While Zoom meetings and Webinars seem to be the preferred method of meetings in the COVID-19 era, Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas Inc. (HCMA) decided to step it up and produce a full-on TV production virtual dealer meeting. With several topics of discussion on the agenda, there was concern over a 3-hour virtual meeting and keeping dealer personnel engaged. The solution was to make this meeting top quality, engaging, and most importantly a platform for dealer personnel to provide input on various topics.

“This platform gave us the opportunity to expand our audience. Normally in face-to-face dealer meetings, dealers are represented by executives tasked with taking the messages back to their team. We chose to expand our audience to include all dealer personnel allowing us to not only reach key personnel, but to encourage input from all members of the dealer team.” Stated Sam Shelton, Marketing Manager. “Our meeting theme, Solutions Simplified, symbolizes the overall objective of many of the initiatives presented in this meeting.”

The 300+ attendees participated for the full 3 hours staying engaged with polls, videos, trivia contests, customer testimonials, and Q&A from the field. The topics were a mix of new announcements, product and program launches, and future initiatives mixed with topics suggest by the audience through the pre-meeting survey. The result was a mix of informative and educational content.

The dealer meeting also set the stage to announce the 2020 MVPs and Dealer Award Winners.

Earning the President’s Award, an award based on market share growth, were All Island Equipment, Chappell Tractor Sales, Inc., Frank Martin Sons, Inc., LinkBelt MidAtlantic Construction Company, Westchester Tractor Inc., and APCO Equipment Corporation.

Earning the Chairman’s Award, an award based on market share, growth, and customer engagement, were RECO Equipment, Inc., Great Southern Equipment Company, and Garton Tractor, Inc.

Building a pop-up TV studio on campus to host this inaugural venture required participation from several departments including the IT team. The production team from RIVE, based in Washington DC, produced remotely from Washington DC, Brooklyn NY, Boston MA, and Atlanta GA. reaching an audience throughout the US and Canada. Attendees were treated to a Parts Facility and Remanufacturing plant tour as well as the Hitachi Construction Machinery primary global parts facility in Japan, and several of the manufacturing facilities world-wide.

Attendee feedback about the dealer meeting was very positive stating the content equally addressed all phases of the dealer business, and there is great interest in the new programs and products launched. All indicated the length of time was not only appropriate, but necessary, to cover all the content presented. All appreciated the engagement.

“I want to thank our team for facilitating a great program and for our dealer network who had all of their different departments engaged throughout the meeting.  This wasn’t designed as a one-way meeting.  The technology gave us the opportunity to make everyone feel like they were in the room with us. It was a lot of fun and exceeded my expectations.” Stated Simon Wilson, Senior Sales Manager.

About Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas Inc.

The commitment of Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas Inc. (HCMA) to the North American market is significant. With manufacturing facilities in Banshu, Tierra, Ryugasaki, and Rinko Japan, and Newnan, Georgia, HCMA offers outstanding parts availability, an unmatched factory component exchange program, customer and dealer training programs, and a wide range of services and programs, providing outstanding support for Hitachi wheel loaders. The HCMA team is focused on wheel loaders, and only wheel loaders. Backed by the global strength of Hitachi, Hitachi Construction Machinery Americas Inc. is making a major impact on the wheel loader market in North America. For more information, please visit www.hitachiwheelloaders.us.