Members of StoragePRO Attend Annual StoreLocal Conference
In early March, several members of the StoragePRO team attended our co-operative’s Second Annual Innovation Summit in Newport Beach. The President, Vice President of Operations, the Data Analyst, and the Digital Marketing Specialist spent a day out of the office to attend this conference in Southern California. As one of the founding members of the co-op, StoragePRO is strongly invested in the success and opportunities Storelocal has to offer. And we’re not the only ones! About sixty other members from around the county were in attendance as we discussed and participated in various topics relating to the success of other co-ops, hot self-storage topics, and informative break-out sessions.
Left: President, Steve Mirabito, speaking with other co-op members. Right: VP of Operations, Daniel Higuera, and Data Analyst, Bill Yu, participating in the group discussion.
The first item on the agenda was a presentation regarding the growth and development of a reputable co-operative on the East Coast. The speaker discussed in length the history, development, and challenges his co-op faced over the years. Currently, this particular co-op is the largest retailer-owned cooperative in the U.S., but the journey it went through to become that was a long one. The presentation not only showed how to make a business successful, but how a co-operative can work together to make everyone successful. As a fairly new co-op, this served as a great example for Storelocal and its members to look up to.
The next item on the agenda was discussing short-term and long-term goals for Storelocal. Having so many co-op members together in one room presented an exciting and unique opportunity because everyone could offer their thoughts and opinions on the future. Higher priority was given to some items versus others based on a general consensus from the members. This exercise provided Storelocal a clear picture of its members’ goals and expectations. Storelocal recorded and noted the results so that they may fulfill these goals in the future.
Left: VP of Operations socializing with fellow co-op member. Right Members of the co-op gathered together.
After discussing at length these aforementioned topics, members were encouraged to participate in marketing break-out sessions. One marketing sessions highlighted the importance of a self-storage operator’s online mobile presence. Creating the perfect user experience was strongly emphasized throughout this particular presentation. The second marketing session discussed the complexities of SEO rankings, Google, and Google’s constantly evolving state. With many facts and information regarding Google’s recent updates, we were able to discuss what to expect in the future and how to prepare for what is coming. In this personal setting, experts in digital marketing and SEO gave everyone advice, provided valuable information, and answered our many questions.
The conference may have ended, but the journey has just begun. We learned a lot in just one day and are hard at work implementing this new knowledge. StoragePRO is committed to using what we learned to continue to make self-storage work for everyone!
Check out Storelocal’s website here!