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By Byron Middendorf
October 10, 2018
In a little less than two weeks, we will hold our 20th Protector Users Group meeting (PUGM) here in Nashville. We are expecting a record attendance with telecommunications fraud experts from around the country. Adam Panagia, Director at AT&T Global Fraud Management Organization - Network, will be sharing his expertise and experience.
Equinox is now in its 32nd year and we are proud to have some customers that have been with us for more than three decades and some new companies that have just joined our ranks. Each year as we set the agenda, we attempt to anticipate our customers’ needs. We choose topics for training and we try to achieve a balance of who will present and what subjects they will cover. Most importantly, we purposely schedule time when the employees of Equinox sit back and listen. Over the years, we have learned the most valuable lessons when our customers are talking about their own experiences. When they are telling their own stories.
One of the most effective college professors I can remember never lectured in class. He told stories. My favorite historical writer is David McCullough, the two-time Pulitzer Prize winning author of Truman, 1776, Path Between the Seas, John Adams, The Johnstown Flood, The Wright Brothers and others. His books have taught me more history than any other source in my life because he weaves the history into a story. He paints with words. The history of my own family is passed down through the stories that we tell over and over again. We have heard them so many times, and yet we still tell them every time we are together.
People listen differently when the information comes to them in a narrative that includes real life experience. There is an extra dose of credibility when the speaker is relating a real-life experience instead of a theoretical hypothesis.
And that is the magic of an Equinox Users Group meeting. We learn from each other as we share our experiences. This year it may be a story from one of our first customers or the story of an unexpected fraud event that prompted a new customer to join us. Or it could be from one of the several software engineers with over twenty-years of experience writing fraud management systems for Equinox. As you have heard in the insurance commercials, at Equinox “we know a thing or two because we have seen a thing or two.”
The magic happens when you gather thirty-two years of institutional memory from Equinox with the experience of some of the leading telecom companies in the country and you let them tell their stories. Please join us in Nashville October 22nd to 24th—we’d love to hear your story!
Byron Middendorf is the CEO, owner, and founder of Equinox Information Systems, where he oversees the company’s sales, marketing, implementation, and support initiatives. With over 35 years’ experience in the telecommunications industry, Byron provides vision and long-term strategic development for the company and its complete suite of software solutions. Although he enjoys those tasks, he is most passionate about his mission to ensure that Equinox is a great place to work. To learn more, visit www.equinoxis.com or call (615) 612-1200.
