On Dec. 14, American Rental Association (ARA) members in Tennessee got together to celebrate the holiday season with a special event that blended Topgolf fun and a refresher on how to avoid the latest cyberthreats.
The ARA of Tennessee’s double-bill program was hosted at Topgolf in Nashville, Tenn., where nearly 30 attendees enjoyed food, drinks and golfing. Some attendees, like Jill Cole, owner, Southern Events, Franklin, Tenn., who also serves on the ARA of Tennessee board, turned the event into an opportunity to treat staff to a holiday retreat.
“I took eight members of our management team and made it a little holiday outing for staff,” Cole says. “We also went because we enjoy meeting other rental stores in the area for networking and building relationships.”
Mike Royal, president, Showtime Event Rentals, Chattanooga, Tenn., and ARA of Tennessee president, was delighted at the success of the event, from the turnout down to the attention paid to the guest speaker, Troy
Kocher, director of IT, MTA Distributors, White’s Creek, Tenn.
“I had never been to a Topgolf, so didn’t know what to expect, but it all went really well,” Royal says. “Max [Christopher, owner, Christopher Equipment, Tullahoma, Tenn.] brought four people. Another guy brought five. And the speaker from MTA distributors was really good.”
During his presentation, Kocher discussed how to avoid dangerous links, prevent ransomware, circumvent spammers and shared tips for detecting cybersecurity red flags.
“He was very knowledgeable and offered great suggestions,” Cole says. “One of my key takeaways was his recommendation of LastPass.com, the password management website. It’s so important not to use the same password for everything.”
Cole adds that on the golfing side of the evening, “It was not my best performance, but we had fun.”
Royal was so pleased with how the event turned out that he anticipates its return in the future.
“Jill’s people had an incredible amount of fun, and Max Christopher’s did, too. In fact, this was as much — or more — fun than the baseball game socials we do in the summer. We’ll definitely go back,” he says.