it there. Because I'd love to celebrate 25 years and there's gonna be a cake. I'm sure there's gonna be a cake right there. We're gonna get a cake. Okay, we gotta get a cake. Okay, you know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, exactly. Then, you know, a cake to the silvers, you know, over 1000 people, you know, whatever. Yeah, yeah, we'll figure it out.

Max Gosney: 42:55

We'll figure out how to have a big cake. Hopefully 1000 people plus. So yeah, we'll do a

Matthew Weitzel: 43:00

cake both awesome. So Well, congratulations on that. That's going to be a fantastic event. You'll have tons of events coming up. Obviously GSE Expo Europe is going to be huge. And when will you be starting your podcast? To kind of discuss the GSE Expo year

Max Gosney: 43:13

we will follow in the footsteps of giants with with what you've done here, man. Thanks for your help with it. But we are out subsidy, right. We're planning to start a preview show with key supporters of GTA Expo Europe, look at some of the things I mentioned earlier around sustainable equipment electrification, and invite people to preview what they're going to be doing at the show. We're actually recording the first episode next week. So hoping to release in the next few weeks are not quite as lightning fast at the editing. So it's our first time as Yeah, yeah, we would hope to certainly get the first episode out imminently in next few weeks, first few weeks of July. And then we plan a series of sort of five, six previous shows different guests, every time some of the big supporters, some of the big manufacturers, TLDs, Oshkosh Vestergaard those guys talking about what they're doing, what they think about key industry trends, and a chance to get some of the rest of my team on the on the pod of the real stars and then talk about their role in delivering the show in the events and a little bit of fun and hopefully give people a bit of a taste and whet their appetite for Lisbon. Okay, yeah, that was important to have a new one in return and I'll set the table for change.

Matthew Weitzel: 44:18

Oh, yeah, no, I don't know if I could be interviewed. I like to interview people so but yeah, I'd love I'd love to come on. So what is the name of the podcast?

Max Gosney: 44:25

So with the GSE podcast is this one so what was that Well, that's about it now. Name of the show is going to be the GSE Expo Europe podcast. So very very imaginative but we wanted to keep it straight down the line. Gaucho people know what they're gonna get. So GST Expo Europe podcast. Look out for it. We're distributed by DHI and you have a listen.

Matthew Weitzel: 44:45

Yeah, I'll repost it on my LinkedIn and make sure they're made aware of it. And hopefully they can. They can take a listen and figure out what's going to happen. Yeah. Yeah, that'd be great. So anything else do we miss anything else?

Max Gosney: 44:58

No, I think that's everything. Just just a big thank you to do yourself and all of the members of the Nether Jesse community have got behind the show. And it wouldn't be as big and successful as it is today here in here in Toronto without you guys backing it from the start. So Well, thank you. We really appreciate it.

Matthew Weitzel: 45:13

Oh, yeah, not a problem in there. That was another key theme, as I've been talking to everybody. Throughout the end of the day today was the fact that this is a community.

Max Gosney: 45:23

Definitely a community because that's been that's what made it certainly always be that way. Yes.

Matthew Weitzel: 45:27

And it's just a fantastic community. And I'm just so glad to be a part of it. So and, and thank you so much for everything that you've done and coming on our podcasts all the time and helping me out. So thank you so much, Max, and thanks so much. AhI. Yeah, so we will. We'll catch up soon, I

Max Gosney: 45:44

guess. Yeah, look forward to speaking again soon. Thank you very much for the opportunity once again. All right. Thank you, Max. Thank you, Matt.

Matthew Weitzel: 45:54

Thank you for tuning in to this episode of the GSE podcast. We hope you found it informative and engaging. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with your colleagues and peers and the ground support equipment community. Your support is invaluable to us. We'd appreciate if you could take a moment to rate and review our podcast. Your feedback not only encourages us, but also helps expand our reach within the GSE community. Keep an eye out for more episodes as we continue to explore the dynamic world of ground operations bring you the latest trends, insights and stories from the industry. Thank you for listening to the GSE podcast. And until we meet again, stay grounded and keep pushing forward.