Summer time Chi, as the city of Chicago is affectionately referred to in the summer months, was host to this year’s Forte Summer meeting.  Held at the Fairmont Chicago at Millennium Park, dozens of attendees gathered for two days. This shareholder-only meeting is geared towards sharing and promoting a knowledge base for all members. The speakers and the topics they present all fall in line with this ethos of promoting knowledge. This year’s speakers featured:
•    Frederic Lucas “What you never learned about closing sales”
•    Andrew Shebath of Victoria Supply “The Right Light”
•    Lee and Terry Resnick of Resnick Associates “Do you have an exit strategy Guidance for effectively transferring ownership of your business”

The second day of the meeting featured peer-to-peer network meetings followed by the preferred partner performance review. Some topics were covered at the network meetings:
•    How to determine the effectiveness of your website?
•    What’s hot and not in your showroom?
•    How can Forte become more important to your business?
•    Who is your most important vendor?

Forte has had a long-standing relationship with Crosswater London — an international bathroom company. Crosswater is looking for member feedback on potential new products that it is considering bringing to the Forte and Ammara offering. Crosswater always showcases these new products to garner more open discussion. The “Cocktails with Crosswater” session was held on the first day of the meetings and generated a lot of buzz.

Forte’s annual conference will be held on Feb. 26-  March 1, 2018 at Naples Grande Beach Resort in Naples, Florida.